Graduation Rate Business Rules

SIRS Reporting Deadlines

• The deadline for reporting June graduates is the date the Level 2 container closes; for SY 2023-24, that was August 16, 2023.
• The deadline for August graduates was October 18, 2024.

Cohorts Reported

Cohort year is determined using the First Date of Entry into Grade 9 as reported in SIRS. The 2020 Total Cohort Graduation Rate data includes:

• 2020 Total Cohort, 4-Year August
• 2020 Total Cohort, 4-Year June
• 2019 Total Cohort, 5-Year June and August
• 2018 Total Cohort, 6-Year June and August

The 4-Year August and 5- and 6-Year cohorts are cumulative.

The 2020 total cohort consists of all students, based on last enrollment record as of June 30, 2024, with a First Date of Entry into Grade 9 during the 2020-21 school year (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021), regardless of their current grade level.

The cohort year for students whose last enrollment record has a grade of “14” (i.e., 7–12 ungraded) is identified using the date reported in the First Date of Entry into Grade 9 field. In circumstances where no date has been reported for an ungraded student, cohort year will be the school year the student turned 17.

Regardless of cohort, students are reported in the school and district where they were last enrolled as of the reporting date (4, 5, or 6 years after date of first entry in grade 9). The last enrollment record is defined as the regular enrollment record with the most recent beginning date as of the reporting date. Cohort year is determined using the date reported in the First Date of Entry into Grade 9 field in the school year in which the last enrollment record occurred. For more information on cohorts, see Appendix V in the SIRS Manual.

Aggregations

Aggregations are done at five different levels:

• Schools - includes all public and charter schools.
• Districts - includes all schools within the district, homebound, and Out-of-District Placements (OODP).
• County - includes all districts and charter schools within the county.
• Need/Resources Capacity (N/RC) category – includes all public schools within an N/RC. Please note: charter schools are NOT included in each N/RC category. They are considered their own N/RC. More information on N/RCs can be found here.
• Statewide - includes all districts and charters in New York State.

If a school shows student data in more than one district:

• At the school-level, only the current school is reported, in the district corresponding to its current BEDS code;
• At the county, N/RC, and state levels, the school is reported in all districts, not just the current one.

Closed schools/districts:

• Are excluded from school and LEA level reporting;
• Are included in county, N/RC and statewide aggregate reporting;
• When a district closes and the school is absorbed into a new district, the new district will be responsible for the outcomes of all students (whether completers or non-completers) for as long as their cohort is reported, even if they dropped out prior to the original district closing.

Suppression

To ensure student confidentiality, the Department does not publish outcome data for groups with non-zero counts fewer than five (5) students or data that would allow readers to easily determine the performance of a group with enrollment from one to five students.

• When the enrollment in non-additive subgroups (e.g., ELL status, SWD status) is not zero and fewer than five (5), the outcomes are suppressed for all subgroups in that category.
• When the enrollment in an ethnic or gender subgroup is not zero and fewer than five (5) students, all outcomes for that subgroup and the subgroup with the next largest enrollment are suppressed.
• If the total enrollment count of the suppressed subgroups is still fewer than five (5), the subgroup(s) with the next highest enrollment count will be suppressed until the total of all suppressed enrollment counts is equal to or greater than five (5).

Graduates and Graduation Rate

Graduation rate is calculated using the number of graduates (see the breakdown below) as of the indicated reporting date divided by the total cohort count.

Graduates

Students whose last enrollment record had one of the following exit codes in SIRS:

• 799 – Graduated (earned a Regents or local diploma);
• 0065 – Fulfilled HS Grad Req for Extended Integrated HS Program;
• 0071 – Graduated and completed Extended Int HS Program Simultaneously;
  And one of the following credential codes in SIRS:
  • Local Diploma (068, 069, 070, 612)
  • Regents Diploma (779, 762, 813, 796)
  • Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation (680, 697, 714, 731, 204, 221, 238, 255, 272, 289, 306, 323, 340, 357, 374, 391)

Completers

This includes graduates and students whose last enrollment exit record was:

• 085 – Earned a commencement credential
• 629 – Previously earned commencement credential or IEP; And one of the following credential codes in SIRS:
  • Career Development & Occupational Studies (CDOS) Commencement Credential (119)
  • Skills & Achievement Commencement Credential (136)

More information on entry and exit enrollment codes as well as credential codes can be found in the SIRS Manual.

HSE (GED) Students

Students enrolled in an Approved High School Equivalency Program (AHSEP) are counted as non-completers, but not as dropouts. The exception to this is when a student transfers to an AHSEP, but no enrollment record for that program is reported prior to the end of the same school year.

Closed Schools

In the event a school is closed, graduation data for the school will not be displayed on data.nysed.gov or included in the downloadable researcher database. Counts of student outcomes for closed schools will be included in district (when applicable), country, NRC, and statewide aggregations.