ASES Attendance Reporting Requirements Explained (With Examples)

ASES attendance reporting isn’t complicated — but it’s unforgiving. Miss a due date and your payments get held. Document your sign-in sheets wrong and you’re looking at audit findings. Report a student to both ASES and 21st CCLC on the same day and you risk an involuntary grant reduction.

This guide walks through every attendance reporting requirement for California’s After School Education and Safety Program, with examples, tables, and a checklist you can hand to your site coordinators.

How ASES Attendance Tracking Works

ASES programs serve students in TK through 9th grade under Ed Code §8482-8484.65. Unlike ELOP, where funding is based on district-wide ADA regardless of who actually shows up, ASES funding is tied directly to program attendance. Every student-day you report translates to dollars. Every student-day you can’t document is money left on the table — or worse, money you’ll have to return after an audit.

Sign-In and Sign-Out: The Foundation

Sign-in and sign-out sheets are your auditable records. Paper or electronic — CDE allows both — but they must show daily attendance by roster at each funded site. CDE’s Federal Program Monitoring guide requires programs to maintain “one month of student sign-in/out sheets that show daily attendance by rosters” at all times.

What auditors want to see:

• Student name on each entry
• Date of attendance
• Sign-in time (when the student arrived at the program)
• Sign-out time (when the student left)
• Staff signature or verification (for paper systems)

If you’re using an electronic system, CDE requires that initial attendance is entered on the same calendar day it occurs. Paper backup is required when systems go down — widespread power outages, software interruptions, or network failures. In those cases, staff can submit electronically on a subsequent day, but must retain the paper records created contemporaneously. See CDE’s electronic attendance accounting guidance.

Who Gets Counted

Every student who attends your program — even once — must be reported. Per CDE’s ASSIST reporting instructions, grantees report all participants regardless of how many days they attended. A student who comes one day in October and never returns still appears in your semiannual report.

For each funded school site, you report two numbers:

1. Total number of days the program operated during the reporting period
2. Total number of students served (unique students who attended at least one day)

Operating Hours and Attendance Minimums

ASES has different hour requirements depending on whether you’re running a school-year program or summer/intersession program.

School-Year Programs

There’s no specific daily hour minimum for the regular after school program — the requirement is 15 hours per week and operation until 6 p.m. But students are expected to participate in the full program each day they attend, per the legislature’s stated intent in Ed Code §8483.

Middle school exception: Programs serving middle school or junior high students may implement a flexible attendance schedule. The legislative intent is that these students attend a minimum of nine hours per week across three days. Priority enrollment goes to students who attend daily.

Summer, Intersession, and Vacation Programs

Summer and intersession programming may use up to 30% of the annual base grant. If you want to run a 6-hour summer program, you’ll need to submit a revised program plan to CDE that includes a plan for free or reduced-price meals and an attendance and early release policy. See CDE’s six-hour summer guidance.

Attendance for summer and intersession days must be tracked and reported separately from regular school-year program days.

Early Release and Late Arrival Policies

Students aren’t required to stay for the entire program each day. But you need a documented policy explaining when and why early releases happen.

Ed Code §8483(a)(1)(B) requires every after school program to “establish a policy regarding reasonable early daily release of pupils from the program.” For before school programs, §8483.1(a)(1) has a parallel requirement for late arrivals.

What Your Early Release Policy Must Include

Per CDE’s early release and late arrival guidance:

• The policy must be documented in advance
• It must be communicated to all stakeholders — parents, students, teachers, program staff, and school staff
• Early releases should be categorized by reason

CDE suggests these categories:

• School sports or extracurricular activities
• Off-site enrichment programs
• Family emergencies
• Medical appointments
• Transportation issues
• Safety concerns (weather, darkness)

The Before School Late Arrival Rule

This one catches people off guard. For before school programs, students arriving late for less than half of the daily program hours cannot be counted for attendance purposes. If your before school program runs 90 minutes and a student shows up with 40 minutes left, that student doesn’t count for the day.

Requesting Exceptions

If your community has unique circumstances that make the standard early release policy unworkable, Ed Code §8483 allows you to submit documented evidence to CDE for an exception and request for approval of an alternative plan.

Attendance Targets: The Math That Drives Your Funding

ASES is a grant-funded program. Your attendance target — the number of student-days you need to hit — is calculated directly from your grant amount.

The formula:

Annual Attendance Target = Grant Amount ÷ Daily Rate

Example Calculation

Say your elementary site received a grant of $91,614. At the standard $10.18 per student per day:

$91,614 ÷ $10.18 = 9,000 student-days

That means you need 9,000 student-days of documented attendance across the year to fully earn your grant. If you operate 180 school days, that’s an average of 50 students per day.

The 75% and 85% Rules

CDE applies two attendance thresholds, and they’re calculated by calendar year (January-December), not fiscal year:

• You must meet at least 75% of your attendance target every year
• You must reach at least 85% of your attendance target in the past two consecutive calendar years

Fall below these thresholds and you’re at risk of grant reductions or involuntary funding adjustments.

Maximum Grant Amounts (2025-26)

Source: CDE Funding Profile

For context on how ASES funding stacks up against other programs, see ELOP vs ASES vs ASSETS: California afterschool funding compared.

Reporting Through ASSIST

ASES grantees report attendance semiannually through the ASSIST (After School Support and Information System) online portal. You also use ASSIST for quarterly expenditure reports, budget revisions, grant contact updates, and payment status checks.

Semiannual Attendance Reports

Two things to know about these submissions:

1. Miss the deadline and your payments stop. Per Ed Code §8483.8(a), CDE is authorized to withhold grant payments if attendance reports haven’t been submitted by the due date.
2. Once submitted, you can’t revise online. If you discover an error after hitting submit, you’ll need to contact your regional fiscal analyst at CDE to request a modification.

Quarterly Expenditure Reports

Source: CDE ASES Reporting Due Dates

New for 2025-26: CALPADS Reporting (AB 1113)

Starting this school year, AB 1113 requires CDE to collect expanded learning enrollment data through CALPADS. This applies to ASES, ELOP, 21st CCLC, and ASSETS programs.

This is separate from your ASSIST reporting — it’s an additional requirement.

What You Submit

A new Local Educational Agency Program (LEAP) file with two fields:

Who Gets Reported

Every student whose parent or guardian signed an expanded learning program registration form — regardless of whether they ever attended. Students enrolled but never attending get a “0” in the days field.

How Days Are Counted

One “day” = any amount of attendance on a given calendar day. Five minutes of morning care and three hours of afterschool programming on the same day counts as one day, not two.

When It’s Due

Submit during the EOY 3 submission window opening May 2026. Amendment window closes July 31, 2026. If your LEA receives ASES, ELOP, or CCLC funding and you don’t submit LEAP records, you’ll receive a fatal Certification Validation Rule error that blocks your entire EOY CALPADS certification.

For more detail on the CALPADS changes, see our complete 2026 guide to ELOP compliance, which covers the LEAP file requirements in depth.

Dual-Funded Sites: ASES + 21st CCLC

If your site receives both ASES and 21st CCLC (ASSETS) grants, attendance reporting gets more complicated. CDE has specific rules for dual-funded sites, and getting this wrong is one of the fastest paths to an audit finding.

The Core Rule

A student cannot be reported to both ASES and 21st CCLC on the same school day. You must assign each student-day to one grant or the other.

The Sequencing Requirement

Student attendance should first be counted toward ASES up to 85% of the ASES attendance target. Only after that threshold is met can remaining attendance be applied toward the 21st CCLC program.

Example

Your site has an ASES attendance target of 9,000 student-days and a 21st CCLC target of 4,000 student-days.

1. First 7,650 student-days (85% of 9,000) → count toward ASES
2. Remaining student-days → count toward 21st CCLC
3. Continue counting toward 21st CCLC until its target is met
4. Any remaining attendance beyond both targets → count toward ASES to exceed 85%

Fund transfer restriction: You can only transfer funds from a school that has met at least 70% of its attendance target.

What Auditors Look For

ASES programs are subject to annual audits per Ed Code §41020 and Federal Program Monitoring visits. CDE publishes its FPM findings for expanded learning programs, and the top five issues show up repeatedly.

Top 5 FPM Findings

Attendance-Specific Audit Items

Beyond the top five, auditors specifically check:

• One month of student sign-in/out sheets showing daily attendance by roster
• Documented early release and late arrival policies
• Proper categorization of attendance between ASES and 21st CCLC for dual-funded sites
• Alignment between reported attendance numbers and supporting documentation
• Evidence that the 75% annual and 85% two-year attendance thresholds are being met

For more on preparing for compliance monitoring, we’ve published a separate guide focused on the ASES audit process.

ASES vs. ELOP: Attendance Reporting Compared

Since many districts run both programs, here’s how attendance reporting differs:

The key distinction: ASES reimburses you based on how many students actually show up. ELOP pays based on your district’s overall enrollment profile, regardless of program participation. That makes ASES attendance tracking financially critical in a way ELOP’s isn’t.

For a full breakdown of funding differences, see ELOP vs ASES vs ASSETS.

Documentation Retention

Per Ed Code §8482.3(g)(1)(F), ASES grantees must maintain program plan documentation for a minimum of five years after the conclusion of the program. That five-year requirement should extend to your attendance records — sign-in/sign-out sheets, daily rosters, and any supporting documentation.

For dual-funded sites with 21st CCLC grants, federal audit standards require at least three years of retention after the final expenditure report.

Program plans themselves must be reviewed and updated every three years per Ed Code §8482.3(g)(1), with annual reviews recommended.

Compliance Checklist

Use this as a quarterly self-audit for your ASES program sites:

Daily Operations

• Sign-in/sign-out sheets are completed on the day of attendance (paper or electronic)
• Every attending student is documented with name, date, arrival time, and departure time
• Staff-to-student ratios are maintained: 20:1 (grades 1-8), 10:1 (TK/K)
• Program operates until at least 6 p.m. on every regular school day
• Early releases are documented with a coded reason

Monthly

• At least one month of sign-in/sign-out sheets is readily available for review
• Attendance counts are reconciled against staff rosters and ratio requirements
• Dual-funded site attendance is properly allocated between ASES and 21st CCLC

Semiannual

• 1st semiannual attendance report submitted by January 31
• 2nd semiannual attendance report submitted by July 31
• Total students served and total program operating days reported accurately

Annual

• Attendance meets at least 75% of the annual target (calendar year)
• Two-year rolling average meets at least 85% of target
• 85/15 fiscal ratio verified at each funded site (not just grant-wide)
• Early release and late arrival policies are current and communicated to all stakeholders
• Program plan is reviewed and updated if material changes occurred

New for 2025-26

• CALPADS LEAP file prepared with program code 194 for all students with signed registration forms
• Expanded Learning Program Days (Field 26.09) calculated for each enrolled student
• LEAP data submitted during EOY 3 window (May-July 2026)

Complete 2025-26 Reporting Calendar

Sources: CDE ASES Reporting Due Dates, CALPADS Update Flash #305

Sources

• CDE ASES Program Description
• CDE ASES Reporting Due Dates
• CDE ASSIST Reporting Instructions
• CDE Early Release and Late Arrival Guidance
• CDE FPM Top Five Expanded Learning Findings
• CDE Dual-Funded Sites Attendance Reporting
• CDE Summer Programs FAQs
• CDE Six-Hour Summer Program Guidance
• CDE Electronic Attendance Accounting
• CDE ASSIST Information
• CDE Program Plan Overview
• CDE CALPADS Update Flash #305
• CDE Funding Profile (ASES)
• Ed Code §8482-8484.65
• Ed Code §8483 — After School Program Requirements
• Ed Code §8482.3 — Program Plan Requirements
• LAO: 2025-26 Budget — ELOP

Last verified: February 23, 2026