Non-Government Schools Student Attendance System (STATS)

Non-government Schools Student Attendance System (STATS)

User Guide and Data Requirements for 2015

Contents

Overview 3

Purpose of the Student Attendance Data Collection 2015 3

Changes to the Student Attendance Collection 2015 3

Reporting 4

Reporting Student Attendance through Schools Service Point (SSP) using STATS 4

Reporting details 4

Data disaggregation 4

Reference periods for data inclusion 4

Definitions 5

Enrolments 5

Enrolment Days 5

Attendance days 5

Movement during reference period 5

Non-school days (excluded from this collection) 5

Part day attendance 6

Part day school closure 6

Part-time student 6

School student 6

Students’ gender and indigenous status 6

Ungraded student 7

Full-time, enrolled students with less than 90% attendance 7

Full-time, enrolled students with greater than 90% attendance 7

Appendixes 8

Appendix 1 - Enrolment Days, Attendance Days and Attendance Rates 8

Formulas 8

Case Study to demonstrate calculations 8

Appendix 2 - Treatment of absences/incidents 9

Appendix 3 - Manual Data Entry 11

Appendix 4 - Data specifications 12

Appendix 5 - Data upload file 13

Attendance Data Collection 2015 – User Guide

Overview

This user guide provides the definitions, instructions, and table formats you will need for reporting non government school student attendance data through the Schools Service Point (SSP) portal.

Purpose of the Student Attendance Data Collection 2015

The purpose of this collection is to collect data for the publication of indicators on student attendance for full time students in Years 1 to 10, for school level reporting on the My School web site and for national reporting in reports such as the National Report on Schooling, Australia and the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services.

Data from the collection will be used to measure:

·  Attendance rates; and

·  The proportion of students attending school on at least 90% of their possible school days.

The national indicators will also be reported by year level, gender and indigenous status for the first semester and the third term of the school year for all schools and campuses.

Changes to the Student Attendance Collection 2015

There are a number of changes to the way student attendance data will be collected in 2015:

·  There are two collections, one for Semester 1 and one for Term 3;

·  When reporting, schools must identify:

-  The number of students attending school less than 90% of the time (Refer to the Definition located on page 7); and

-  The number of students attending school 90% or more of the time (Refer to the Definition located on page 7).

·  Data can only be submitted in summary format at the end of each reference period.

Reporting

Reporting Student Attendance through Schools Service Point (SSP) using STATS

The attendance data that you need to submit includes:

·  enrolment days [Possible Days of Attendance];

·  attendance days [Actual Days of Attendance];

·  the number of students with an attendance rate less than 90%; and

·  the number of students with an attendance rate of 90% or more.

Appendix 1 provides a working example

There are two ways to submit your attendance data through SSP using STATS:

·  Manually input data directly; or

·  Automated upload of data using a CSV[1] data file.

Reporting details

Data disaggregation

Data must be disaggregated at the school and student level as follows:

·  School level - Individual school/campus; and

·  Student level - Year level, Gender, and Indigenous status.

Reference periods for data inclusion

Data for the complete reference period should include every school day falling between:

·  Semester 1 - the first day and last day (inclusive) of semester 1, or until the Friday on or before 30 June if there is no mid-year break in June/July;

·  Term 3 - the first day and last day (inclusive) of term 3, or until the Friday on or before 30 September if there is no break in September/October.

Definitions[2]

Enrolments

Enrolments for the student attendance collection refer to full-time students enrolled on any given day within the reference period. Enrolment data are recorded by grade level, gender, and Indigenous status.

If a student stops attending school, and the school remains unaware of why this has happened, the student is assumed to be continuously enrolled for a further period of four weeks from the last attendance, and then excluded from the collection data for the remainder of the reference period.

NOTE: Part-time students are out of scope for this collection.

Enrolment Days

This refers to the total possible number of days that full-time students are expected to attend school over the reference period. Enrolment days cannot include days when students are not expected to be at the school, such as school holidays, public holidays, pupil free days, and weekends. See Appendix 1 for an example of how enrolment days are calculated.

Attendance days

This refers to the total number of days actually attended by full-time students over the reference period; see Appendix 1 for an example. The number of attendance days cannot exceed the number of enrolment days. Part day attendances are to be included.

Movement during reference period

Full-time students who are enrolled at any given time during the reference period are to be reported on the days which they are enrolled at the school. See Appendix 2 for an extensive list of the treatment of absences/incidents.

Non-school days (excluded from this collection)

The following non-schools days should be excluded from the enrolment and attendance days count:

·  Unexpected temporary school closure;

·  Strike action/industrial action;

·  All classes cancelled for the day;

·  Grade specific non-school days (pupil free days, moderation days etc.);

·  Natural disaster/event where students are unable to travel to school and school is closed;

·  Public holidays;

·  Religious holidays; and

·  Pupil-free days.

Part day attendance

Part day attendance refers to those days the student did not attend for the full day. This attendance should be included in the data as a fraction/proportion of a full day attendance (school definitions apply). Part day attendances may be reported up to two decimal places.

Part day school closure

Part day school closure refers to a school shutting down due to an emergency/holiday during the day. Students who attended the school that day will be counted as attending a full day, and those students who did not attend that day will be counted as absent the whole day.

Part-time student

A part-time student is one who undertakes a workload less than that specified as full-time. Part-time students are out of scope for this collection.

School student

A student is a person who is formally/officially enrolled or registered at a school and is active in a primary, secondary or special education program at that school.

The following categories of students are in scope for this collection:

·  A student who attends one school but is formally enrolled at another is to be counted only at the school at which he/she is formally enrolled.

·  A student enrolled full-time on any day during the reference period from Years 1 to 10, or ungraded students in the typical age range of students in Years 1 to 10, in a school on their individual campuses.

Students out of scope for these collections are:

·  Foundation (year 1 minus 1) and earlier programs;

·  Grades 11 and 12;

·  Part-time students;

·  Distance education students; and

·  Expelled students (after they have been expelled).

Note: Full Fee Paying Overseas Students are in scope for this collection as long as they are not in one of the above out of scope categories.

Students’ gender and indigenous status

Each student’s gender and indigenous status needs to be recorded and taken from enrolment forms.

·  Gender is the distinction male or female, as reported by a person.

·  A student is considered to be Indigenous if he or she identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.

Ungraded student

Ungraded students are restricted to special schools or special support units where students in ungraded classes cannot readily be allocated to a year level. Ungraded students are included as either ungraded primary or ungraded secondary, according to the typical age level in each State or Territory.

Note: Ungraded students do NOT include Foundation (year 1 minus 1) and earlier programs, or year 11 and 12 students.

Full-time, enrolled students with less than 90% attendance

Total number of students in the cohort with attendance rates below 90% during the reference period. See Appendix 1 for an example of how to calculate an individual student attendance rate.

Full-time, enrolled students with greater than 90% attendance

Total number of students in the cohort with attendance rates of 90% or above during the reference period. See Appendix 1 for an example of how to calculate an individual student attendance rate.

Appendixes

Appendix 1 - Enrolment Days, Attendance Days and Attendance Rates

Formulas

Attendance Rate %=100 ×Actual days in attendanceEnrolment days

Case Study to demonstrate calculations

School A has a total of 93 school days in Semester 1 and 5 students enrolled.

Calculating enrolment 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 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 enrolment 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%

As can be seen in the above attendance rate data, there are 2 students with an attendance rate of less than 90% (Student 1 – 88.17% and Student 4 – 89.25%) and 3 students with an attendance rate equal to or greater than 90% (Student 2 – 93.55%, Student 3 – 91.40% and Student 5 – 91.76%).

Appendix 2 - Treatment of absences/incidents

Absences/incidents included as attended school days

Scenario / Included As / Treated As
1  Disciplinary (in-school)
Disciplinary action that is on school grounds.
Includes internal Suspensions / School Day / Attending
2  Approved educational absence
Attendance at approved/sanctioned school events where the student is not required to attend school. Includes:
·  Excursions
·  Flexible timetable
·  Attending another school
·  VET activities / School Day / Attending
3  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. / School Day / Attending
4  Tutorial Centres
Absences at the main school for students who are moved to a tutorial centre but remain enrolled in their main school. / School Day / Attending

Absences/incidents included as absent school days

Scenario / Included As / Treated As
5  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 / School Day / Absent
6  Religious/cultural absences
Approved/notified absences due to recognised religious or ceremonial activity. / School Day / Absent
7  Parent-approved absences
Includes absences such as:
·  Family event
·  Extended holidays / School Day / Absent
8  Medical
Approved/notified absences due to medical reasons. Includes absences such as:
·  Illness
·  External medical appointment with health care professionals including counselling / School Day / Absent
9  Disciplinary (Out-of-school)
Disciplinary action that is not on school grounds.
Includes suspensions but excludes internal suspensions (see Scenario 1). / School Day / Absent
10  Behavioural reasons
Behavioural absences, e.g. disengagement. Excludes disciplinary action (see Scenario 1 or 9). / School Day / Absent
11  Bereavement
Approved/notified absences due to bereavement. Includes absences such as funerals and personal bereavement. / School Day / Absent
12  Employment
Short-term employment. School is not responsible for students during this period; however student remains officially enrolled. / School Day / Absent
13  Explained other absence
Absences from school due to acceptable reasons, other than any of those listed in this table. / School Day / Absent
14  Detention/Juvenile Justice/Suspension/ Immigration Detention Centres – not notified
If school is not notified, then the student would be absent for ‘unexplained/unauthorised’ reasons. See Scenario 16 for notified absences. / School Day / Absent
15  Behaviour centre
Absences of students who are moved to a behaviour centre but remain enrolled in their main school. All data is attributed back to main school. / School Day / Absent

Absences/incidents excluded from this collection

Scenario / Included As / Treated As
16  Detention/Juvenile Justice/Immigration Detention Centres – Notified
School is notified that student is at the relevant centre. See 14 for not notified absences.
WA: Student is enrolled in main school but is part of Immigration Detention Centre. / Not included / Not included
17  Expelled
Student is no longer enrolled at the school. / Not included / Not included

Appendix 3 - Manual Data Entry

Sample Student Attendance Data Entry screen

Note: As screen development is currently underway, final version may differ from image shown.

Appendix 4 - Data specifications

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 / Grade level / Y1 - Y10
PU
SU / Up to 3 characters / A record is required for each Year level with enrolments, with ungraded students to be allocated to a year level, as done for the Census on the Internet.
PU and SU are valid entries for Special Schools only.
Gender / Male or Female / M
F / 1 char / As recorded at enrolment.
Indigenous Status / Indigenous status / T
I / 1 char / T – Total Students including Indigenous
I – Indigenous Students only
Enrolment Days / The sum of the number of days each student is enrolled during the reference period. / ≥0 / Integer / Refers to full-time enrolments only for students in each category.
Attendance Days / The sum of the number of days each student attended school during the reference period. / ≥ 0 / Up to two decimal places / Must be less than or equal to the number of Enrolment Days. Can include partial attendance days.
Students with <90% attendance / Number of full-time enrolled students who attended school less than 90% of the reference period / ≥ 0 / Integer / Number of students where (Attendance days ÷ Enrolment days) × 100 < 90.
Students with ≥90% attendance / Number of full-time enrolled students who attended school for 90% or more of the reference period / ≥ 0 / Integer / Number of students where (Attendance days ÷ Enrolment days) × 100 ≥ 90.

Appendix 5 - Data upload file