Bainbridge Island School District

How we take attendance, and how it gets reported

Two different systems report on student attendance, and they answer two different questions. This page explains each one and why their numbers never match.

Part one

Two systems, two definitions

Teachers record attendance in Skyward, our student information system. That same record feeds two reports: the Skyward reports that often go to the board, and the data the district submits to OSPI, the state education office, which publishes it on the Washington School Report Card.

Skyward

Unit counted

Each class period

What the number means

The share of scheduled periods students were present. Even elementary schools record four periods a day.

Partial days

Count partially. Missing 3 of 6 periods is 50% attendance for that day.

OSPI

Unit counted

Full days

What the number means

The share of students who are regularly attending: fewer than two full-day absences per month on average, excused or not.

Partial days

Missing 50% or more of the scheduled day counts as a full-day absence.

Try it with one Bainbridge High School day

Tap periods to mark them absent and watch how each system records the same day.

A student who misses three of six periods shows 50% attendance in Skyward, but OSPI counts the whole day as an absence. Every partial day like this pulls the OSPI figure down further than the Skyward figure.

Now stretch it over two days

The same student misses periods 1–3 on Tuesday and periods 4–6 on Thursday.

The student missed six class periods, the same amount of instruction as one full school day. Skyward records exactly that. OSPI records two full-day absences, twice the time the student was actually out of class.

That is why the district relies on Skyward's period-level data. Our job is making sure students learn, and what affects learning is how much instruction a student misses. Skyward measures that directly.

The two numbers also measure different things. Skyward reports an average across all periods. OSPI reports the percentage of students who stay under the absence threshold for the year. A student who misses one day in ten is still 90% present in an average, but in OSPI's count they no longer fall in the "regularly attending" group. For both reasons, the OSPI number will run lower than Skyward's for the same students in the same year.

Skyward and OSPI, year by year

Here are both numbers for the same four years. Skyward's district attendance rate has stayed between 91.1% and 91.9%. OSPI's regular attendance rate has moved between 76.7% and 79.6%. The gap of 12 to 15 points shows up every year, because the two systems measure different things. Neither line shows a steady decline.

Skyward rates are end-of-year totals for all schools except Mosaic, combining present and enrolled days across schools.

Part two

Why students are absent

Every absence, tardy and early dismissal teachers and office staff recorded from September 1 through October 22, 2026: 16,391 student-days across all schools. Each record carries a reason code.

Full days, partial days and late arrivals

Not every record is a missed day. Using each school's periods per day, each student-day is sorted into one of four kinds. A full-day absence means the student missed half or more of their periods, which is the line OSPI uses.

Why students missed full days

Of the 4,457 full-day absences recorded this fall, here is what the reasons were.

Eagle Harbor High and Mosaic are counted in the all-schools totals but not shown separately, because their enrollments are small enough that individual students could be identified. For the same reason, suspension, juvenile detention and court codes are counted as excused.

Part three

Why Every School Day Matters: Reading on Attendance

• When Is Sick Too Sick for School?

  A one-page guide from Attendance Works, developed with the National Association of School Nurses and Kaiser Permanente.

• More Schools Suggest Mildly Sick Kids Attend Anyway Associated Press

  Why many schools have updated their sick-day guidance since COVID.

• Sick Days Ushered Into Confusing New Era Axios

  How remote work has changed sick-day habits for both parents and kids.

• 40 Parents Weigh In on Why Kids Are Missing More School The 74

  Researchers interviewed families across 17 states about post-pandemic attendance.

• Parents Are Not Fully Aware of or Concerned About Their Children’s School Attendance Brookings

  A national survey showing many parents underestimate how much school their kids miss.

• Chronic Absenteeism’s Post-COVID “New Normal” The 74

  An overview of research on how absence patterns have changed since the pandemic.

• Chronic Absenteeism in California Public Policy Institute of California, 2026

  A short fact sheet on why absences matter, including their effects on classmates.