State Student Counts
Mark Fermanich, CU-Denver
Justin Silverstein, APA
Key Factors
• When students are counted
– Single count
– Multiple counts
– Average over a period of time
• What students are counted
– Students in attendance
– Students in membership (Enrolled) in the districts
• What year is used for funding
– Current or prior year
When Students Are Counted
• States such as Colorado take a count of students
on a single day
– Schools/Districts have a high incentive to have
students counted on the single day
• States such as Maine use counts on multiple days
• Many states count students over a period of time
– Can be as short as one week or as long as the whole
year
What Students are Counted
• Some states such as Illinois count attendance
of students
– Schools and districts are funded based on the a
number of students in attendance at the time of
the count
• Some states such as Delaware count the
students in membership in the district
– Schools and districts are funded based on the
number of students enrolled at the time of the
count
What Year is Used for Funding
• States have the choice of funding based on
current year student counts, prior year counts
or a hybrid of both
– An example of a hybrid is Utah which uses the
average students in membership in the prior year
adjusted for the growth in October counts from
the prior year to the current year
Options
• The combination of when students are
counted and what students are counted lead
to a few different types of student count
– Single Day Membership
– Single Day Attendance
– Multiple Day Membership
– Multiple Day Attendance
– Average Daily Membership
– Average Daily Attendance