Attendance codes for New Zealand schools

Background
Since 2008, Synergetic has been used to meet the New Zealand Ministry of Education (NZ MOE) attendance and absence requirements.
Either Synergetic or SynWeb can be used by teachers to record student attendances. See:

Class attendance in this manual
Class attendance in the SynWeb Attendance and absence events manual.

Attendance and absence codes
The following attendance and absence codes apply to New Zealand schools.

Code	Reason	Description	In class?	Audit code	Truancy code	Half day calc
?	Unknown	This is the initial entry for a student not in class and the reason is unknown. It is updated as soon as relevant information becomes available about the reason for the absence.	No	U	U	A
A	Alternative education	The student is not in class, is on the school roll but is funded elsewhere.	No	N	P	P
C	Justice Court proceedings	Under existing legislation this type of absence is deemed to be present when calculating half day summaries.	No	J	J	P
D	Doctor/Dentist	Under existing legislation this type of absence is deemed to be present when calculating half day summaries, provided there is documentation verifying it.	No	J	J	P
E	Explained but unjustified	An explained absence where the explanation is accepted by the school as the reason for the absence but is not a justifiable reason for the student to be absent even though the parents may think it justified. For example, staying home to look after a younger sibling.	No	U	U	A
F	Off site course/class	The student is not in class but is on a legitimate off-site school-based course.	No	S	P	P
H	Health camp/school	The student is not in class but is in an approved environment for which the school is entitled to be funded, including: health camp regional health school residential school.	No	F	J	P
I	Internal school appointment	Students who are out of class for internal school appointments, such as meeting with form teachers, deans, senior management, counsellors, sports administrators, nurses or careers advisors. Students who are on an administration activity such as acting as a messenger or collecting attendance. It should not include a student sent out of class (during the period) to the administration area for disciplinary reasons; they would be coded P in the class and possibly changed to R by the senior staff member attending to them.	No	J	J	P
J	Justified	Justified explanation within the school policy that may include: unintentional absences such as a bus breakdown, accident, road closure and so on nonattendance which is pre-arranged and justified such as for national or local representation in a sporting or cultural event family circumstances or bereavement.	No	J	J	A
K	Teen parent unit	The student is not in class, is on the school roll but funded elsewhere.	No	N	J	P
L	Late	School policy (or teacher policy) will determine when this entry is made.For example, the school may decide that more than 5 minutes late is considered late and more than 15 minutes late is considered truant.	No	P	P	P
M	Medical/illness	Student is at home, with an illness or medical reason. Depending on your organisation's policy, a medical certificate may be requested for a prolonged illness.	No	J	J	A
N	School based activity	On site school-based activity, such as: cultural, sporting presentation or practice including swimming or athletic sports one to one tuition either as tutor or student.	No	S	P	P
O	Justified Overseas	The student is accompanying or visiting a family member who is on an overseas posting. For example, a military or diplomatic posting. Other approved overseas absences should be coded J if approved or E if unapproved.	No	J	O	A
P	Present	Student is in their regular class.	Yes	P	P	P
Q	Attending a school trip/camp	Off-site school-based activity, such as: sporting, cultural or academic school trip school camp school-organised overseas trip.	No	S	P	P
R	Removed temporarily from class	Students who are being temporarily supervised in another teacher's class or in the administration corridor.	No	S	P	P
S	Sick bay	Student is known to be in the school sick bay.	No	J	J	P
T	Truant	Absences where no written or phone explanations are received. It may also be applied when the student offers an unacceptable excuse for not attending the class.	No	U	U	A
U	Temporarily withdrawn/stood down	Student is stood down or suspended according the conditions of Section 14 of the Education Act 1989.	No	J	J	A
V	Study period	This code is for supervised and possibly unsupervised study periods. A school's process should include the means by which the codes are collected and entered for non-supervised study. The school's policy should clearly state the limits of their knowledge of students' whereabouts for unsupervised study.	Yes / No	S	P	P
W	Work experience	Student is working for a recognised employer as part of their course.	No	F	P	P
X	Exam leave	Under existing legislation, a student on exam leave from school is deemed absent when calculating half day summaries.	No	S	J	A
Y	Activity centre	The student is not in class but in an approved environment for which the school is entitled to be funded.	No	F	J	P

For more information:

Refer to Electronic Attendance Register 2008: Design Specification for SMS Vendors version 3.3.
See luAbsenceType lookup table in the Synergetic System maintenance manual. These codes can be loaded using the NZMOE external system codes. See Loading lookup tables for external systems in the Synergetic System maintenance manual.

Audit codes
The following audit codes apply to New Zealand schools and are used for audit resourcing.

Audit code	Description
S	Student is not in class but is on a legitimate school-based activity.
J	Student is not in class but the absence is justified (Ref 1998/48 Circular).
F	Student is not in class but is in an approved environment for which the school is entitled to be funded with the required supporting documentation.
U	Student is not in class and the absence is unjustified.
P	Student is present for tuition in the class.
N	Student is on the school roll but is funded somewhere else.

Truancy codes
The following truancy codes apply to New Zealand schools and are used for truancy reporting.

Truancy code	Description
J	Justified absence.
U	Unjustified absence.
P	Present.
O	Overseas holiday.

Half day calculation codes
The following half day codes apply to New Zealand schools and are used for:

attendance rate calculation and reporting
alerting the school should a student's unjustified absenteeism reach a certain number of half days.

Half day calculation code	Description
A	Marked as absent based on certain absence codes that apply to the student's class on a given day.
P	Marked as present based on certain attendance and absence codes that apply to the student's class on a given day.