Data Collections Student Attendance (STATS)

Each non-government school in Australia that receives Australian Government recurrent funding and has eligible students for STATS reporting are required to submit data.

Each approved authority or approved system authority (an approved authority for systemic schools) is responsible for ensuring the data is provided to the Department of Education. Approved authorities determine whether they or the individual schools/locations will submit the data to the collection. Schools that are part of a system of schools should seek advice from their system office.

Non-systemic Catholic schools are considered to be independent schools for the purpose of the collection unless other arrangements are made by the school with their local Catholic approved authority.

Student Attendance has 2 reporting periods:

Semester 1 (usually, Terms 1 and 2): The period between the first school day of the year and the last school day of Semester 1.

Term 3: The period between the first school day of Term 3 and the last school day of Term 3.

STATS collects student attendance rate data for full-time students enrolled in years 1 through to 10 in primary, secondary and special schools (including 11MINUS and/or 12PLUS students who are ungraded students within the typical age group of students in Years 1 through to 10 at a location).

Student attendance data is collected by reference period (Semester 1 and Term 3) and by the following cohorts at each location (campus):

• All students (including Indigenous students) by year level and gender.
• Indigenous students ONLY by year level and gender.

Note: to complete STATS reporting, you will need to get the required enrolment and student attendance information either from your school technology system or by calculating the required information from student records.

The Key Dates for STATS fact sheet in the Downloads section on the right side of this page contains the dates and activities for STATS.

STATS has 2 options for providing data:

1. Manual data entry – Enter fields of data to each location’s record by selecting a location from the My locations
2. Data Upload – Upload an XML format file on the Data Upload tab to submit bulk data to the collection.

The data upload function allows users to submit bulk data to the collection and is the preferred option for all schools/locations.

The upload function requires your data to be in XML format. There are 2 ways to generate an XML file for upload:

1. From your school software. Check with your school software provider to find out whether your school software product can do this for STATS.
2. Using either the STATS Cohort Level Data Collection Tool or the STATS Student Level Data Collection Tool to generate an XML format file to upload. These tools are available under the Downloads section on the right side of this page.

Note: SchoolsHUB will only accept the generated XML file. Uploading the excel spreadsheet will not work.

Some students must not be included in the submission to the collection. These are:

• students in foundation year (Year 1 minus 1) and earlier programs
• students in years 11 and 12
• part-time students (who are not full time at state level)
• distance education students
• home-schooled students
• students no longer enrolled at the school for the entirety of the reference period. This includes expulsion or similar.

Note: students enrolled full-time for only part of the reference period, but who ceased enrolment are included for the period they were enrolled at the school (i.e. include the days they attended the school).

A non-school day is a day where the school (and its locations) are not open for education purposes. These days are not absences for the purpose of student attendance.

Non-school days include:

• weekends
• pupil-free days
• public holidays
• school holidays
• religious holidays observed by the school
• grade-specific non-school days (for example, pupil-free days and moderation days)
• unexpected temporary school closure (for example, power failure, water failure, closure due to danger from or due to a natural event such as bushfire, cyclone, or flood)
• strike action/industrial action
• all classes cancelled for the day (for example, due to a traumatic event impacting students)
• natural disaster/event where students are unable to travel to school and school is closed (for example, travel to school is prevented by road closures due to a natural disaster/event such as bushfire or cyclone and the school is closed on that day)
• whole-of-cohort (for example, year level) or school closure due to a confirmed COVID-19 case (for example, school is closed for a deep clean after confirmation of a COVID-19 case at the school)
• other days of which student attendance at school is not required.

For a comprehensive list of situations that may constitute an absence for the purpose of the STATS collection, see the Assessing Absences and Non-School Days fact sheet under the Downloads section at the right of this page.

We are a school with 2 locations; can we submit everything under the one location/AGEID?

No, STATS is a campus/location level collection. Student attendance data should not be aggregated at a head location level. Student attendance data should be entered on a location AGEID to which it relates.

1. 2024 Student Attendance (STATS) Collection Data Technical Specification has been updated for the 2024 data collection year. This document describes the provision of the data and how to report each circumstance. We recommend you provide it to your school software vendor to ensure they have a copy. You can find this document in the Downloads section at the right of this page. 
2. The STATS collection tools to create an XML format file for upload to SchoolsHUB have received minor updates. Please ensure you are using the latest version of the collection tool, which is available in the Downloads section on the right side of this page.

Yes. SchoolsHUB allows you to download your submitted data and the data shown in the declaration in both PDF and Microsoft Excel format.

We recommend visiting the Using SchoolsHUB help page for more information.