How do schools “count” students—and why does it matter? 

In this 13-minute SFF Student Counts podcast, AIR senior researcher Amanda Danks talks with AIR principal researcher Drew Atchison about the two common ways districts count students – enrollment and attendance – and the reasoning behind each method. 

Amanda and Drew also discuss how each of these methods affects school funding, the challenges schools face when the student population shifts during the year, and ways to prevent resource shortages when student enrollment changes. 

Key Conversation Points

1:30 How We Count Students

5:30 How Headcount Impacts Fluctuation in District Size

8:06 Fluctuating Enrollment Impacts on School Funding

9:01 Defining Hold-Harmless Policies

10:45 Problems with Hold-Harmless Policies

12:05 How to Use SFF’s Finance Data Map to see How States Count Students