[CA] CALPADS Summer Graduates

CALPADS Flash #274 explained how LEAs should report CALPADS summer graduates who complete high school requirements after the regular school year ends.

The Flash defined summer graduates as grade 12 students who completed graduation requirements between the last day of school and August 15, 2024.

Those dates are historical. However, the reporting approach remains useful: exit students correctly at year-end, then use a one-day enrollment and exit record when a student completes requirements during the summer.

Report On-Time Graduates at Year-End

Most seniors complete graduation requirements before the school year ends.

For these students, LEAs reported:

• The student’s last day of attendance as the Enrollment Exit Date
• Exit category E230 – CompleterExit
• School Completion Status 100 – Graduated, standard high school diploma

This process reported the student as a regular high school graduate. It also kept the record aligned with the student’s actual last day of attendance.

Report Students Who May Graduate During Summer

Some students need more time to complete graduation requirements.

At the end of the regular school year, LEAs reported these students with:

• An Enrollment Exit Date that matched the last day of the regular school year
• Exit category E156 – GD12ContinuedEd

E156 identified grade 12 students who were expected to return and complete requirements during the summer or the following school year.

This step did not mean that the student had graduated. Instead, it preserved an accurate year-end record while the student finished remaining work.

Use a One-Day Record for Summer Graduates

If a student completed all requirements on or before August 15, 2024, the LEA needed to submit a one-day enrollment and exit record.

The school that granted the diploma needed to submit the record. That school could differ from the school the student attended during the regular year.

LEAs did not submit enrollment records for the full summer-school period. CALPADS does not collect summer enrollments. Instead, the one-day record documented the date the student met graduation requirements.

Why Timing Matters

In 2024, students who completed graduation requirements by August 15 could count as graduates in the prior school year. LEAs needed to post the one-day record by the close of the August 16 amendment window.

If an LEA did not submit the correct record, the student could appear as a fifth-year graduate later. In some cases, the student could count as a dropout for the prior year.

Therefore, graduation, counseling, SIS, and CALPADS teams needed a shared process for tracking students who continued coursework after the regular year ended.

Build a Summer-Graduate Checklist

Before the End-of-Year deadline, confirm that your team has:

• Identified grade 12 students who may complete requirements during summer
• Used E156 only for students who fit the code definition
• Confirmed which school will grant each diploma
• Collected the actual completion date for each summer graduate
• Submitted one-day enrollment and exit records when required
• Reviewed cohort reports before the final data pull

CDE reiterated this general approach in CALPADS Flash #303 for the 2024–25 cycle. However, LEAs should always confirm the current year’s cut-off dates and submission instructions before reporting live data.

For the original 2024 guidance, review CALPADS Update Flash #274.

MeasureED provides CALPADS support services for LEAs that need help with graduate reporting, cohort reviews, and End-of-Year data processes. Learn more about MeasureED’s CALPADS support or contact our team.