Analytics
Attendance Dashboards
Overview
The Attendance dashboard (also called the Chronic Absences dashboard) helps district and school leaders monitor attendance patterns and identify students at risk of chronic absenteeism. By combining visual summaries with detailed student-level data, this dashboard gives you the insights needed to intervene early and support student success.
Understanding Chronic Absence
Before diving into the dashboard, it's helpful to understand how chronic absence is calculated and what the categories mean.
Calculation Method
The chronic absence percentage is calculated as:
Percent Missed = (Total Excused Absences + Total Unexcused Absences) / Total Days Enrolled
Both excused and unexcused absences count equally toward this percentage. In-school suspension (ISS) and out-of-school suspension (OSS) are tracked separately and do NOT count toward the chronic absence calculation.
Chronic Absence Categories
Students are placed into one of three categories based on their percent missed:
- Chronic (Red): 10% or more days missed - These students are chronically absent and require immediate intervention
- At Risk (Yellow): 5% to 9.99% days missed - These students are at risk of becoming chronically absent and would benefit from early support
- Satisfactory (Green): Under 5% days missed - These students are attending at satisfactory levels
The thresholds are research-backed and aligned with national best practices for identifying students in need of attendance support.
Dashboard Components
The Attendance dashboard includes three main components designed to give you different views of your data.
1. Attendance Summary (Pie Chart)
The pie chart shows the distribution of students across the three chronic absence categories at a glance. Each segment represents the proportion of students in the Chronic, At Risk, and Satisfactory categories.
Use this to:
- Get a quick visual of your district's overall attendance health
- Communicate attendance data to stakeholders
- Track changes in overall distribution over time
2. Chronically Absent by School (Bar Chart)
This horizontal bar chart breaks down the count of chronically absent students by individual school. Each school is represented as a bar, making it easy to compare which schools have the highest absenteeism.
Use this to:
- Identify which schools need the most attention
- Compare attendance performance across your schools
- Allocate resources and support where they're needed most
3. Attendance Summary (Table)
The detailed table displays student-level attendance information, including student names, grade levels, attendance percentages, and categorical status. This table is fully exportable for offline analysis, intervention planning, or compliance reporting.
Use this to:
- See the full list of students and their individual attendance status
- Export data for deeper analysis or sharing with staff
- Drill down into specific students or subgroups
Columns in the table include student name, grade, school, days enrolled, days absent, percent missed, and status category.
Available Filters
Use filters to narrow your view to specific subgroups and answer targeted questions about your data.
Available filter options:
- School - Focus on a single school or compare across multiple schools
- Grade - Isolate data by grade level
- Status - View students by their chronic absence category (Chronic, At Risk, Satisfactory)
- Race - Analyze attendance patterns by racial/ethnic demographic
- SWD (Students with Disabilities) - Filter to see how students with disabilities are represented in attendance data
Tips for effective filtering:
- Start broad (entire district), then narrow down to specific subgroups
- Use multiple filters together to identify intersectional patterns (e.g., "7th grade + SWD students in School A")
- Save filter combinations you use frequently for faster access
High School Attendance (Period-Based)
If your high school uses period-based attendance tracking (rather than daily), the system automatically converts period-level absences to day equivalents before calculating chronic absence percentages.
How the conversion works:
- Missing one period in a four-period day counts as 0.25 days absent
- Missing one period in an eight-period day counts as 0.125 days absent
- This conversion happens automatically—you don't need to adjust anything
Important: Because of this conversion, you may see decimal values in the absence counts for high school students. These decimals represent fractions of a day and reflect the actual proportion of instructional time missed.
If your absence counts seem unexpectedly low for high school students, check whether your school uses period-based attendance. The decimals are correct and reflect the actual instructional time missed.
Current Limitations
The Attendance dashboard provides student-level summary data, but the following capability is not yet available:
- Date-level detail - You cannot currently drill down to view the specific dates when an individual student was absent. The dashboard shows only the aggregate absence count and percentage.
Date-level attendance detail is planned for a future release and will allow you to see exactly which days each student missed and whether the absence was excused or unexcused.
If you need to review specific absence dates for intervention or compliance purposes, contact your district data administrator or check your attendance management system directly.
How to Use This Dashboard
Follow these steps to get the most out of the Attendance dashboard:
Step 1: Get the Big Picture
Start with the pie chart to understand your district's overall attendance distribution. What percentage of students are in each category? Is this better or worse than last period?
Step 2: Identify Schools That Need Attention
Look at the "Chronically Absent by School" bar chart. Which schools have the highest counts of chronically absent students? Where should you focus resources first?
Step 3: Focus With Filters
Use filters to narrow your focus:
- Zoom in on a specific school or grade
- Look at attendance patterns by demographic group
- Check how students with disabilities are represented
Step 4: Review Individual Students
Use the detailed table to identify which students are flagged as chronically absent. Are there patterns you notice? Which students need the most immediate support?
Step 5: Export and Plan
Export the table data to use in:
- Intervention planning meetings
- Communication with parents or guardians
- Compliance reports for your state or district
- Sharing with school-level teams
The table is exportable in standard formats, making it easy to integrate attendance data with your existing intervention planning tools and processes.
Next Steps
Once you've identified chronically absent students using this dashboard, consider:
- Reaching out to students and families - Early communication can make a difference
- Creating support plans - Work with school counselors and administrators to develop attendance improvement plans
- Tracking progress - Use the dashboard regularly to monitor changes in attendance over time
- Sharing with schools - Provide school-level teams with filtered views relevant to their students
For more on working with dashboard data, see How to Filter Dashboard Data and How to Export Dashboard Data.