Missouri requires districts to report students who transfer over the summer. Essentially, you have to account for every student that moved after June state reporting was submitted from the previous year.

• In June, the districts report that a student is either graduating, transferring, or continuing.
• In October, the districts have to report that a student actually continued and showed up to school, or actually transferred.

Missouri requires districts to report each student as both Enrolled and Withdrawn on the first day of school.

• The Enrolled record uses the students Remained/Advanced entry code.
• The Withdrawn record includes a Drop Code that indicates where the student went after withdrawal--for example, transferring to another school within the district, to a public school outside the district or state, to a private school, or to homeschool.
  • Focus is inclusive, so the dates in the program make it look like those students attended a day of school (or were absent that day). This is a false representation. So, the way around it is to put the day BEFORE the first day of school. Example: If Mary said she was going to 5th grade at her current school and was therefore reported in June as being a Remain: Advance, but her family finds out in July that they need to move out of state, then the school would put Mary as Enrolled with Remained: Advanced as of 8/18/25 and Dropped with Transfer: Public Out of State as of 8/17/25. 
    • These students will not get inappropriately-stamped as Presumed Present for the day.
    • These students will be excluded from communications or other reports that are looking for students active as of the first day of school.
  • For state reporting, the extract will look for that specific date. If a student is marked as Enrolled on the first day of school and Dropped on the day before the first day of school, the extract will actually show the first day of school for both values. In the above example where the student was marked Enrolled on 8/18/25 and Dropped on 8/17/25, the extract will show 8/18/25 for both dates. Any other dates will not be considered  if the student got mistakenly marked as Dropped on 8/16/25, then the extract will print 8/16/25.

If the district is reporting virtual courses, then the students’ attendance is based on the completion of that course.

• If the student started the course but didn’t get at least 50% of it completed, then the student gets 0% attendance for the period the course was scheduled in (unless the student took another course during the same period).
• If the student started the course and got at least 50% of it done without fully completing the course, then the student gets 47% attendance for the period the course was scheduled in (unless the student completed another course during the same period).
• If the student started and finished the course, then the student gets 94% attendance for the period the course was scheduled in. 
  • The student cannot get more attendance than possible for a single period, so only one course per period can count toward attendance. 
  • If the student is an A+ student, then their attendance is  adjusted to the minimum A+ attendance of 95%.
• Virtual attendance is added to Focus through the Course History screen at the end of the term and is based on the grade that is given:
  • A/B/C/D/P/PS = 94% (or 95% if A+ student), 
  • I/IC = 47%, 
  • F/FL = 0%
  • Calculation:
    • The Present Hrs, Absent Hrs, and Possible Hrs are calculated by taking the attendance percentage and multiplying by the section hours for that term.
    • Section hours are determined by a combination of the Calendar, Rotation Days, Periods, Student Schedule, and Student Enrollment.
    • Example: If a student finished Course A during S1 and does not qualify for A+, then their reported attendance for the course would be:
      • Present = 0.94 x (Hrs Possible)
      • Absent = 0.06 x (Hrs Possible)
      • Possible = (# hrs the period met during that marking period) - (# hrs the period met outside of the student’s enrollment)
• Missouri Reports > Virtual Attendance shows an audit of student virtual grades and what minutes are being reported for them.

For reference, here is the chart from the MOSIS Core Data Manual for virtual attendance as of Sept 2025:

Student scheduled into placeholder course where attendance is recorded, but the student earns credit in a subject based on material covered 

Student should only get attendance for one of the courses (no students can earn more minutes than are available for the school day as reported by the district calendar)

Students should be enrolled at all schools they are attending with one school as primary and one (or more) marked as Second School.

The student's schedule should clearly indicate which courses are being taken at each school.

Attendance must be recorded for each period at the school where the section is scheduled. There should be no overlap in attendance times between schools. Using kiosk check-in/check-out helps prevent overlap; however, ensure the travel gap is adjusted so the student is not penalized for travel time.

The student’s Attendance Chart and Absences will show based on your login school--you may need additional permissions to be able to see attendance data for the student at other schools.

The ADA Report displays complete attendance data for dually enrolled students only when Include Secondary Enrollments is selected. If this option is not selected, the report reflects present and absent data only for the school you are currently logged into.

The state reporting extract will pull data from all schools to calculate the overall Present Hrs, Absent Hrs, Possible Hrs, and Chronic Absent.

The student can have a placeholder course on their schedule to reflect off campus time, but it is important to have it marked as Exclude from ADA = Y and Exclude from State Reporting = Y because the other school will report that attendance data.

Takes Attendance can be on or off, depending on whether the district wants to track time in/out for the student.

As of August 2025, Missouri allows districts to count attendance for students during out-of-school suspensions (OSS). Focus includes options to automatically populate attendance when a suspension is assigned through a referral event; however, not all districts use this feature. Each districts protocols determine how attendance is recorded for both in-school (ISS) and out-of-school (OSS) suspensions.