The New Jersey School Register

1 New Jersey Department of Education: School Register 2018-2019 Standard A1a D92-08559 School RegisterNew Jersey2018- 2019 Register No. _____ School district of _____ Township, Borough, City Local Name of School_____ district Name _____ County Name _____ Code_____ county/ district / School Name and Title of Person Authorized to keep Register _____ Program Type _____ Table of Contents Chapter 1: The New Jersey School Register .. 1 Introduction .. 1 Overview of the School Register .. 1 A Separate School Register for Each Program Type.

2 2 Instructions for Completing the Register Cover .. 3 General Register Rules and Requirements .. 4 Chapter 2: The Enrollment Record .. 6 Overview .. 6 Enrollment Codes Used for Continuous Enrollment .. 6 Enrollment Codes Used for Transfers .. 6 The Student Transfer 7 The Transfer Code Used for Students for Students Incarcerated in or Placed in a State Institution .. 8 Enrollment Codes Used for Dropouts .. 8 Transfers Who Become Dropouts .. 8 Codes for Other Reasons for Ceasing to Attend .. 9 Graduation Code .. 9 _Instructions for Completing the Enrollment Record .. 10 A Summary List of Enrollment Record Codes .. 12 Chapter 3: The Attendance Record .. 15 Overview .. 15 General Attendance Rules and Requirements.

3 15 Recording Attendance for a Full or Half day .. 16 Instructions for Completing the Attendance Record .. 17 Chapter 4: The Year End Report .. 19 The Monthly Attendance Summary .. 19 Directions for Completing the Monthly Attendance Summary .. 19 The School Register Summary and NJ SMART End of Year Submission .. 19 Summary of Revisions August, 2018 Section Description All document Term excused absence changed to state-excused absence . All document Term Limited English Proficient changed to English Language Learners (ELLs) . All document Term private School for the handicapped changed to approved private schools for students with disabilities (APSSDs) . , 3 Insert statement, They [APSSDs] also must report attendance data to the student s home district so the accountable School can report the student s attendance to NJ SMART.

4 And Insert statement to reflect the proper coding of students who are registered with a School but never actually attend School from the beginning of the year, Such a student can be considered as having 0 days in membership and 0 days present. , 2 Revised definition of T6 and T7 codes. , 4 Insert definition of PPE code that was in NJ SMART but not in the School Register . Remove use of D2 code . Reorder Section Insert new point 5 in section concerning the proper use of local/ district excused absences. Revise list of state excused absences. Previous option 6 (college visits) eliminated and merged with option 3. New Jersey School Register , 2018-2019 Page 1 Chapter 1: The New Jersey School Register Introduction New Jersey Administrative Code ( 6A:32-8) requires each School district to maintain the New Jersey School Register .

5 The purpose of the School Register is to record each student s participation in an approved program of instruction to verify that the student attends the required number of days for promotion each year and eventually meets the requirement for graduation. Each School must keep an enrollment record of the students who enroll, transfer, withdraw or drop out of the required program of instruction. Each School must also keep a daily attendance record of the attendance, absence or state-excused absence of each enrolled student. A record of the attendance of all students on roll in a School Register shall be kept each day that School is in session by a teacher or other authorized person. It shall be the duty of this person to keep the attendance records according to these rules and the specific instructions issued by the Commissioner.

6 Collecting accurate daily Register data for enrollment and attendance and submitting correct reports is important because it effects each School district s funding. The New Jersey Department of Education (the Department) collects data from the Register two times during each School year. The first collection is a summary of the enrollment record in October as part of the Application for State School Aid (ASSA). A School district s count of the number of children enrolled in the School Register on the last School day prior to October 16 determines the amount of School aid that the School district generates from the state. As part of the annual independent audit, the Department of Education auditors test the data on the ASSA comparing it to the School Register enrollment data.

7 The second collection of School Register data by the Department takes place at the end of each School year and is due to the Department during August. The second collection of School Register data is completed using the web-based School Register Summary application and is a required annual data collection ( 6 et seq.). Each School district , charter School , and renaissance School project must complete this submission. The School Register Summary requires the submission of three summary statistics: 1. the total number of the days that each grade or program operated during the School year, also referred to as days in session ( 6A: ); 2. the total number of possible days of attendance for all students by program/grade; and 3.

8 The total number of days students were present for all students by program/grade. For the School Register Summary, these totals are used to calculate average daily attendance (ADA) and average daily enrollment (ADE). The ADA or ADE is used by the Department to determine each School district s tuition rates for students from another district and per pupil spending for specific federally required reports such as the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) and the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS). The Department also uses ADA to evaluate a School s performance as part of the monitoring process. In addition to completion of the School Register Summary for June 30 of the prior year, schools are required to submit their student-level attendance data to NJ SMART.

9 Further guidance related to attendance can be found in the following document: Guidance for Reporting Student Absences and Calculating Chronic Absenteeism. For NJ SMART, districts report student-level data of these measures that are then used to calculate the School -level chronic absenteeism rate. The number of possible days of attendance for each student is reported as cumulative days in membership, defined as the number of School days in session in which a student is enrolled during the annual reporting period from July 1 through June 30. The number of days present for each student is reported as cumulative days present, defined as the number of days an individual is present during the annual reporting period from July 1 through June 30.

10 The Department uses the chronic absenteeism rate to evaluate a School s performance as a measure for accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum (NJQSAC). Overview of the School Register The School Register is a record of the continuous, year-to-year cycle of: enrollment or re-entering each student, recording daily attendance or absence, summarizing attendance records monthly and reporting year-end monthly summaries to the Department of Education. New Jersey School Register , 2018-2019 Page 2 The School Register may be used in each classroom or in a designated central location for all classrooms. Enrollment and attendance information must be updated daily, with summaries completed monthly and the data compiled for each grade or program at the end of the School year.