Friday, October 23, 2009

Flu season could hurt N. California school budgets | KDRV


Flu season could hurt N. California school budgets KDRV:

"YREKA, Ore. - The hundreds of students in Southern Oregon and Northern California that are missing school days is creating problems for many school districts.

In Oregon, students can miss 10 consecutive days of school before being dropped from enrollment, which discontinues funding from the state. However, in California, state funding stops any day a student is not in school. Siskiyou County School District officials say the district loses $30 for every day a student is absent.

'They have to be there or the school doesn't get any funding for that student,' Siskiyou Co. Superintendent Kermith Walters said.

Walters says the law can hurt smaller districts the most.

'It can impact a district quite severely to have a lot of kids out, especially our little districts. It doesn't take very many kids to get to 10 percent. If you only have 50 kids, and five kids are out in one day, it could be one family, and you're out your 10 percent,' Walters said."