DfE attendance data

The DfE collects attendance data from schools every day, publishes national statistics every fortnight, and gives schools their own figures back. What each is, where to find it, and why they do not always agree.

The short answers

Do schools have to share attendance data with the DfE?

Yes. Since the 2024 to 2025 academic year, maintained schools, academies, non-maintained special schools and alternative provision academies have a statutory duty to share daily attendance data with the DfE. It does not apply to nursery schools. Most schools do it through their MIS, and no parental consent is needed because it is a statutory requirement.

What is Monitor your school attendance?

The DfE's own tool, reached through DfE Sign-in, built from the daily data your MIS shares twice a day. It shows trends, pupils who may need support, and comparisons within your local authority and nationally.

Where can I find national attendance statistics?

On the DfE's Explore education statistics service: the fortnightly Pupil attendance in schools release for the year in progress, and Pupil absence in schools in England for each full year, including absence by pupil characteristics.

Why does the DfE's figure not match my MIS?

The DfE's tool counts the academic year to date from each pupil's admission date, includes pupils who have left up to their leaving date, and changes as MIS data is updated. A report that covers a term, a full year, or only pupils on roll today will give a different figure, and the DfE says so in its own guide.

Which figure to use for what

For a governors' meeting or an inspection

Your year to date, counted the DfE's way with leavers included, against the published national figure for your phase and the same point last year.

For this week's work

Who has slipped, who is heading for persistent absence and who is close to the penalty notice threshold. The daily data is the most current; what matters is turning it into a list of children to reach.

For a group

Disadvantaged pupils, SEND and EAL each against the DfE's figure for the same group nationally, from the full-year statistics.

Where this comes from

Related guides: school attendance national averages, attendance in Ofsted's inspection toolkit, tracking attendance. Every guide is listed on the guides page.

Your data, and the DfE's, side by side

adsum reads the exports your MIS already produces, counts them the DfE's way, and sets them against the DfE's published figures for your phase, your local authority and each pupil group, naming the period on both sides.

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Or ask us for a trial on your own school's data.