Student Attendance (STATS) Collection · The STATS has two reference periods which relate specifically, and only, to school days and do not include non-school days (see section 7.5

Version 1.0 Last updated: 16 January 2018

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Student Attendance (STATS) Collection

Non-Government Schools Data Specification:

2018 Collection

Version 1.0

Last Updated: 16 January 2018


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Table of Contents

Change History ..................................................................................................................................................... 4

1 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................................... 6

2 Audience ....................................................................................................................................................... 6

3 Collection Overview ...................................................................................................................................... 6

3.1 About the Collection ............................................................................................................................. 6

3.2 Reference Periods ................................................................................................................................. 7

3.3 Data submission and dates ................................................................................................................... 7

3.4 Providing data to the department ........................................................................................................ 8

3.4.1 Upload of Data Using a CSV file .................................................................................................... 8

4 Scope of the collection ................................................................................................................................. 9

4.1 Ungraded students ............................................................................................................................... 9

5 Data Collection Level .................................................................................................................................... 9

6 Data Form ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

7 Data Business Rules ...................................................................................................................................... 9

7.1 The Reference Period ........................................................................................................................... 9

7.2 The School .......................................................................................................................................... 10

7.3 The Student ........................................................................................................................................ 11

7.3.1 Treatment of unusual student situations ................................................................................... 11

7.4 Student Absences ............................................................................................................................... 13

7.4.1 Part day absences ....................................................................................................................... 13

7.4.2 Boarding schools and student absence ...................................................................................... 13

7.5 School Days in the Reference Period .................................................................................................. 13

7.5.1 Non-School Days ......................................................................................................................... 13

7.6 Attendance Calculation ...................................................................................................................... 14

7.7 Actual days in Attendance (numerator) ............................................................................................. 14


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7.8 Possible school days (denominator) ................................................................................................... 14

7.9 Counts of students with attendance rates less than 90% .................................................................. 15

7.10 Counts of students with attendance rate of greater than or equal to 90% ....................................... 15

7.11 Possible School Days for Students who attend school 90% or more ................................................. 15

7.12 The CSV File ........................................................................................................................................ 15

8 Appendix A: STATS Data Summary ............................................................................................................. 16

9 Appendix B: Treatment of Incidents/Absences .......................................................................................... 17

10 Appendix C: Worked Examples ................................................................................................................... 20

10.1 Example 1 – Possible School Days, Attendance Days and Attendance Rates .................................... 20

10.1.1 Formula for attendance rate ...................................................................................................... 20

10.1.2 Case Study to demonstrate calculations .................................................................................... 20

11 Appendix D: STATS Non-Government Schools Data Pictorial View............................................................ 22

12 Appendix E: STATS Key Dates ..................................................................................................................... 23


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Change History

STATS Collection Year

Changes to data specification

Section Change Made

2018 Throughout Change SSP references to SEP

2 Minor wording changes

3 Add work location after word campus in sentence ‘The data is collected at school/campus level. Add sentence at the end of fifth paragraph. Paragraph starts ‘This data specification…’

3.1 Add phrase about ungraded students. Add time period sentence at end of first paragraph; add hyperlinks on Appendix references

3.2 Adjust dates to 2018 dates.

3.3 Adjust dates to 2018 dates.

3.4 Clarify wording at Independent schools dot point

3.4.1 Clarify wording in the sentence to indicate file is a column ordering example, not a template. In the Important! box replace the words ‘a software product used by the school’ with ‘school technology’.

4 Add phrase about ungraded students in opening paragraph; add sub heading for ungraded students paragraph to make easier to find in document; clarify that exchange students are counted in STATS if they are enrolled for more than one term. Add ‘students enrolled but who attend zero days in the reference period’ to the dot point list of students who are not in-scope for the collection.

5 Add location after ‘campus’.

7.2 Forth dot point: change ‘all full-time students’ to read ‘each full-time student’. Add sentence after first sentence identifying the possible school days may be different for each student. Fifth dot point: change ‘all full-time students’ to read ‘each full-time student’. Add sentence after second sentence identifying attendance days may be different for each student. At the seventh dot point (student’s attendance as a percentage), indent the next three dot points (the eighth, ninth and tenth dot points) as these relate specifically to the seventh dot point. Last dot point: At the end of the first sentence add ‘at each school/campus (location)’

7.3 First dot point: Add phrase about ungraded students. Second dot point: Add sentence about treatments in sub dot points. Sixth dot point: make into subsection 7.3.1 for section on the treatment of unusual student situations.

7.4 Change to be a section with sub sections rather than a series of dot points. Clarify part-day absences. Clarify boarding school absences.

7.5 Clarify what days are non-school days in new section 7.5.1

7.7 Clarify dot point three for how to calculate attendance days.

7.12 Clarify dot point three. Add reference to the column ordering file example.

8 (Appendix A)

At Possible School Days, add comment that this field must not contain decimal points. At Possible School Days for Students with ≥90% attendance, add comment that this field must not contain decimal points.


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STATS Collection Year

Changes to data specification

Section Change Made

2017 3.1 Insert reference to list of out of scope students at section 4

3.2 Add cross reference to definition of non-school days and update dates to 2017 dates

3.3 Update dates to 2017 dates

4 Update students in scope and out of scope for the collection

7.2 Added dot point that Indigenous students must also be counted in all student population for each grade/sex combination

7.3 Added dot point to clarify counting of students enrolling or leaving part way through the reference period (excluding expulsion) and enrolled but attended zero days.

Update students not included in STATS to match section 4 list.

7.4 Treatment of boarding school absences.

7.6 Correct layout of calculation.

8 Appendix A: better explain the calculations for each of the calculated fields; possible school days – no decimal points allowed.

9 Appendix B:

Change title of last column to ‘Include in Possible School Days Count’ with answers in column as Yes or No to make it clearer for schools about which incidents/absences are counted in the Possible School Days Count.

Add boarding students at C (parent/guardian approved absence)

Update item S (expelled)

Add item T (student leaves school mid term)


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1 Purpose

The purpose of this document is to define the data requirements for the 2018 Student Attendance Collection

(STATS). This ensures the Australian Government Department of Education and Training (the department) receives

consistent data across sectors, jurisdictions, school systems and independent schools.

2 Audience

The audience for this specification is:

Data analysts and programmers in education sectors, jurisdictions and school systems

Software providers to schools where their product supports the STATS. (Please note it is the responsibility

of the organisation using the software provider to ensure the software provider has a copy of this

specification)

School Entry Point (SEP) application developers within the Australian Government Department of

Education and Training

Individuals submitting Student Attendance data for the school through Schools Entry Point (SEP) which

provides access to the SEP STATS module

3 Collection Overview

3.1 About the Collection

The Student Attendance Collection (STATS) gathers data on the attendance of all full-time students at school in

Year 1 through to, and including, Year 10 and any ungraded students who are in the typical age group for students

in years 1 to 10 in non-government (Catholic and Independent) schools in all Australian States and Territories. The

data is collected for two time periods: Semester 1 and Term 3. (see Section 3.2)

For in scope students see Section 4.

The data is collected at the school / campus (location) level.

The data collected is used for several reporting purposes, including reporting student attendance rates at the

school level on the My School website and at national, state and territory and school sector level in various national

reports.

This data specification should be read in conjunction with ACARA’s National Standards for Student Attendance

Data Reporting (Second Edition, August 2015) upon which this specification is based. ACARA’s document contains

the detailed definitions/explanations which should be referred to where required. This data specification focuses

http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Standards_for_Student_Attendance_Reporting_-_updated_October_20___.pdf



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on the reporting standards required by the ACARA document. The definitions for year level, sex and Indigeneity are

aligned to the ACARA Data Standards Manual for Student Background Characteristics.

Appendix D provides a pictorial view of STATS for non-government schools

Appendix E provides the key dates for the STATS 2018 collection

3.2 Reference Periods

The STATS uses reference periods for its data. A reference period is the start and end dates to which the data

provided relates. The STATS has two reference periods which relate specifically, and only, to school days and do

not include non-school days (see section 7.5 for definition of non-school days):

Semester 1 (usually, Term 1 and 2) - the first school day of the year through to and including last school

day of Semester 1, or until the Friday on or before 30 June if there is no break in June/July (in 2018 this is

Friday 29 June 2018);

Term 3 - the first day of Term 3 through to and including the last day of Term 3, or until the Friday on or

before 30 September if there is no break in September/October (in 2018 this is Friday 28 September 2018).

3.3 Data submission and dates

Data cannot be submitted to the department prior to the end of the relevant reference period:

Semester 1: Last day of Semester 1 (Term 2) for the year level at the school / campus

Term 3: Last day of Term 3 for the year level at the school / campus

Data must be provided to the collection by no later than:

01 August 2018 for Semester 1

19 October 2018 for Term 3

Each Approved Authority decides how their schools will provide data and advises their schools accordingly. In the

Independent schools sector, the individual school is generally responsible for providing their school’s data to the

collection. Non-systemic Catholic schools are treated like independent schools for the purpose of the collection

unless other arrangements are made with their local Catholic Approved Authority.

http://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/data-standards-manual-student-background-characteristics


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3.4 Providing data to the department

Each sector provides data to the department in a specific manner.

Independent schools generally use a single CSV data file downloaded from their school technology and the

upload facility in the STATS module in the SEP, or manually enters their data into their school’s record in

the STATS module in the SEP.

Catholic and Other Systems may request their schools to:

o provide their data to their System Office in CSV format or another format and the System Office

will then upload a CSV file of all schools within the system to the SEP and declare the data as true

and correct; or

o manually enter their school’s data into the STATS module in SEP and declare their school’s data as

true and correct; or

o create and upload a single school CSV data file into their school’s record in the STATS module in

the SEP and declare their school’s data as true and correct.

Catholic Non-systemic schools may be supported for the collection by their Catholic System Office or they

may operate as an independent school and enter their own data for the purposes of this collection.

3.4.1 Upload of Data Using a CSV file

A Microsoft Excel CSV file showing column ordering is available for non-government individual schools and for non-

government system offices for reporting multiple schools in the STATS Help.

IMPORTANT!

It is noted that some schools use a CSV file downloaded from a school technology to then be uploaded to

the SEP. The downloaded file must meet the data specification at Appendix A and the data business rules

described in Section 7 to be able to successfully upload it into the STATS.

http://ssphelp.education.gov.au/student-attendance


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4 Scope of the collection

The collection’s scope is:

Any student enrolled at the school1 that is enrolled full-time in Years 1 to 10, or is an ungraded student in the

typical age group for students in years 1 to 10, at any time during the reference periods. This includes overseas

students studying in Australia, including students on exchange from another country for more than one term.

Ungraded students in special schools are included in the STATS collection.

The following enrolments are not in-scope for the Student Attendance collection:

Foundation (year 1 minus 1) and earlier programs;

Years 11 and 12;

Part-time students;

Distance education students;

Expelled students (after they have been expelled); and

Students enrolled but who attend zero days in the reference period.

4.1 Ungraded students

An ungraded student is one who cannot readily be allocated to a year of education and are reported as either

primary ungraded (PU) or secondary ungraded (SU) according to the typical age level in each state or territory.

5 Data Collection Level

Data is collected and submitted to the collection at the school / campus (location) level.

6 Data Form

Data is collected in the form shown at Appendix A.

7 Data Business Rules

This section describes the specific data and the associated business rules that apply to the data for this collection.

The data variables, description, values/ranges and format are summarised at Appendix A.

7.1 The Reference Period

The reference period for the collection must be identified as either:

o Semester 1; or

o Term 3.

1 The school must fall within the NSSC definition of school (see data business rules section)


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7.2 The School

The school must be a school as defined by the National School Statistics Collection (NSSC):

An education establishment which satisfies the following criteria:

its major activity is the provision of full-time day:

primary education

secondary education

distance education

special education

any combination of the above

it is possible for a person to enrol and be active in a course of study provided by that

school’s formal curriculum for a minimum of four continuous weeks (excluding breaks for

school vacations).

The school’s campus(es) must report attendance data against each campus’ Australian Government

Education Client Identifier (AGEID). The AGEID is a number.

The school must determine and provide the number of school days in the reference period for each year

level. It is noted that this number may be different for the various year levels.

The school must calculate the possible school days [formerly Enrolment Days] for each full-time student

enrolled during the reference period for the cohort. It is noted that this number may be different for each

student depending on how many days they were enrolled during the reference period. The aggregate of

possible school days for all full-time students in each cohort must be provided.

The school must calculate the attendance days for all full-time students in each cohort during the

reference period. The attendance days must be less than or equal to the number of Possible School Days.

The attendance days can include partial attendance days. It is noted that attendance days may be different

for each student. The aggregate of attendance days for all full-time students in each cohort must be

provided.

The school must apply the incident/absence guidance at Appendix B when determining:

o Possible school days for the cohort; and

o The attendance days for a full-time student.

The school must calculate each full-time student’s attendance as a percentage of attendance days

(numerator) compared to possible school days (denominator). This value is used by the school to

determine the three numbers below:

o The school must provide the number of full-time students who attended school less than 90% of

the possible school days for those students in the reference period for each cohort.


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o The school must provide the number of full-time students who attended school greater than or

equal to 90% of the possible school days for those students in the reference period for each

cohort. See also Possible School Days for students who attend school 90% or more.

o The school must provide the aggregate of possible school days for full-time students with an

attendance rate of 90% or more for each cohort.

The school must provide the above data for each cohort combination of Year Level, Male/Female, Total

Students/Indigenous only students at each school/campus (location). Total students must include all

Indigenous students and all non-Indigenous students.

7.3 The Student

The student must be enrolled full-time, at state level by sector, enrolled in years 1 to 10 or as an ungraded

student in the typical age group for students in years 1 to 10, during the reference period.

The student’s attendance must be reported for all days they were enrolled at the school in the reference

period. Students enrolling or ceasing part way through the reference period must have their attendance

counted from the first day of enrolment to the last day of enrolment in the reference period. Students

enrolled but who attend zero days in the reference period must not be included in the collection.

The eligible student must be counted once by the school for the collection.

The student must not be included in the data submission if the student is identified as not-in-scope as per

Section 4.

The student’s attendance must be reported against the combination of their:

o Year level (Y1 to Y10; or PU [primary ungraded] or SU [secondary ungraded] for special schools and

special assistance schools only)

o Sex (M or F)

o Student Type (T – Total students including Indigenous students; or I – Indigenous students only)

Each combination of the above is known as a cohort. Thus, each year level may have up to four cohorts:

1. All male students (including Indigenous students)

2. All female students (including Indigenous students)

3. Indigenous male students only

4. Indigenous female students only

7.3.1 Treatment of unusual student situations

This section describes the treatment of attendance for two unusual student situations.


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7.3.1.1 Informal arrangements between schools

Where an informal arrangement exists between schools where a student attends multiple schools, but remains

enrolled full time at one school, all absences and attendances must be attributed to the main school.

For example, Michael may be enrolled full-time at School A but attends School B for specific classes that are

offered at School B but not at School A. School A, as the main school, would record all Michael’s absences and

attendances at both schools.

7.3.1.2 Full-time students at State level

Where a student attends multiple schools part-time and those part-time amounts equal full-time (i.e. full-time at

state level), then the student is considered as full-time for the purpose of student attendance. For example: Alice is

enrolled and attends School C all day on three school days each school week. Alice is also enrolled at School D and

attends School D all day on the other two school days each school week. The combination of both makes Alice a

full-time student at the state level for the purposes of STATS.

Students in this situation, whilst technically part-time at two schools, are overall a full-time student and should

either have their attendance:

(a) Included in each school’s STATS response (for example, School C would count Alice’s enrolment as 3 days in

each school week in the reference period and her attendance against each of those days, and School C

would count Alice’s enrolment as 2 days in each school week in the reference period and her attendance

against each of those days), or

(b) At both schools included in the STATS response from the school where Alice is enrolled the majority of the

time (for example, in School C’s response).

It is recommended schools in with full-time students at the state level determine how they will count the student’s

attendance.


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7.4 Student Absences

Incidents and absences affecting a student’s attendance must be treated in accordance with guidance provided at

Section 7 of the National Standards for Student Attendance Data Reporting 2015. For ease of reference, this

section has been copied to Appendix B of this document.

7.4.1 Part day absences

Part-day absences are where a student arrives late for school or leaves school before the end of the school day.

The duration and treatment of part-day absences may vary between jurisdictions and schools. Where a student is

absent for a portion of the day from school, other than for official school activity (e.g. an excursion), then the

student’s attendance for that day should not equal a whole day of attendance. For the purposes of the STATS, the

student has attended for a portion of the day and only that portion of attendance must be reflected in the data.

7.4.2 Boarding schools and student absence

Students at a boarding school who are enrolled but do not attend class or official school activities on a particular

school day or part of the day (e.g. due to illness) must be counted as an absence for that day or part of the day, as

applicable to the specific situation.

7.5 School Days in the Reference Period

School days are those days that the school is conducting lessons or other official activities for the students.

Generally, schools days are week days. The number of school days in the reference period must not include any

non-school days (see immediately below).

7.5.1 Non-School Days

A non-school day is a day that the school is closed or lessons are not held for reasons other than a whole-of-school

event (e.g. the school sport or swimming carnival). When calculating the number of school days for the school and

possible school days for a cohort of students, the following non-school days must be excluded:

Weekends

Public holidays

School holidays

Religious holidays

Pupil-free days

Grade-specific non-school days (for example moderation days, pupil free days, teacher professional

development days where students in the cohort are not required to attend school under the care of a relief

teacher)

Extra-curricular activities conducted on a non-school day (e.g. participation work experience programs

during school holidays or on weekends),


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Other days on which student attendance at school is not required

Natural disaster/event where students are unable to travel to school and the school is closed (e.g: Tropical

cyclones and related severe weather events)2.

7.6 Attendance Calculation

The formula for calculating the attendance rate percentage (%) is as follows:

100 × Attendance days

Possible school days

7.7 Actual days in Attendance (numerator)

The actual days (or part-days of) in attendance is the number of days that a student actually attends school

over the collection period on possible school days.

Attendance days must be equal to or less than the possible school days for the cohort

To calculate attendance days:

1. For a cohort of students: Sum of possible school days minus sum of absent days for all students or a

cohort of students.

2. For each student: Sum of days a student is present at school on each possible school day.

The sum of the actual school days for all students in each cohort must be provided.

7.8 Possible school days (denominator)

Possible school days are the number of days that a student is enrolled at school over the collection period.

This means that students who enrol late or move school will have different numbers of possible school

days. [This was previously called Enrolment Days].

Possible school days must take into account the treatment of incidents and absences (see Appendix B).

For each student, Possible School Days must be equal to or less than the School Days in the reference

period.

The sum of possible school days for all students in each cohort must be provided.

Section 6.3 of the National Standards for Student Attendance Data Reporting 2015 provides examples scenarios

for calculating the possible school days.

2 Note, where the school is open but the student is unable to travel to school, this is an absence and is not to be counted as a non-school day or an attendance day.



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7.9 Counts of students with attendance rates less than 90%

This is a count of the number of full-time students who attended school less than 90% of the possible school days

for these students in the reference period for each cohort.

7.10 Counts of students with attendance rate of greater than or equal to 90%

This is a count of the number of full-time students who attended school greater than or equal to 90% of the

possible school days in the reference period for each cohort.

7.11 Possible School Days for Students who attend school 90% or more

The sum of the number of possible school days for those full-time students who attend school 90% or more (of the

time) must be reported for each cohort.

For worked examples, see Appendix C

7.12 The CSV File

Where a CSV (comma separated variable) file is used to upload data to the department, it must not include

a header row and must be in the same sequence as the data fields shown at Appendix A.

The SEP accepts comma delimited Microsoft Excel CSV files only. Other formats will not successfully load

to the SEP.

The format of numbers must not be comma delimited.

A Microsoft Excel CSV file showing column ordering is available for non-government individual schools and

for non-government system offices for reporting multiple schools in the STATS Help

http://ssphelp.education.gov.au/student-attendance


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8 Appendix A: STATS Data Summary

The following table summarises the required data for the STATS collection. There are four possible cohorts for each

Year Level:

1. All male students (including Indigenous students)

2. All female students (including Indigenous students)

3. Indigenous male students only

4. Indigenous female students only

Variable Description Values/Ranges Format Comment

AGEID The Australian Government Department of Education Client ID

>0 Integer Value to be entered into each row.

Collection Identifies the reference period for the collection

Semester 1 Term 3

Up to 10 characters

Value to be entered into each row.

Year level Year level Y1 - Y10 PU SU

Up to 3 characters

A record is required for each Year level with enrolments. PU (primary ungraded) and SU (secondary ungraded) are valid entries for Special Schools and Special Assistance Schools only.

Gender Male or Female M F

1 char As recorded at enrolment.

Student Type3 (formerly Indigenous Status)

Indigenous status, either all students or Indigenous

T I

1 char T – Total Students (including Indigenous Students) I – Indigenous Students only

Possible School Days (formerly Enrolment Days)

Sum of days all students in the cohort are enrolled during the reference period.

≥0 Integer; no decimal points

Refers to full-time students in each Cohort. This field must not contain decimal points and must not be comma delimited

Attendance Days

Sum of attendance days for all students in the cohort during the reference period.

≥ 0 Number up to two decimal places

Must be less than or equal to the number of Possible School Days. Can include partial attendance days. The field must not be comma delimited.

Students with <90% attendance

Count of full-time students who attended school less than 90% of possible school days in the reference period

≥ 0 Integer Number of students where (Attendance days ÷ Possible School Days) × 100 < 90. The number must not be comma delimited.

Students with ≥90% attendance

Count of full-time students who attended school for 90% or more of the possible school days in the reference period

≥ 0 Integer Number of students where (Attendance days ÷ Possible School Days) × 100 ≥ 90. The field must not be comma delimited.

Possible School Days for Students with ≥90% attendance

Sum of days enrolled for Students with attendance rates of 90% or more.

≥0 Integer; no decimal points

A subset of ‘Possible School Days’ used to calculate Full-time equivalent estimate. This field must not contain decimal points and must not be comma delimited

School Days in Reference Period

Number of school days in Semester 1 / Term 3 (grade specific)

80 – 110 Semester 1 40 – 60 Term 3

Integer Tested against expected norms, Warnings will be given for values at the extremes of the norm.

3 Formerly Indigenous Status


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9 Appendix B: Treatment of Incidents/Absences

Source: National Standards for Student Attendance Data Reporting 2015, Second edition, August 2015; Section 7

pages 12 – 14

Treatment of incidents/absences The table below provides a general description of incidents/absences that may be applicable to schools, how these

incidents are to be treated and whether they should be included in the sum of possible school days. Note that

actual descriptions in jurisdictions and sectors may differ. However, the general basis of the absence is the same.

Also not all descriptions may be applicable to all jurisdictions/sectors.

General description of incidents/absences Treatment of absence Absent / Present / NA

Include in Possible School Days Count

A. Unexplained/unauthorised absences Absences where the school does not receive any explanation, or where the reason for absence is considered unacceptable. Includes absences such as:

Truancy

Unexplained

Without parent/guardian approval

Unacceptable explanations as determined by the school

Absent Yes

B. Religious/cultural absences Approved/notified absences due to recognised religious or ceremonial activity

Absent Yes

C. Parent/guardian-approved absences Includes absences such as:

Family event

Extended holidays

Boarding student who does not attend classes (e.g. illness, bereavement, etc)

Absent Yes

D. Medical Approved/notified absences due to medical reasons. Includes absences such as:

Illness

External medical appointment with health care professionals including counselling

Absent Yes

E. Disciplinary (Out-of-school) Disciplinary action that is not on school grounds. Includes suspensions but excludes internal suspensions (see F).

Absent Yes

F. Disciplinary (In-school) Disciplinary action that is on school grounds. Includes internal suspensions

Present Yes

G. Behavioural reasons Behavioural absences, e.g. disengagement. Excludes disciplinary action (see E or F).

Absent Yes


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H. Bereavement Approved/notified absences due to bereavement. Includes absences such as:

Funeral

Personal Bereavement

Absent Yes

I. School closed School closed for religious, public or other holiday. Includes absences such as:

Unexpected temporary school closure

Strike action/industrial action

School unavailable

School choice

Individual school calendars

All classes cancelled for the day

NA No

J. Natural disaster/event Natural disaster/event where students are unable to travel to school and school is closed.

NA No

K. Approved educational absence Attendance at an approved/sanctioned school event where the student is not required to attend school. Includes absences such as:

Excursions

Flexible timetable

Attending another school

Vocational Education Training (VET) activities

Present Yes

L. Work experience programs Approved participation in/attendance at work experience related programs. School is responsible for students on these programs. NSSC states that students’ time spent on work experience programs, as part of the school curriculum or program, should be treated as time in school.

Present Yes

M. Employment Short-term employment. School is not responsible for students during this period; however, student remains officially enrolled.

Absent Yes

N. Explained other absence Absences from school due to acceptable reasons, other than any of those listed in this table.

Absent Yes

O. Exemptions Approved exemptions such as certificate of exemptions, only for exceptional circumstances. Reasons for exemptions must not conflict with other descriptions in this table. Includes approved short-term employment for NSW and SA such as employment in the entertainment industry where approval and exemption from class has been given by the appropriate school personnel. Note: Due to the low number of absences in this category, some jurisdictions may choose to include these absences as possible school days. Although this is not recommended, this has minimal impact to the national and jurisdictional attendance rate.

NA No


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P. P.1. Detention/Juvenile Justice/Suspension/Immigration Detention Centres – notified

School is notified that student is at the relevant centre. See P.2 for notified absences.

WA: Student is enrolled in main school but is part of Immigration Detention Centre.

NA No

P.2. Detention/Juvenile Justice/Suspension/Immigration Detention Centres – not notified

If school is not notified, then the student would be absent for ‘unexplained/unauthorised’ reasons.

Absent Yes

Q. Behaviour centre Absences of students who are moved to a behaviour centre, but who nevertheless remain enrolled in their main school. All data are attributed back to main school

Absent Yes

R. Tutorial Centres Absences at the main school for students who are moved to a tutorial centre but who nevertheless remain enrolled in their main school

Present Yes

S. Expelled Student is no longer allowed to attend the school

NA Included until date of expulsion

T. Student leaves school mid term Student is no longer enrolled at the school by choice Note:

If the student/parents formally notify the school then enrolment ends on the last day of enrolment

If there is no notification, and the student is away for 6 school weeks, the student is then deemed to have left school on the first day of the absence.

Included for period enrolled


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10 Appendix C: Worked Examples

10.1 Example 1 – Possible School Days, Attendance Days and Attendance Rates

10.1.1 Formula for attendance rate

Refer back to “Appendix A: Data Summary” for specifications of variables in quotes below.

𝐴𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 (%) = 100 ×𝐴𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠

Possible School Days

10.1.2 Case Study to demonstrate calculations

School A has a year level with 93 “School days in reference period” and five students enrolled.

Calculating “Possible School Days”

Student Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5* Enrolment Days

Days Enrolled 93 93 93 93 85 457

In this example, Student 5 was enrolled 8 school days after the commencement of Semester 1.

Calculating “Attendance Days”

Student Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Attendance Days

Days Attended 82 87 85 83 78 415

Calculating attendance rates

Using Student 1’s data above and the attendance rate formula:

𝐴𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 (%) = 100 ×82 (𝑆𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 1′𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒)

93 (𝑆𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 1′𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠)= 88.17%

Using the same method for all five students

Student Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5

Attendance Rate 88.17% 93.55% 91.40% 89.25% 91.76%


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As can be seen in the above attendance rate data, there are two “Students with less than 90% attendance”

(Student 1 – 88.17% and Student 4 – 89.25%) and three “Students with greater than or equal to 90% attendance”

(Student 2 – 93.55%, Student 3 – 91.40% and Student 5 – 91.76%).

To calculate the “Possible School Days for students with 90% or more attendance” we would add the possible

school days for the three students with attendance rates of 90% or more (student 2, 3, and 5)

Possible School Days for students with 90% or more attendance = 93 + 93 + 85 = 271


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11 Appendix D: STATS Non-Government Schools Data Pictorial View

My School Website(ACARA)

SCHOOL

CAMPUS

GRADE (YEAR LEVEL)

STUDENT IN GRADE (YEAR LEVEL)

Reported to department by campus;Department aggregates data to

school level where there is more than one campus

Single campus school; reportedto department by school

Reported by campus where morethan one campus for the school

Aggregated to Year Level

School/Campus Information: AGEID NAME Key Contact details for STATS

Grade (Year Level) Information: Grade (Year Level) Gender Student Type School Days for Grade in Reference Period Number of students attended equal to or

greater than 90% Number of students attended less than 90% Number of Possible School Days for

students who attended equal to or greater than 90%

Student Information (used to calculate grade level information and ensure student is counted in correct grade variables combination but not reported to the department): Possible school days for student in

reference period Actual attendance by student in reference

period Student’s gender Student’s grade Student type

Student Attendance Collection (STATS) – Data Pictorial View

Department provide non-governmentschools data to ACARA


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12 Appendix E: STATS Key Dates

The following dates are the key dates for the 2018 Student Attendance data collection.

Date Event What your school must do

19 March 2018 Initialisation opens for STATS

Complete the acknowledgement and confirm your school’s / campus’ contact details

20 April 2018 Initialisation due Your school must have completed the acknowledgement and confirmed your school’s / campus’ contact details

29 June 2018 STATS opens for Semester 1 reporting

Your school can commence providing each campus’ Semester 1 student attendance information for FULL-TIME students in YEAR 1 to YEAR 10 and any UNGRADED students who are in the typical age group for students in years 1 to 10.

01 August 2018 STATS due for Semester 1 reporting

Your school must have finished providing each campus’ Semester 1 student attendance information for FULL-TIME students in YEAR 1 to YEAR 10 and any UNGRADED students who are in the typical age group for students in years 1 to 10, and have declared the data provided as complete and correct for each campus.

21 September 2018 STATS opens for Term 3 reporting

Your school can commence providing each campus’ Term 3 student attendance information for FULL-TIME students in YEAR 1 to YEAR 10 and any UNGRADED students who are in the typical age group for students in years 1 to 10.

19 October 2018 STATS due for Term 3 reporting

Your school must have finished providing each campus’ Term 3 student attendance information for FULL-TIME students in YEAR 1 to YEAR 10 and any UNGRADED students who are in the typical age group for students in years 1 to 10, and have declared the data provided as complete and correct for each campus.

Documents

Student Attendance (STATS) Collection · The STATS has two reference periods which relate specifically, and only, to school days and do not include non-school days (see section 7.5