Los Angeles Unified School District has a growing problem of employees calling in sick, hurting student achievement and costing the district about $430 million a year, officials said Thursday.

The district's 70,000 employees have already missed 1.5 million hours of work this school year, according to a report released by LAUSD's human resource committee. That works out to about 7 percent of employees absent each day -- similar to absenteeism in other large urban school districts but well above the rate of 2.7 percent for federal government employees.

"It's urgent. This is money that can go directly to the kids, and that's our job," said board trustee Marlene Canter, who is spearheading the drive to combat absenteeism. "I'm going to be watching this. It's going to be one of my top priorities."

Officials said the report shows that a small number of employees may be repeatedly abusing the system. For example, about 500 elementary school teachers had perfect attendance last year, while 2,000 missed more than 20 days of work.

Some 25 percent of teachers are considered chronically absent -- having missed 10 or more days per year over the past several years.

Given the district's current budget crisis, board members said they must figure out how to cut the absenteeism rate in half.

"I believe we can squeeze $200 million of our absenteeism costs," said Tim Buresh, LAUSD chief operating officer. "We have a lot of schools that have 3 percent or less absenteeism. Clearly, it is possible."

About 65 percent of the absences of teachers and other certificated employees are attributed to their illnesses. Causes including bereavement, jury duty and "personal necessity," such as appearing in court as a party in a lawsuit, account for 8 percent. The remaining absences -- 27 percent -- are labeled "miscellaneous," a category district leaders say needs to be tightened.

The district can save $65 million for every 1 percentage point drop in the rate, officials said. And keeping teachers in their classrooms will also raise morale and improve student performance, officials said.

"Students of the most frequently absent teachers lag behind their peers," Buresh said.

LAUSD's 7 percent absenteeism rate is well above rates in other private and public organizations, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The figures do not include vacation, holidays or leave time, officials said. They do, however, include some time missed for professional development, which may account for about 20 percent of absences.

The school district's plan of attack includes broadcasting a basic message throughout LAUSD: Employees are expected to come to work, and supervisors are expected to track attendance.

While it may seem obvious, the district has never had a formal policy on attendance and is expected to adopt one within a month.

"There's a fair amount of misunderstanding as to what people are allowed to take as time off and what they're not," Buresh said. "There's an entitlement culture."

Changing that culture will also take stricter rules, better monitoring and revised incentive programs, Canter said.

Sam Kresner, a representative with United Teachers Los Angeles, said he's never heard the problem discussed in his 47 years with LAUSD. The district will have to be thoughtful in how it addresses the problem so that it doesn't create a punitive system, he said.

"This is an extremely important issue," he said. "It needs to be a joint effort."