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Counting Students

Research indicates that Average Daily Attendance (ADA) models can reduce funding for districts serving high-need populations because they tie funding to daily attendance, often influenced by external factors beyond a school’s control. In contrast, Average Daily Membership (ADM) models promote greater stability and equity by measuring enrollment based on the total number of students a school must be prepared to instruct, rather than just those physically present on a given day. The resources below highlight the funding effects of these counting approaches and offer tools to support evidence-based policymaking.

Resources

Counting Students One-Pager
One-Pager

Counting Students One-Pager

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Research

States provide funding to districts using either attendance- or enrollment-based student counts

Curated by: Sarah Lenhoff, Wayne State University

Listen to Jeremy Singer explain how states count students for school funding and why those decisions matter.

Learn the difference in enrollment versus attendance-based counts and how these methods can affect funding stability for schools.

Research Consensus

Research shows that investing in school buildings, facilities, and equipment—capital investments—improves student achievement, especially if it targets basic infrastructure and high-needs school districts.

Policy Notes

  • About three fourths of facilities funding for schools comes from local funds, disadvantaging lower-wealth communities that have more difficulty raising taxes.
  • Many states offer matching grants for local bonds. While these make it possible for some districts to finance larger projects, they tend to be more beneficial for higher-wealth districts that have the means to approve new taxes. Some states take special measures for low-income districts, which makes it easier for lower-wealth districts to access funding.
  • Twenty-four states that offer a credit enhancement program to help school districts issue bonds. This allows low-income and low-wealth districts to qualify for a higher credit rating, increasing the amount of funding they can borrow at no cost to the state. For more information about these programs, see this summary of the effects of state credit enhancement programs.
  • Eleven states require supermajority votes to pass school district bonds for facilities construction and repair. Lowering vote thresholds for these measures would make it easier for districts in these states to access resources.

Attendance-Based Funding Penalizes School Districts Compared to Funding Based on Enrollment Counts

Main takeaway

Students are absent for a range of different reasons—like health, mental health, housing and living arrangements, neighborhood conditions, and poverty—most of which are outside schools’ control.

Childs, J., & Lofton, R. (2021). Masking attendance: How education policy distracts from the wicked problem(s) of chronic absenteeism. Educational Policy, 35(2): 213-234.

Main takeaway

There is no clear relationship between states’ use of attendance-based funding and attendance or chronic absence rates. California’s attendance-based funding formula financially penalizes districts with high rates of chronic absenteeism. Districts in California, particularly those serving historically disadvantaged students, would receive more funding under an enrollment-based funding formula than under its current attendance-based funding formula.

Hahnel, C., & Baumgardner, C. (2022). Student count options for school funding: Trade offs and policy alternatives for California. Policy Analysis for California Education.

Main takeaway

After taking into account student background characteristics, attendance rates are very similar across districts in Texas: The difference between districts with the highest and lowest attendance rates amounts to less than one day. This suggests that there are limits to how much districts are able to improve attendance. Yet, the state’s attendance-based funding formula penalizes high-poverty districts because of their lower attendance rates.

Knight, D. S., & Olofson, M. (2018). Funding school districts based on student attendance: How use of average daily attendance harms school finance equity in Texas. Center for Education Research and Policy Studies.

Learn more with audio snippets

Listen to Jeremy Singer explain how states count students for school funding and why those decisions matter.

Learn the difference in enrollment versus attendance-based counts and how these methods can affect funding stability for schools.

Capital Investments

Capital Investments

English Learners

English Learners

Low-Income Students

Low-Income Students

Rural Students

Rural Students

School Funding Formulas

School Funding Formulas

Special Education Students

Special Education Students

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