Attendance
MBUSD has launched an attendance awareness campaign to prioritize regular attendance and address chronic absenteeism.
In the 2023-24 school year, 6.41% of our students missed 10% or more of the school year. When students are absent this often, it is called chronic absenteeism. At this level of absence, students are at increased risk of academic failure, and chronic absenteeism is considered an early predictor of high school dropout. Whether absences are excused or unexcused, missing this much school has a negative impact on student performance - and even missing just a few days can create challenges for learning. Before the pandemic, chronic absenteeism districtwide was approximately 2%. MBUSD is committed to working with families to return to chronic absenteeism rates at or below that level, ensuring that every student is fully engaged and thriving in their education.
MBUSD’s attendance awareness campaign theme, “Thrive with MBUSD: Together, Every Day,” underscores the critical importance of daily attendance. Building excellent attendance habits is the best way to develop essential skills to help our students succeed in high school, college, and beyond. 
Click here to learn more about the importance of attendance
While we understand that sometimes absences are unavoidable, we appreciate families working with teachers to ensure that students do not fall behind. We also appreciate families considering donating to help the District recover lost funding. Please click here to make your $65 daily absence donation through our Square payment portal.
Statistically, students with chronic absenteeism demonstrate greater learning gaps, lower test scores, and more challenges in social interactions than their peers who attend school regularly. We are dedicated to maximizing each student's academic success and know that we can achieve this by having our students come to learn at our schools every day. Parents, teachers, staff, and administrators all play a vital role in encouraging school attendance. Join us in celebrating the impact of thriving every day with MBUSD. Need support with attendance? Please contact your site administrator.
Please take a moment to watch the new MBUSD-produced “Butts in Seats” video reinforcing the importance of attendance.
Click here to learn more about SART/SARB
SART
SART is a School Attendance Review Team which should include the parent and the student, Principal and other staff. The goal of this team is to identify possible solutions to improving the student’s attendance and/or behavior. At this meeting the student and parent are asked to abide by the directions of the School Attendance Review Team (SART) as outlined and communicated through a SART contract.
SARB
School Attendance Review Board (SARB) 16 is a consortium of El Segundo USD, Hermosa Beach City Schools, Manhattan Beach USD, and Redondo Beach USD. These four districts include 17 elementary schools, four middle schools, three high schools, two continuation schools, and one community day school for a total of 27 sites. The four-member school districts of SARB 16, which serve students in grades K-12, pride themselves on the depth of their pre-SARB efforts.
The vast network of student support includes Site administrators, counselors, clerical support personnel, law enforcement officers, a district attorney representative, and members of SARB. It is believed that early interventions at the school site can assist parents or guardians to solve school attendance and persistent behavior problems using school and community resources. These initial prevention measures are intended to assist in decreasing the number of SARB referrals and decreasing student drop-out rates.
SARB supports the individual schools by involving families in attempting to resolve students' attendance problems. SARBs coordinator is directly connected to the district attorney’s office and can schedule hearings regarding truancy/ poor behavior in school. Meetings are held twice a month at the Beach Cities Health District.
Please visit the Redondo Beach Unified SARB webpage for more information.
Click here to learn about Independent Study
Click here for information on Independent Study Athletics (ISA)
The purpose of Manhattan Beach Unified School District Independent Study Athletics program is to provide an alternative to the regular physical education or athletic program, while remaining consistent with the MBUSD course of study, our MBUSD Board Policy, and the California State Physical Education Framework for Physical Education.
Students who participate in the ISA Program are engaged in advanced levels of competition through demanding, regular, out-of school, elite physical activity. The program is designed for the student who is engaged in a preparation program for National, State, or Olympic-level athletic competition. This program is not for recreational sports or most club level individual/team participation.
ISA is available for students eligible grades 6 - 12.
ISA is a year-long program at MBMS; minimum of ten hours per week. ISA is a semester-long program at MCHS; minimum of fifteen hours per week. At MCHS, ISA is available during the off-season for school sports only or sports not available on campus.
No late applications will be accepted.