Student Attendance - UDM v3.0

The Student Attendance domain represents both daily attendance and class period (i.e., section) attendance. Absences and tardies can also be noted.

Key Entities

This domain contains:

An AttendanceEvent entity which connects Student entities to Section entities. The AttendanceEvent can model attendance, tardies, and absences for a particular class or school day.
A SectionAttendanceTakenEvent, which models information about the taking of attendance, primarily the date on which attendance was captured.

Key Concepts

The key concepts include the following:

Attendance in the Ed-Fi data model can be affirmative, meaning that both attendance and absence are recorded, or can be “exception only” reporting, providing attendance events only for absences and tardies.
Attendance in the Ed-Fi data model is event-based, so every instance of being absent or tardy is recorded and tied to a specific date. There is no built-in aggregate value (as is sometimes used by older SISs), though the Transcript entity can provide some level of aggregation.
The SectionAttendanceEventTaken entity is strictly for recording that attendance was taken on a specific day for a specific section (optionally) by a specific staff member. It doesn’t affect individual student attendance values within the Ed-Fi data model, but can be useful when analyzing trends in attendance over the course of a year.
Attendance can be taken for a program, a section (such as a class period), or overall for a day by association with a Session entity.

Model Reference

This section contains reference information for the Student Attendance domain model.

Student Attendance Model Entities

Name	Description
Program	This entity represents any program designed to work in conjunction with, or as a supplement to, the main academic program. Programs may provide instruction, training, services, or benefits through federal, state, or local agencies. Programs may also include organized extracurricular activities for students.
School	This entity represents an educational organization that includes staff and students who participate in classes and educational activity groups.
Section	This entity represents a setting in which organized instruction of course content is provided, in-person or otherwise, to one or more students for a given period of time. A course offering may be offered to more than one section.
SectionAttendanceTakenEvent	Captures attendance taken event for given section.
Session	A term in the school year, generally a unit of time into which courses are scheduled, instruction occurs and by which credits are awarded. Sessions may be interrupted by vacations or other events.
Staff	This entity represents an individual who performs specified activities for any public or private education institution or agency that provides instructional and/or support services to students or staff at the early childhood level through high school completion. For example, this includes: 1. An "employee" who performs services under the direction of the employing institution or agency is compensated for such services by the employer and is eligible for employee benefits and wage or salary tax withholdings 2. A "contractor" or "consultant" who performs services for an agreed upon fee or an employee of a management service contracted to work on site 3. A "volunteer" who performs services on a voluntary and uncompensated basis 4. An in-kind service provider 5. An independent contractor or businessperson working at a school site.
Student	This entity represents an individual for whom instruction, services, and/or care are provided in an early childhood, elementary, or secondary educational program under the jurisdiction of a school, education agency or other institution or program. A student is a person who has been enrolled in a school or other educational institution.
StudentProgramAssociation	This association represents the Program(s) that a student participates in or is served by.
StudentProgramAttendanceEvent	This event entity represents the recording of whether a student is in attendance to receive or participate in program services.
StudentSchoolAttendanceEvent	This event entity represents the recording of whether a student is in attendance for a school day.
StudentSectionAssociation	This association indicates the course sections to which a student is assigned.
StudentSectionAttendanceEvent	This event entity represents the recording of whether a student is in attendance for a section.

Student Attendance Model