Do student walkouts affect school district funding?

Recent walkouts at school campuses by students protesting the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement efforts probably haven’t hurt California public school budgets.

California is one of six states that fund public schools based on how many students attend classes on an average day.

Under California law, Average Daily Attendance is calculated by dividing the total number of days students attended class by the number of days of instruction.

A student who leaves campus for only part of the day to protest, or for any other reason, still counts as having attended school for the purposes of calculating ADA.

“If students are scheduled for at least the minimum school day, attend any portion of that day under the immediate supervision of a certificated employee while engaged in required educational activities — and then walk out — the (school district or other educational agency) may still claim attendance for apportionment,” the California Department of Education explained in a letter sent Jan. 29 to county and district superintendents and charter school administrators ahead of the widespread walkouts that took place the next day.

The exception, of course, is students who skip school entirely, whether to protest or for any other reason.

The other five states that use Average Daily Attendance to allocate funding for public school districts are Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, New York and Texas.