Uses and Sources of Quantitative Attendance Data

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Key Uses and Sources of Quantitative Attendance Data

Uses for Attendance Data

Districts and schools can use attendance data for a variety of purposes, which may include:

• Understanding the makeup and needs of chronically absent students (PDF) at each level
  • School level: Identifying schools with higher numbers of chronically absent students for additional support
  • Student Group level: Disaggregating data by grade and by student group to identify groups of students who are disproportionately impacted by chronic absence to determine where to focus efforts
  • Student level: Identifying individual students at risk of chronic absence
• Using real-time chronic absence data for early warning and intervention
• Anticipating and preventing dips in attendance throughout the school year by tracking average daily attendance (ADA)
• Assessing how well programs and attendance interventions work and how they might be improved (e.g., Did students who attended the school or program more often benefit more than those who did not? How many additional days of school did students attend and what was the impact on funding? How could interventions be adapted to achieve a greater impact?)
• Identifying schools that achieve better results than similar schools (Attendance Works 2019 (PDF); California School Boards Association [CSBA] 2024 (PDF)).

Use Real-Time Attendance Data for Intervention

District student information systems and dashboards can enable leaders to use real-time chronic absence data as an early warning tool to identify students approaching chronic absence thresholds. For example, students missing 10–19 percent of school days—classified as moderately chronically absent—can be flagged so that districts can proactively support those students before their attendance worsens (Attendance Works 2022 ). Determining appropriate cut-points for “At Risk” or “Moderately Chronically Absent” students helps ensure timely intervention with families and students.

Source: Attendance Works
Accessible Text Version of Days Missed in School Year

Many student information systems and data platforms now generate visualizations and reports that may help schools and districts take action. (1) Districts may also want to share data with afterschool programs or external partners that provide services to support student attendance.

Use Summative Data to Assess Impact

DataQuest: Chronic absence data is available in California through DataQuest on the CDE website. Absenteeism reports include “chronic absenteeism” and “excused versus unexcused absences.” Data is available for districts, schools, public charter, and alternative schools. The data can be disaggregated by grade span from TK–12, gender, race/ethnicity, and student groups including English learners, students with disabilities, socioeconomically disadvantaged, migrant, foster, and homeless.

California Dashboard (TK–8): Additional data for individual LEAs can be found on the California School Dashboard , which tracks chronic absence in grades TK–8 as an accountability measure.

Note: While quantitative data may help identify how many and which students are chronically absent, qualitative data tools as described by Attendance Works may be also useful to help understand why students are absent by soliciting insights from students, families, and staff at schools and/or community agencies.

(1) If your district does not have easily digestible reports, free tools may be available, including District and School Attendance Tracking Tools from Attendance Works .