Guidance

School-level annual school census: guide to submitting data

How independent schools must collect and submit data for the school-level annual school census (SLASC).

• From: Department for Education
• Published: 25 March 2014
• Last updated: 21 October 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

SLASC is an annual, statutory census that takes place every January. You must complete statutory censuses by law unless there’s a good reason not to.

SLASC collects the following information about registered independent schools:

• their contact details
• the number of pupils on the attendance register
• the number of teaching staff
• the courses of study
• the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN)
• the number of pupils in local authority care
• annual fees
• details of accommodation
• the number of staff members who have joined or left since the last census
• the school’s proprietors

Do not confuse SLASC with the Independent Schools Council annual census, which also takes place in January each year.

Important dates

2025 census dates:

• census day: Thursday 16 January 2025
• deadline for submitting your data: Tuesday 18 February 2025

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

• register and log in with DfE Sign-in
• use COLLECT to submit your data

Contact your school or local authority approver if:

• you want to request a DfE Sign-in username or password so you can access COLLECT
• SLASC is not on the list of collections you can see in COLLECT

Get help using DfE Sign-in

If you do not know who your approver is, use the DfE Sign-in request form.

If you’ve forgotten your password, use DfE Sign-in to reset it. You’ll need to click ‘Start now’ and then ‘Forgotten your password?’.

We’ll only be able to change the status of your data submission to ‘authorised’ once you’ve cleared all errors in the data in COLLECT.

Census documents

• SLASC guide
• COLLECT guides

The following technical document is available for software suppliers:

• business and technical specification

Do you need help?

Submitting data

Use the service request form if you have any questions about your data. We aim to answer your question within 5 working days.

Feedback

Use the feedback form if you have any comments about our data collection service, including COLLECT and the helpdesk service.

Published 25 March 2014
Last updated 21 October 2024 + show all updates

1. 21 October 2024

   Updated important dates for 2025.

2. 16 October 2023

   Updated the important dates to show dates for the 2024 census.

3. 29 November 2022

   Updated SLASC 2022 guide is available.

4. 14 October 2022

   Updated the important dates to show dates for 2023 census. Updated a link to the 2023 version of the business and technical specification.

5. 30 September 2021

   Added link to: 'School level annual school census (SLASC) - registered independent schools 2022 Guide for completing the census'.

6. 2 July 2021

   Updated with the census dates for 2022.

7. 14 December 2020

   Added a link to the 'SLASC guide' which is guidance for independent schools to help them with the 2021 school level annual school census (SLASC) return.

8. 10 July 2020

   Added 2021 business and technical specification and 2021 census dates.

9. 3 January 2020

   Added link to the 'School-level annual school census 2020: guide'.

10. 26 June 2019

    Updated 'Important dates' section with the dates for 2020. Replaced 'business and technical specification' link with the new 'SLASC 2020: technical specification' page.

11. 29 January 2019

    Updated 'Submit your data section' and DfE Sign-in help links.

12. 11 January 2019

    Added link to the 2019 guide for the school-level annual school census (SLASC).

13. 10 December 2018

    Updated COLLECT link from secure access to DfE sign in.

14. 7 June 2018

    Added the new census dates for 2019 and a link to the 2019 business and technical specification.

15. 4 January 2018

    Link added to new school-level annual school census 2018: guide.

16. 14 July 2017

    Added the new census dates for 2018 and a link to the 2018 business and technical specification.

17. 19 January 2017

    Added link to 'School-level annual school census 2017: guide'

18. 22 December 2016

    Added link to new generic COLLECT guides for schools and local authorities.

19. 11 August 2016

    Added the new census dates for 2017 and a link to the 2017 business and technical specification.

20. 13 January 2016

    Added link to 'School-level annual school census 2016: COLLECT guide'.

21. 31 July 2015

    Updated the census deadlines for 2016. Added a link to the business and technical specification for registered independent schools.

22. 14 January 2015

    Added a link to the 'SLASC 2015: guide for independent schools and general hospital schools' document.

23. 19 December 2014

    Added a link to the 2015 COLLECT user guide.

24. 9 July 2014

    Updated the link to the technical guide and census deadlines for 2015.

25. 25 March 2014

    First published.