San Diego Unified School District has made Student Wellness its top priority since the pandemic by providing more on-site social-emotional and mental health services. By focusing on whole child services, the District’s chronic absenteeism rate is projected to decline by 2.7%. In addition, student sentiments about belonging, mattering, and caring relationships with teachers have improved by 2.7%. On Tuesday, October 28 district leaders will detail these improvements during the Board of Education meeting, and introduce the concept of a new Student Wellness Index it is developing in partnership with San Diego State University and the San Diego County Office of Education to identify a variety of data points that will give a more holistic evaluation of student wellness.
“Students doing well physically, mentally, and emotionally are better equipped to excel in the classroom, but if they are facing challenges in one or more of those areas, a student‘s ability to learn suffers. We are working to help eliminate or at least minimize the challenges by delivering the support students need,” said Superintendent Fabi Bagula, Ph.D., San Diego Unified School District. “Student Wellness is not easy to measure, and few districts have chosen to prioritize it like us. We have worked with our students, staff and community to define student wellness, establish goals to strive for, and plan how to incorporate it into the culture of our school communities.”
In the upcoming months, the Student Wellness Index framework will be finalized, a pilot will be conducted, and internal supports for all components of the index will be aligned within schools participating in the Student Behavioral Health Incentive Program (SBHIP) in the Canyon Hills, Mira Mesa, Mission Bay, Morse, and San Diego clusters in order to establish a baseline of data by May 2026.
More Students Are Not Chronically Absent?
Yes, more San Diego Unified students are going to school regularly. According to the 2024 California Schools Dashboard San Diego Unified saw its overall rate of Chronic Absenteeism decline for a second consecutive year, and early projections indicate it will drop another 2.7% this year.
District leaders attribute the steady decline to new strategies and partnerships that have been implemented. “We proactively address chronic absenteeism by participating in the San Diego County Office of Education ICAN network as well as the State sponsored RAISE program that focuses on the implementation of proven best practices to reduce absenteeism. Unlike in the past, we are actively leveraging the available data to intervene and seek solutions that support our students, their families, and our school communities,” said Roman del Rosario, Executive Director, Data Insights & Systems Supports, San Diego Unified School District.
While the district saw an overall decline in Chronic Absenteeism when comparing the 2024-25 school year to the 2023-24 school year, some of the greatest declines were found at nine schools, spanning four Area Districts.
|
School-ALL STUDENTS
|
24-25
|
23-24
|
Change
|
|
Marshall Elementary
|
25.0%
|
40.9%
|
▼15.9%
|
|
Hamilton Elementary
|
10.0%
|
24.7%
|
▼14.7%
|
|
Pendleton Elementary
|
21.4%
|
33.1%
|
▼11.7%
|
|
Hardy Elementary
|
11.5%
|
23.2%
|
▼11.7%
|
|
Cabrillo Elementary
|
14.7%
|
26.3%
|
▼11.6%
|
|
Fletcher Elementary
|
24.1%
|
34.8%
|
▼10.7%
|
|
Pacific View Leadership Elem
|
18.2%
|
28.6%
|
▼10.4%
|
|
Correia Middle
|
15.6%
|
25.8%
|
▼10.2%
|
|
Boone Elementary
|
21.7%
|
31.8%
|
▼10.1%
|