The two basic functions of attendance accounting

Through the process of attendance accounting, California's local education agencies keep track of the attendance and absence of pupils for two main purposes:

• compliance with state compulsory attendance (or "truancy") law
• proper allocation of state educational funding apportionments.

Definitions and basic terminology

The attendance accounting process produces what is known as an "audit trail"--the set of records substantiating every specified fact relevant to compliance with compulsory attendance law and apportionment of state funds.

In different educational settings attendance and absence are recorded in different ways. In what is customarily termed "negative" attendance accounting, generally used for the regular classes that are reported in whole minimum days, the person taking attendance makes a mark in the attendance record only if a pupil is not in attendance for the entire time prescribed; only absences are noted. Under the correspondingly named "positive" attendance accounting, better adapted to use in classes that have no daily minimum but are instead reported in hours and portions of hours, the person taking attendance makes a mark in the record for each pupil who is in attendance during the scheduled hour or portion of an hour; presence rather than absence is noted.

The basic measure of attendance in California's school system is known as "average daily attendance" or "a.d.a.," usually computed as the number of student-days of creditable attendance divided by the number of days school was in session. For each unit of verified a.d.a. as of a specified date, a district receives an amount of "apportionment" funding from the State School Fund set out in the then current State Budget Act.

A district's thoroughness in classifying and verifying student absences has clear financial implications, because California law provides that certain absences (known as "apportionment-excused absences") are not only not truancies, they also may be credited for apportionment purposes as student-days of attendance when computing a.d.a. Certain other absences (known as "justifiable personal absences"), while not creditable for apportionment, are also not classified as truancies--that is, they are not violations of the compulsory attendance law.

Terms and Distinctions

Regular vs. continuation education

California's compulsory attendance laws require all children from six to 18, unless exempted or excluded, to attend school full time. The Education Code lists the exemptions and bases for exclusion, defines "full time" and "attend," and delineates what constitutes a school. All pupils ages six through 15 must conform to the rules of regular compulsory attendance, whereas some 16- and 17-year-old pupils may be subject to the rules of continuation education.

Although in practice attendance in regular schools is the norm and continuation education an alternative, the law formally provides for the reverse: §48400 states that "All persons 16 years of age or older, and under 18 years of age, not otherwise exempted by this chapter, shall attend upon special continuation education classes..."; full-time attendance in regular education (among other specified alternatives) technically exempts pupils from this baseline continuation requirement (see "Continuation Education" in Chapter IV).