Why is the dashboard launching now?
In the 2024-2025 school year, more than 25% of students in Ohio were considered chronically absent. Attendance is everyone’s responsibility and schools cannot do this work alone. Everyone in the community has a vested interest in students being present, engaged, and ready to learn. Students are tomorrow’s innovators, our future workforce, our entrepreneurs, and our future families and leaders — when our students succeed, our communities succeed. The statewide attendance dashboard supports this crucial conversation.
The dashboard’s spring launch provides time for all stakeholders in the state to gain shared language around what it means to be chronically absent, how attendance data is defined in Ohio in accordance with state law, and how communities can begin conversations around attendance prior to the beginning of the next school year.
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Where does the data in the dashboard come from?
For the vast majority of schools and districts, the data comes directly from the locally operated Student Information System (SIS). Student attendance data is processed from the SIS and calculated to create the chronic absence rates on the dashboard. This data
does not come from EMIS, the Student Data Center (SDC), or any other place where some school and district staff track attendance data locally.
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How are a school or district’s chronic absence rate calculated in the dashboard?
# of students that have missed 10% or more /
total # of students =
school or district chronic absence rate %
The dashboard’s calculation does not factor in a student’s FTE the same way as Ohio’s School Report Cards.
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What is the formula that determines whether a student has missed 10% or more of school?
# of hours a student has missed /
total # of hours of school held =
% of school year missed
The dashboard’s calculation is based on total hours of school held
so far in the school year. For example, let’s say a student misses the equivalent of one school day out of a five-day week at the beginning of the school year. At the end of that week, the student will have missed 20% of school so far. That student’s attendance data would contribute to a school or district’s chronic absence rate because they missed 20% or more of school.
If that same student missed no hours during the second week of school, they will then have missed 10% of school so far, or one day out of the first 10 days of school. Still, that student's attendance data will still be contributing to the chronic absence rate overall because they missed 10% or more of school.
That same student would have to miss no hours during the third week of school to be under the 10% calculation threshold. Now that student’s attendance data will contribute to the “at-risk” category instead since they missed one day out of 15 days of school, or 6.7%.
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Why do our internal enrollment numbers not align with what is in the dashboard?
The dashboard does not pull from EMIS, the SDC, or other places attendance data is reported by schools and districts. When comparing data, school and district staff should look only at attendance data in their student information system (SIS).
Ohio schools and districts use their SIS for attendance and other organizational purposes in a variety of ways, and that means what is reflected in the dashboard will likely be different from what is in EMIS. This can include a building and district's calendar, where students are placed or receiving instruction, grade level or enrollment decisions, or any other internal processes in place that make sense for schools and districts operationally and then are adjusted before submitting the data to EMIS.
Additional variation exists depending on which SIS a school or district uses. School or district staff with questions about the differences they see between their SIS and Ohio’s Attendance Dashboard can contact their ITC or email
attendance@education.ohio.gov for additional support.
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What happens to district data when students withdraw?
The dashboard only includes attendance data for students who are enrolled and placed in a school or district’s Student Information System (SIS). For example, a student who is only enrolled between Aug. 15 and Sept. 15 will only have their data contributing to the dashboard's attendance calculation during that time. During any other time while that student is not enrolled, their data will not contribute to the school or district calculation.
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We use our own local tool for attendance. How is this helpful?
Prior to Ohio’s Attendance Dashboard, there was a need for real-time attendance data to make decisions and plans in the moment. Some schools and districts have adopted a variety of tools or programs to help with examining attendance regularly, and each one of those options has its own value and uses. Ohio’s Attendance Dashboard functions as another tool for schools, districts, and the whole community to use when approaching a holistic approach to reducing chronic absence.
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How can families help with reducing chronic absence?
Ohio’s Attendance Dashboard is a tool meant for the entire school community to support conversations about attendance. This includes aligning language and messaging about the effects of missing school for
any reason, because all absences contribute to chronic absence. Schools and districts cannot do this work alone. Attendance is inextricably connected to many aspects of the whole school community, and it will take that community working together in order to lower chronic absence across the state.
Families play a critical role in this work. They bring a perspective to the conversation that schools and districts need to hear and understand. Families can help discuss the kinds of challenges school and district staff see with attendance, and they can be part of the decision-making process around the supports needed.
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How can the wider community help with reducing chronic absence?
In addition to families, the whole school community refers to local elected officials, the local medical community, the faith-based community, the business community, and other organizations that support citizens in your community. All of these stakeholder groups have a vested interest in their students attending school so they can learn how to read well, solve problems, work together, and develop into their future workforce and families.
Everyone has an interest in students going to school regularly.
For example, a local business could look at Ohio’s Attendance Dashboard and approach a school or district about an identified grade band or building for which they could provide resources or targeted support.
Or, a school or district could approach their local government officials about school attendance around certain holidays and ask for support with communitywide messaging to families and students during that time about getting to school every day. The community could then use the dashboard monitor progress to help inform future messaging around other school or district breaks.
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My school/district is not in the dashboard. What do I do?
As this school year is ending and heading into the summer, there are several districts and community schools working through a variety of technical needs for their data to display in Ohio’s Attendance Dashboard. The Department and its partners are actively working with schools and districts that are not yet in the dashboard.
Community members can contact their school or district staff to understand the status of their data being in the dashboard.
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What changes are you looking to make in the future?
The Department and its partners are working on ways to improve what users experience in the dashboard. Users can provide feedback through the Help button in the dashboard or by emailing
attendance@education.ohio.gov directly.
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