Changes In Attendance Reporting
Due to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, ODE’s
Ready Schools, Safe Learners Guidance for School Year 2020-2021 (RSSL) included new guidance to Oregon schools for recording and reporting students as present or absent.
- In order to maintain connection and keep students engaged in learning with students, RSSL provided additional guidance to schools and districts regarding Attendance Policies and Practices, including:
- In prior years, attendance at brick-and-mortar schools was based on students physically being in the classroom.
- In 2020-21, schools and districts were advised to “Design attendance policies to account for students who do not attend in-person due to student or family health and safety concerns.”
- In 2020-21, schools and districts were advised to include both participation in class activities, interaction with certain school staff, or turning in completed coursework on a given day as attending.
- The State Board of Education suspended the 10-day drop attendance reporting rule.
- In prior years, if a student was absent beyond 10 days, districts were required to drop the student from their active enrollment roles, and any further absences were not included in attendance reporting to ODE.
- In 2020-21, if a student stopped attending for 10 or more days, districts were required to continue trying to engage with the student and their families to encourage attendance or to receive confirmation that the student withdrew from school. If a student was absent beyond 10 days and met the criteria for continued enrollment due to the suspension of the 10-day drop rule, districts continued to count the student as absent, and they were included in attendance reporting to ODE.
- Online schools that previously followed a two check-in per week attendance process were directed to follow the Comprehensive Distance Learning requirements for daily check-ins with students.
- In prior years, attendance in online schools was determined by two check-ins per week between students and their teacher of record.
- In 2020-21, these schools shifted to track student attendance through daily check-ins with their students.
Regular Attenders Report
As a result of the substantive changes to attendance reporting guidance from previous years,
Regular Attendance rates from the 2020-21 school year are not directly comparable to rates published for prior school years, and should not be used for comparative or accountability purposes.
- The suspension of the 10-day drop rule means that students who otherwise would not be included in the Regular Attendance rates are included in the 2020-21 calculation.
- The shift for online schools to track attendance daily rather than twice per week means that students had more opportunities to be counted as absent.
Regular Attenders Report for the 2020-2021 School Year (posted 10/7/2021)
For more information, please contact Jon Wiens.