In 2024, 32% percent of Plumas County students were absent from school more than 10% of the time. Twenty-one percent of eighth graders met or exceeded state standards in math. In 2023, 71% of teachers were fully qualified, down from 73% the prior year.
That data is according to the California County Scorecard of Children’s Well-Being — a set of metrics by the California nonprofit Children Now, produced using multiple data sources. Children Now is a statewide organization that engages in advocacy, research and policy-making in child health, education and wellbeing. The organization developed the scorecard in 2007 and has released an updated version every two years since then.
Children’s organizations are often siloed by location and focus area, explained Jurnee Louder, an associate researcher with Children Now. That can make it hard to form coalitions to drive change at scale. The scorecard is a county-level tool that enables collaboration and sharing of best-practice across localities and disciplines.
It also helps to illustrate the interdependent nature of the various metrics, and by extension, the connections between different areas of service that may help focus children’s advocacy. For example, said Louder, many legislators may be surprised to find that dentist visits for children ages 0-5 are highly correlated with test scores down the line.
Louder cautioned that scorecard indicators don’t say anything about individual children or families, or the ability level of any particular group of people. Instead, they speak to where resources are going and who receives support from the state, she said.
What the data says about children’s services in Plumas County
Timely prenatal care is among the leading indicators of future wellbeing, said Louder. Receiving prenatal care beginning in the first trimester speaks to the health of the mother and the newborn. It can impact birth weight, which in turn impacts developmental milestones.
Plumas County scored relatively poorly in prenatal care, coming in 49th out of California’s 58 counties. Children Now found that 79% of expectant mothers received prenatal care beginning in the first trimester as of 2022, the most recent year for which data are available. This compared unfavorably with Plumas County’s nearest neighbors: Nevada (82%), Sierra (84%), Lassen (85%) and Placer (88%) counties.
Neither the Plumas County Public Health Agency nor the public health officer responded to requests for comment.
When it came to child care availability, Plumas outstripped the state average. Thirty-one percent of Plumas County children with working parents have access to a licensed childcare provider, versus 25% statewide. Plumas also did well in early childhood education, coming in 10th in the state, with 50% of 3-4-year-olds enrolled in preschool or transitional kindergarten as of 2022.
Thirty-two percent of Plumas students were absent from school more than 10% of the time in 2024, compared to a state average of 20%. PUSD is working to address chronic absenteeism through engagement programs for students and parents, said Melissa Leal, Plumas Unified School District assistant superintendent of educational services. The study’s finding actually represents an improvement, down from almost 65.5% in the 2023/2024 school year, she said. As of Feb. 26, Leal placed the year-to-date chronic absenteeism rate at 23.5% district-wide, far closer to the state average.
In education, the scorecard reports on the number of children attending public and charter schools who meet state standards for literacy by third grade, science by fifth grade, and math by eighth grade. These ages and skills correspond to critical educational milestones, said Louder. Each is a foundational aspect of education on which later progression depends. For that reason fewer children typically meet the standard as they move through their education.
The fall in student test scores as they advance through their education “mirrors challenges faced by many rural districts,” said Leal. PUSD has implemented initiatives including educator professional development, literacy coaching and a reading difficulties screener for students scheduled to begin this spring. The district aims to improve scores by 5% or more per year.
Looking closely at scores over time, a pattern of decline and rebound is evident for the youngest cohort. In 2019, prior to the pandemic and Dixie Fire, 41% of students met or exceeded literacy standards as third graders. Testing was inconsistent in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID 19 pandemic, and no data are reported in the scorecard for those years. When regular testing resumed in 2022, the percentage of third-grade students meeting literacy standards had fallen to 36%. By 2024 scores had returned to pre-disaster norms.
| Plumas third graders who met or exceeded state literacy standards by year | |
| 2018 | 40% |
| 2019 | 41% |
| 2020 | No data |
| 2021 | No data |
| 2022 | 36% |
| 2023 | 36% |
| 2024 | 41% |
An implied story of pandemic- and fire-related losses followed by recovery may be there, said Louder. But, she cautioned, “change over time can make data look better.” A return to status quo — if the status quo isn’t strong to begin with — is “still not good enough,” she said. It doesn’t necessarily mean the state is “actively and thoroughly meeting the needs of children.”
Applying scorecard data
For Children Now, the scorecard serves to bolster policy work aligned with its three main focus areas. In the health sector, the environment and the impacts of climate change on children can include illnesses like asthma and dangerous extreme temperatures. In education, the data can contribute to improved student support and lead to better test scores. While testing is just one metric of overall success, Louder said, it’s a useful one. Tests are administered consistently, and speak to critical educational milestones.
The scorecard is publicly available in interactive format. Louder said Children Now is open to working with interested counties and organizations to retrieve data breakdowns that are meaningful for them and their work.