Student attendance rate by Aboriginality and year level (2012-2019, Semester 1 2021 - 2023)

The attendance rate is defined as the number of actual full-time equivalent student days attended by full-time school students in Years 1–10 as a percentage of the total number of possible student-days attended.

Data Notes:

• Attendance data for NSW government schools only. The attendance rate is calculated as (1 minus absences divided by enrolled days) multiplied by 100.

• This data includes the student attendance rate for semester 1, semester 2 and the full year.

  • Students were learning from home for extended periods during Semester 2 2021 due to COVID-19. As a result, attendance rates for Semester 2 and full year are not reliable and have not been published.

  • 2020 data is not provided because students were encouraged to learn from home for several weeks in Semester 1.

  • For more detail on how attendance data for 2020 and 2021 were affected by COVID-19, please refer to CESE factsheets: ‘Effects of COVID-19 on attendance during Semester 1 2020’ and ‘2021 Semester 1 student attendance'.

• All students in Years 1 to 10 in NSW government schools are regarded as full-time.

• Kindergarten, Year 11, Year 12 students have been excluded in the attendance rates.

• Ungraded (support) student attendance rates are included as a separate row and excluded from Primary and Secondary totals. Ungraded students in NSW government schools are classified as either primary or secondary according to their level of education.

• Distance education and Schools for Special Purposes’ attendance data is not currently collected.

• Bushfires affected many schools' attendance in Term 4 2019 and should be taken into account when comparing Semester 2 data to other years.

• Prior to 2018 absences equalled ‘all full day absences for the period in question’.

• From 2020, students in mainstream support classes are reported by their underlying grade of enrolment. Students in schools for specific purposes (SSPs) are included as 'ungraded'.

• In 2021 attendance figures were calculated differently to align with the third edition of ACARA’s National Standards for Student Attendance Data and Reporting. As a result, data is not directly comparable to previous years.

• The Department implemented an automated attendance feed (AAF) system in Semester 1 2021. The AAF has significantly improved data quality in 2021, which has affected data comparability with previous years.

Note

In 2018, NSW government schools implemented the national standards for student attendance data reporting. This resulted in a fall in attendance rates for most schools due to the inclusion of partial absences and accounting for student mobility in the calculation. Data for 2018 is not directly comparable with earlier years.

Source:

• Education Statistics and Measurement. Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.