Ledger entries include: dates (from January 1912 through March 1917), name of student, address, school, and cause of absence. A compendium of excuses--absences range from childhood illnesses, truancy, illnesses of parents, accidents, toothaches, out for the circus, has no shoes, gone to the City, and so on. Family names of ethnic and religious groups can be sometimes ascertained from absences on special holidays. The collection includes some additional notes tallying records and listing truancies.

The public school system of Stockton (California) was organized officially by an act of the Common Council in the fall of 1852. Nearly fifty years later, Stockton voters approved formation of a separate high school district encompassing an area larger than the existing Stockton School District (1900). As a result of enabling legislation passed in 1935, the two systems were automatically unified in July 1936 creating the present Stockton Unified School District.

Collection is open for research.