Capture active enrollment and attendance on the third Wednesday of each school month

In Plain Language: Each school month, a district must preserve two separate figures for the designated count day: the pupils actively enrolled and the pupils actually in attendance. The count day is tied to the district’s attendance-accounting school month—not the ordinary calendar month. Sites complete and correct the underlying records; the district reconciles, approves, and retains the supported snapshot.

Why this matters

A count produced from the wrong Wednesday, incomplete teacher attendance, or delayed enrollment transactions can look precise while being materially wrong. These snapshots also reveal whether the district’s enrollment, daily attendance, site registers, and attendance-accounting processes agree before discrepancies flow into fiscal reporting and audit evidence.

Joint ownership

Accountable owner: fiscal-services director or attendance-accounting administrator. Data owner: attendance-accounting specialist. Enrollment owner: registrar, enrollment manager, or student-data coordinator. Site owners: attendance clerks and administrators. System partner: SIS administrator. Review partner: business office.

The monthly count calendar

Before the school yearConfigure the attendance calendar.Establish every 20-day school month, identify its third Wednesday, mark holidays, assign any required preceding-schoolday substitution, and publish the approved count schedule.
Before each count dayRun an enrollment and attendance preflight.Resolve overlapping enrollments, no-shows, delayed exits, future-dated transactions, missing prior attendance, calendar assignments, and unresolved site records.
On the designated count dayPreserve two separate snapshots.Capture active enrollment as of the date and actual attendance on that date. Retain the attributable pupil-level detail rather than only a manually entered total.
Immediately after the countComplete and correct source records.Obtain missing teacher attendance, resolve unverified absences and period conflicts, post enrollment or withdrawal actions using actual effective dates, and retain correction history.
After site reviewReconcile and certify.Compare pupil detail, site totals, grade spans, programs, registers, and district summaries. Require sites to disclose exceptions and certify the final supported figures.
After district approvalFreeze or version the certified snapshot.Preserve the original extract, corrections, final totals, reviewer approval, submission or transmittal evidence when applicable, and the procedure used.
At P-1, P-2, and AnnualReconcile into attendance accounting.Compare monthly source records and summaries with the attendance data reported for the applicable principal apportionment period.

Capture two required figures—not one interchangeable count

Active enrollment

Pupils enrolled on the first day of the school year on which schools were in session, plus later enrollees, minus withdrawals through the count date. Use actual enrollment and withdrawal effective dates, not the later date on which a transaction happened to be entered.

Actual attendance

Pupils whose attendance is recorded for the designated count day. A pupil may be actively enrolled and absent that day, so the actual-attendance figure will ordinarily be less than or equal to active enrollment and should remain independently traceable to daily attendance records.

Do not confuse the monthly snapshot with other measures

Measure	Date or period	What it represents	Do not substitute
Third-Wednesday active enrollment	One designated school-month count date	Enrollment population under Education Code section 46305 as of the count date.	A CALPADS extract, current live enrollment displayed days later, or a calendar-month count.
Third-Wednesday actual attendance	The same designated count day	Pupils recorded in actual attendance on that day.	Active enrollment, attendance rate, monthly attendance days, or ADA.
CALPADS Census Day enrollment	CALPADS Fall 1 Census Day and certification window	The population meeting CALPADS reporting rules for that collection.	The locally scheduled third-Wednesday count.
School-month attendance totals	All applicable days in the 20-day school month	Accumulated attendance supporting attendance accounting.	The attendance snapshot from one day.
Average daily attendance	Applicable attendance period and divisor	A calculated average used in principal apportionment and other fiscal processes.	Enrollment, count-day attendance, or a simple attendance rate.
PADC attendance submission	P-1, P-2, and Annual reporting periods	Attendance data reported through the Principal Apportionment Data Collection process.	A separate monthly PADC submission of the two snapshot figures.

Select the correct count date

Calendar condition	Count-date route	Evidence to retain
Third Wednesday is an instructional schoolday	Use that Wednesday.	Approved school-month calendar and designated date.
Third Wednesday is a school holiday	Use the first immediately preceding schoolday.	Calendar, holiday identification, substitute date, and approval.
Multiple tracks or calendars operate	Apply the approved pupil-, program-, or track-specific attendance calendar.	Calendar assignment, count schedule, extract parameters, and consolidated methodology.
Calendar changes after count dates were established	Recalculate the affected date and obtain attendance-accounting approval.	Original and revised calendar, reason, approval, owner notification, and effect on prior work.
Emergency closure affects the planned count date	Escalate to the district attendance-accounting owner for current CDE or COE direction.	Closure evidence, guidance received, decision, revised procedure, and reviewer.
Pupil enrollment changes near the count date	Use attributable enrollment and withdrawal effective dates.	Enrollment documentation, effective dates, transaction audit, and correction history.

Monthly count-production pathway

1 · CalendarEstablish the 20-day school month and correct count date.

2 · PreflightResolve enrollment, calendar, and prior-attendance exceptions.

3 · CaptureExtract active enrollment and actual attendance separately.

4 · CompleteObtain missing attendance and post attributable corrections.

5 · ReconcileCompare pupil, site, program, register, and district totals.

6 · Certify and retainApprove the supported snapshot and preserve its evidence.

Resolve enrollment status at the pupil level

New enrollment effective on or before the count date

Route: Include the pupil in active enrollment when the valid enrollment is effective on or before the designated date and no earlier withdrawal applies.

Verify: Start date, school and calendar assignment, actual attendance status, and duplicate or overlapping records.

Withdrawal effective before or after the count date

Route: Exclude a pupil whose withdrawal is effective before the count date; retain a pupil whose withdrawal becomes effective after it.

Do not: Use the later SIS entry date as a substitute for the documented effective date.

No-show or pupil never attended

Route: Apply the district’s current enrollment and attendance-accounting rules; correct unsupported enrollment rather than allowing a scheduled-but-never-attended record to inflate the snapshot.

Escalate: Cases involving unresolved compulsory-attendance, records-transfer, or enrollment-status questions.

Midday enrollment or withdrawal

Route: Apply the approved district and COE attendance-accounting procedure consistently to enrollment status and actual attendance.

Preserve: Time, effective action, attendance record, reason, and reviewer decision.

Transfer between schools within the district

Route: Count the pupil once in active enrollment under the authoritative school assignment for the count date.

Control: Reconcile sending and receiving records, avoid a gap or overlap, and attribute actual attendance correctly.

Concurrent or overlapping enrollment

Route: Send the case to the student-data and attendance-accounting owners before certification.

Control: Determine the authoritative enrollment and reporting responsibility; do not simply deduplicate totals without correcting the source records.

Independent study, alternative program, or outside placement

Route: Apply the pupil’s governing enrollment and attendance-accounting rules and preserve the evidence required for that instructional setting.

Control: Do not infer actual attendance solely from active enrollment or physical presence conventions used for a different program.

Complete attendance before certification

Every teacher or authorized attendance source submitted the required count-day attendance.
Missing, unverified, and default attendance values were identified and resolved.
Substitute-teacher records were obtained and attributed to the correct classes and date.
Period-attendance conflicts were resolved under the approved daily-attendance procedure.
Independent-study and alternative-program attendance is supported by the evidence required for that program.
Late attendance and absence-code corrections preserve the original value, corrected value, date, reason, and authorized user.
Actual attendance was derived from completed daily records—not calculated by subtracting every absence code from enrollment without validation.
Sites disclosed unresolved cases instead of certifying an apparently complete total.

Site count-day certification

Certification should be supported by pupil-level records and exception review, not merely a principal’s signature on two totals.

The correct locally established school month and designated count date were used.
Enrollment entries and withdrawals reflect supported effective dates.
All required count-day attendance was submitted or the remaining exceptions were disclosed.
Missing attendance, overlapping enrollment, no-shows, and calendar-assignment issues were reviewed.
Active-enrollment and actual-attendance totals remain separate and pupil-level traceable.
Site totals reconcile to the reviewed pupil-level extracts.
Known corrections made after the first extract are documented and included in the certified version.
The site administrator and responsible attendance staff approved the final submission.

Reconcile the count from sites through fiscal reporting

Control point	Authoritative evidence	Compare with	Corrective action
School month and count date	Approved attendance calendar: 20-day month, holiday treatment, tracks, and designated date.	Compliance calendar, SIS extract date, site instructions, and snapshot metadata.	Stop certification, correct the date or scope, rerun affected extracts, and preserve the revision.
Active enrollment	Pupil-level enrollment history: valid start, withdrawal, school, program, and calendar assignment.	Site roster, transaction audit, transfer records, total active enrollment, and exception report.	Correct the source transaction using attributable dates and regenerate the supported count.
Actual attendance	Completed daily attendance: teacher or authorized source records and corrections.	Count-day pupil extract, absence report, missing-attendance report, site total, and active enrollment.	Obtain missing evidence, correct authorized records, document the change, and rerun the total.
Site certification	Approved site package: pupil detail, exceptions, reconciliation, signatures, and version.	District control totals, prior extract, correction log, and all-school completion report.	Return unsupported or inconsistent certification to the site and record resolution.
District monthly summary	District-approved snapshot: site and program totals with reviewer approval.	Sum of certified sites, SIS district extract, attendance registers, and locally required report.	Identify the school, pupil population, or extract parameter causing the difference and recertify.
Principal apportionment handoff	Attendance-accounting records: monthly attendance totals and applicable period calculations.	Certified source records, P-1/P-2/Annual workpapers, PADC entry, and final certification.	Correct the source or reporting workpaper through the approved process and retain the full audit trail.

Recommended district workflow

Publish one authoritative count calendar. Tie every count date to the approved 20-day school-month configuration and identify holidays, tracks, owners, and deadlines.
Standardize SIS extracts. Use controlled pupil-level enrollment and attendance reports with documented parameters, run date, count date, version, and operator.
Preflight sites before count day. Surface missing attendance, enrollment overlaps, no-shows, pending withdrawals, calendar errors, and incomplete transfers early.
Capture both populations independently. Do not derive active enrollment from attendance or treat all enrolled pupils as actually present.
Manage post-count corrections transparently. Retain the initial extract and a user-, date-, reason-, and value-specific correction history.
Require site reconciliation and certification. Support totals with pupil detail and disclosed exceptions.
Perform district-level reasonableness checks. Compare sites, grade spans, programs, prior months, enrollment movement, and attendance-rate shifts without replacing pupil-level reconciliation.
Freeze or version the approved snapshot. Prevent an untracked live SIS rerun from silently replacing the evidence used for reporting.
Reconcile at P-1, P-2, and Annual. Connect monthly attendance records to workpapers, PADC reporting, certification, and corrections.

Evidence to retain

Approved instructional and attendance-accounting calendars.
Twenty-day school-month configuration and third-Wednesday schedule.
Holiday substitution, multi-track, calendar-change, and emergency-date decisions.
Extract definitions, parameters, operator, run time, count date, and version.
Pupil-level active-enrollment snapshot and summary totals.
Pupil-level actual-attendance snapshot and summary totals.
Enrollment, withdrawal, transfer, overlap, no-show, and calendar-assignment audit.
Teacher attendance completion, missing-attendance, and correction logs.
Site exception reports, reconciliations, certifications, and approvals.
District summary, reasonableness review, approval, and final version.
Locally applicable report, transmittal, or COE submission evidence.
P-1, P-2, and Annual attendance-accounting and PADC reconciliation.
Original and corrected records with reasons, authorizations, and audit trail.
CDE, COE, auditor, or legal guidance applied to unusual cases.

Official guidance and help

California Education Code section 46305District requirement to report active enrollment and actual attendance for the third Wednesday of each school month, holiday substitution, and statutory active-enrollment definition.
CDE – Instructional Time and Attendance AccountingCurrent school-month configuration, attendance-calendar, reporting-period, ADA, and attendance-accounting guidance for districts, charter schools, and county offices.
CDE – 2026–27 PADC Due DatesCurrent First Principal, Second Principal, and Annual reporting deadlines by reporting entity and data type.
CDE – 2026–27 Principal Apportionment DeadlinesFiscal-year principal apportionment calendar, reporting context, abbreviations, and related submission dates.

Implementation questions: Follow current CDE, COE, auditor, and district procedures for school-month configuration, count forms, specialized programs, corrections, attendance evidence, reporting, and record retention.

Source review completed August 28, 2026. Verify current statutes, CDE guidance, attendance calendars, SIS configurations, COE instructions, audit requirements, and PADC deadlines before acting.