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 in Semester 1 as a percentage of the total number of possible student-days attended in Semester 1.

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.

• Government schools in Australia measure attendance rates throughout the first semester (terms 1 and 2). This is the time period specified for data collection in National Education Agreements between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments.

• Kindergarten, Year 11, Year 12 and ungraded (support) students have been excluded in the attendance rates. Distance education and Schools for Special Purposes’ attendance data is not currently collected.

• Absences equal ‘all full day absences for the period in question’.

• The FOEI is constructed from parental education and occupation information collected from student enrolment forms. FOEI uses a statistical regression model to produce a weighted combination of school-level parental education and occupation variables based on the extent to which each variable uniquely predicts average school performance. The technical report about the construction of FOEI can be accessed at CESE.

• FOEI is a score ranging from 0 to approximately 300, with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 50. Higher FOEI scores indicate higher levels of need (i.e. lower socio-economic status).

• Student attendance rate by selective schools and FOEI was only published in the Attendance Bulletin in 2016.

Data Source:

• Government School Student Attendance, 2016 (Semester 1). Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.