📅 Free school tool

School Attendance & Chronic Absence Tracker

Track full-day absences, partial days, tardies, early pickups and the reasons behind them — then see the pattern before the number surprises you. Data stays on this device.

Benchmark, not a diagnosis: chronic absenteeism is commonly defined as missing 10% or more of school days for any reason. Local attendance and truancy rules can be different, so this tool keeps the benchmark separate from legal labels.

1. School-year setup

Child / initialsSchool year startsSchool year endsPlanned school daysSchool days elapsed so far

Use the official count from the school calendar or portal. This avoids overcounting weekends, holidays, breaks and non-student days.

2. Where attendance stands

3. Add attendance record

DateStatusDay missedExcused?ReasonMinutes late / left earlySchool notified?Make-up work

Notes / what helped

4. Export and backup

When attendance overlaps with an IEP or 504 plan

Use the pattern here beside your school communication, service and accommodation records rather than trying to reconstruct the year from emails.

Explore IEPNest →

Why percentage matters more than a raw day count

Ten missed days means something different in October than it does in May. A percentage puts the number against the amount of school that has actually happened. This tracker uses the school-days-elapsed number you enter, so holidays and breaks do not silently inflate the denominator.

Excused absences still matter to learning

The chronic-absence benchmark counts missed instructional time regardless of whether the absence was excused. That does not mean the reason is unimportant. The reason pattern is often the most useful part of the record because it points to what support may actually improve attendance.