Orange Unified School District is honored to be recognized by the California Department of Education as a 2025–26 Model School Attendance Review Board (SARB) district. This recognition reflects the strong collaboration across our schools, families, and community partners to ensure every student is supported and present for learning.

Our attendance efforts are grounded in a prevention-focused approach that connects early outreach, data-informed decision making, and multi-tiered supports for students and families. Through our “We Champion Attendance – Every School. Every Student. Every Day.” initiative, we have strengthened districtwide systems that help identify attendance barriers early and provide meaningful support to keep students engaged in school.

As a result of this work, Orange Unified has seen steady progress, with overall attendance increasing from 93.98% in 2023–24 to 94.65%, while chronic absenteeism has been reduced by half, from 24.3% in 2022 to 12.2% in 2025. This represents a 12.1 percentage point reduction over three years, placing Orange Unified well below the statewide chronic absenteeism rate of 17.1%. In addition, Orange Unified experienced the largest year-over-year decline among comparable Orange County districts, improving 2.2 percentage points from 2023–24 to 2024–25.

The district’s SARB model integrates Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 interventions aligned with our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework and is strengthened by the dedicated work of our Student & Community Services team, site administrators, counselors, attendance staff, and community partners.

We also want to recognize the leadership of Mark McLaughlin, whose guidance as SARB Chairperson in the Student and Community Service Department has helped advance our district’s collaborative and prevention-focused approach to attendance. His work, alongside our school teams and community partners, has played an important role in ensuring students and families receive the support they need to stay connected to school.

We are proud that Orange Unified’s efforts were recognized through the rigorous review process led by the California Department of Education and the California State School Attendance Review Board, where our application received scores of 93 and 93 from independent reviewers.

This recognition highlights our districtwide commitment to ensuring every student is connected, supported, and ready to learn every day.