K-12 Student Demographic and Enrollment Data

Highlights

Record Level: Student by school by year 
Record Count: approx. 1.7 million students per year 
Years Covered: 2003-Present 
Population Coverage: Public school students in Michigan

The K-12 student data contain commonly requested longitudinal student-level educational data from the K-12 environment. Available datasets reflect information about K-12 graduation, enrollment, demographics and program participation. Sources for these data include the Michigan Student Data System (MSDS) Fall, Spring, and End-of-Year General Collection Submissions, MSDS Teacher Student Data Link (TSDL) Collection, Educational Entity Master (EEM), and the Graduation and Dropout Application (GAD). While the panel extends back to the 2002-2003 academic year, availability of specific variables will vary for earlier years. Check out the data completeness report for more information on variable availability by year.

The academic years covered by the K12 student data vary. Anually-delivered student demographic, enrollment and program data currently span from 2013 to present. MEDC has expanded the panel back to 2003 using archived data for certain demographic and enrollment variables. Audited graduation or cohort records begin in 2008. Census block data begin in 2003.

Only public school students are included in the data sets. In addition to K-12 students, these data include pre-K students and special education transition students over the age of 18. Students attending non-public schools and students using a non-public residency code at a public school (i.e., home school and private school students), as well as students enrolled only in Adult Education, are excluded.

Prior to school year 2017-18, a student was counted as absent by a district only if they missed a full day of school. Beginning with school year 2017-18, that criteria changed so that students are counted as absent if they miss more than 50 percent of the school day. This aligns with Every Student Succeeds Act requirements. For details on this reporting, exemptions and other information, please see the MSDS Collection Details Manual on the CEPI website. Specifically, the definition of what counts as attendance changed in the following way as described in the Michigan collection manual.

The geocoded student data contains census block information for each student enrolled in a K-12 school in Michigan, where one or more parent or guardian addresses have been geocoded successfully. The dataset covers PK-12 students (i.e., K12 students, those in Early On, Early Childhood Special Education, Early Childhood and Pre-Kindergarten programs) for 2010 - present. Data for 2003 - 2009 only includes K12 students. It does not have any post-secondary student, since CEPI does not provide any demographics for those students beyond what's in the post-secondary datasets. The data are on the Student x Year x Building Code x Census Block level for records preceding the 2010 school year. Starting in 2009-2010, the census block is also resolved at the collection level (Spring, Fall, End of Year) meaning the order of census blocks resided in is now knowable. New data are delivered on a yearly basis. Data from the 2002-2003 EOY collection forward are available. Due to the addition of ISD code and name variables in the 2016-2017 EOY delivery, previous years have null values for these variables.

As of school year 2024-25, Juvenile detention students and students being served by DHHS are now required to be reported with the Attendance Component. They are no longer on the list of exempt students for this Component.

Note: There are variables under the Category of Program Participation that could be assumed to fall under the Category of Demographics, but they do not. Those variables indicate participation in programs designed to meet the needs of particular populations, but the variables do not specify fulfillment of any particular criteria to receive those services.