Policy context

Regular attendance and engagement in school is important for the development of intellectual and socio-emotional skills and contributes significantly to educational outcomes.

School attendance for students in Years 7 to 10 is collected annually through the data set National Student Attendance Data Collection (ACARA - administrative data). This is across all school sectors and jurisdictions in Australia.

Attendance is commonly reported through two measures, attendance rate and attendance level. The attendance rate is defined as the number of actual full-time equivalent student-days attended by full-time students in Years 1-10 as a percentage of the total number of possible student-days attended over the period.¹ The attendance level records the proportion of full-time students in Years 1-10 whose attendance rate in Semester 1 is equal to or greater than 90 per cent.²