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of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

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    School Finances

    School Attendance/ Child Accounting

    The Division of Subsidy Administration collects attendance and membership data from Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts and other educational entities.

    Basic Education Circulars
    Citations Related to Child Accounting Topics

    The membership data is used in the calculation of state subsidies, including Basic Education Funding, Special Education Funding, Secondary Career and Technical Education Subsidy, and Tuition for Orphan’s Subsidy. Membership data is also used in the calculation of each school district’s tuition rate.

    Included on this web site are forms and instructions for filing with PDE and for school recordkeeping as well as other information related to the data collection process and child accounting in general.

    From school years 2001-2002 through 2008-2009, end-of-year instructional time and membership data, NCLB attendance data and Act 80 exceptions were reported in the Child Accounting Database (CAD) application. Beginning with school year 2009-2010, instructional time, attendance and membership data for child accounting and NCLB are to be reported in the Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS). or school year 2010-2011 and beyond, the Act 80 Exception System (Act 80) will be used to request PDE approval of early or full-day dismissals.

    Access to the Act 80, CAD and PIMS applications is restricted to registered users via My PDE/Applications.

      State Board of Education Regulations

      Chapter 4 - Academic Standards and Assessment

      Chapter 11 - Student Attendance

      Chapter 12 - Students and Student Services

      General Information

      General Information Related to Child Accounting

      Letters to Chief School Administrators Regarding PIMS-Child Accounting data reporting Sent on June 5, 2024 to the following LEAs:

      Child Accounting Forms and Instructions

      This section contains links to pages with forms and instructions for either filing with PDE or for school recordkeeping.

      Retain them, along with source documentation, in LEA files for auditor review.

      Child Accounting Data Files and Reports

      Below you will find various data files and reports containing Child Accounting data submitted by local education agencies (LEAs) to the Department of Education.