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).
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
2027 census dates:
- census day: Thursday 21 January 2027
- deadline for submitting your data: Sunday 21 February 2027
Submit your data
You’ll need to:
- register and log in with DfE Sign-in
- use COLLECT to submit your data
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.
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 have forgotten your password, use DfE Sign-in to reset it.
Census guidance
The business and technical specification is available for software suppliers.
Questions about your data
Use the Data collections service request form if you have questions about your data or comments about our data collection service.