Average Daily Attendance (ADA) :: San Diego Unified School District

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Calculating Average Daily Attendance (ADA)


•	Overview
•	How Does ADA Generate Revenue for the District?
•	What are the Financial Effects of Lost ADA Revenue?

Overview
The state of California funds school districts based on student attendance, also known as Average Daily Attendance (ADA), at school. ADA is calculated by dividing the total number of days of student attendance by the number of days of school taught during the same period.

Example:
Michael has perfect attendance, calculated this way:
142 days attended ÷ by 142 days of school taught = 1.0 ADA

Hannah attended 136 of the 142 days taught, calculated this way:
136 days attended ÷ by 142 days of school taught = .96 ADA

How Does ADA Generate Revenue for the District?
A student like Michael, with perfect attendance, generates $5,786* in revenue for the district. It is calculated this way: 1.0 ADA x $5,786 revenue limit per ADA = $5,786.

A student like Hannah, who may miss several days, generates less revenue. In this case, ADA is calculated this way: .96 ADA x $5,786 revenue limit per ADA = $5,554
In this case, there was a loss of $232 in possible revenue.

Irregular attendance also affects the revenue the district receives from the lottery, and for Special Education.

Lottery
1.0 ADA x $118 = $118
.96 ADA x $118= $113

Special Education
1.0 ADA x $643= $643
.96 ADA x $643 = $617

Learn more about the history of California's revenue limit.
Learn more about lottery funds.

What are the financial effects of lost ADA revenue?
If all students attended daily, the district would have approximately 117,556 students (excluding Charter Schools) counted toward ADA. When ADA drops, revenue dips accordingly.

Perfect Attendance	117,556 x $5,786 =	$680,179,016
Estimated ADA at 95.0**	117,556 x $5,786 x 95.0% =	$646,225,032

Lost Revenue		$33,953,984

* Estimates for 2007-08 as of 3/13/08
** Data is according to 2007-08, the most current year for which data is available. This figure is averaged, as different grade levels and different tracks generate different rates of ADA.

Source: Accounting Operations Department

School Attendance Review Board (SARB) >>