Source: Forbes
Manhattan Beach Unified School District, in Los Angeles’s tony South Bay, asks parents to make a $47 donation each time a student misses a day of school. Schools get state money based on average daily attendance in California, so the reasoning is that if families can afford to take kids out of class for vacations, they can afford to help the district make up the lost cash. Less than 5% of affluent Manhattan Beach’s 6,647 students qualify for free or reduced-priced lunch. The daily attendance rate is around 98%, said Manhattan Beach Superintendent Mike Matthews. But the district still loses about $1 million a year for student absences.