If you coordinate an ASES-funded program, you’re responsible for keeping the data clean before every submission window. Miss a deadline, and CDE can withhold grant payments, so the pressure lands on your program long before the due date.
Four reporting requirements come around every year:
- Semiannual attendance reports, due January 31 and July 31
- Quarterly expenditure reports, due October 31, January 31, April 30, and July 31
- Annual Outcome-Based Data and CQI report, due September
- CALPADS LEAP file, required starting with the 2025-26 school year
The LEAP file is the newest and most likely to catch your program off guard. If you haven’t confirmed with your district CALPADS coordinator that the district is generating LEAP records for your site, that’s the first thing to check.
This guide covers what each requirement asks of you at the documentation level, what mistakes create compliance flags, and what to have ready before each deadline.
What Is ASES?
The After School Education and Safety Program is a California state grant program administered by the California Department of Education’s Expanded Learning Division. It funds before- and after-school programs at public elementary and middle schools, prioritizing schools that qualify for federal Title I funding.
California voters established ASES in 2002 through Proposition 49, the After School Safety and Education for Children Act. Grants go to local education agencies and community-based organizations operating under agreements with LEAs. Funding is site-specific: each funded site receives its own grant, follows its own compliance requirements, and has its own funded attendance target to meet.
The compliance structure this article covers (the reporting obligations, documentation standards, and submission deadlines) is what the state requires of grantees in return for funding: evidence that the program operated as funded, served the students it had committed to serve, and spent the grant within statutory parameters.
What You’re Required to Track and Submit
ASES reporting spans four categories: attendance, expenditures, student-level data, and site quality indicators. Most coordinators have a handle on the first two. The last two are where compliance gaps quietly build.
Attendance Documentation
Make sure staff complete sign-in and sign-out sheets before students leave, instead of reconstructing them the next morning or filling them in from memory at the end of the week. Each sheet must include the student’s name, the date, arrival and departure times, and a staff signature. CDE requires at least one month of documentation to be immediately available for audit review at any time. Keep the sheets organized and stored where a substitute or incoming coordinator can find them without calling you.
At submission, each site reports two aggregate numbers for the reporting period: total operating days and total unique students served.
You also need to track whether your site’s attendance is on pace to meet its funded attendance target. Ask your director for the target: the volume of attendance the grant funds your site to deliver. To remain in compliance, actual attendance must reach at least 75% of that target each year. If your numbers are trending below that threshold midyear, alert your director early. CDE identifies shortfalls each May and adjusts the following year’s grant award accordingly. Catching the gap early gives the program more options to respond.
Student-Level Data
The Annual Outcome-Based Data for Evaluation and Continuous Quality Improvement (AOBD/CQI) report requires student-level records with the following fields:
- Grantee name
- School name
- County-District-School (CDS) code (14 digits)
- Statewide Student Identifier (SSID): a 10-digit number assigned through CALPADS
- Days attended in each program component: before-school base programming, after-school base programming, and before-school or after-school summer or supplemental sessions
- Separate period tracking (July through August, September through April, May through June)
The SSID requirement can be a challenge for programs without a SIS connection. If enrollment data doesn’t automatically pull SSIDs, staff must enter them manually, which is one of the most common causes of validation errors at submission.
One important constraint: the AOBD/CQI file must not include student names. SSIDs are the student identifier, so including names is a compliance error. You also submit the AOBD/CQI report through a different system from attendance and expenditure reports: it goes through CDE’s exFiles File Transfer System, not ASSIST. Be sure to look for exFiles separately as you prepare your September submission.
Demographic and Enrollment Data
ASES programs collect demographic information at enrollment for state and federal reporting. Required fields typically include grade level, race/ethnicity, English Learner status, and free or reduced-price lunch eligibility. The Annual Performance Report uses this information, and it must match the student’s CALPADS record. When programs collect demographic data on paper forms and enter it manually later, discrepancies can arise between program records and district CALPADS data.
Minimum Program Hours and Operating Requirements
Education Code Section 8483 establishes two firm operating requirements for every funded ASES site. Programs must provide at least 15 hours of programming per week and stay open until at least 6 p.m. on every regular school day. Programs in rural areas (defined as having fewer than 11 persons per square mile) may close at 5 p.m. They must also begin immediately after the regular school day ends.
Compliance reviewers check these requirements against attendance records and operating-day counts. Programs that record total operating days only when submitting semiannually, rather than tracking them on an ongoing basis, may discover gaps that are difficult to reconcile later. If your site closes before 6 p.m. on regular school days and the rural carve-out doesn’t apply, that creates a compliance exposure independent of your reporting data.
CALPADS LEAP File (New for 2025-26 Forward)
Starting with the 2025-26 school year, ASES grantees must submit LEAP records through CALPADS. These records document each student’s total expanded learning program days for the year. Failure to submit creates certification validation errors that block end-of-year submission.
The specific CALPADS submission window for LEAP records can change from year to year as CDE updates the CALPADS calendar. Before the end of the year, verify the current window directly with your district’s CALPADS coordinator and on CDE’s CALPADS submission schedule. Do not rely on prior-year dates. Contacting your coordinator in February or March provides enough lead time to confirm that the district is generating LEAP records before the window opens.
If your district’s SIS doesn’t automatically generate LEAP records, you’ll need to coordinate well in advance.
Site Quality Indicators
Each funded site must report on the 12 ASES Quality Standards using CDE’s Continuous Quality Improvement Phase Key, scored on a 0 to 3 scale. Programs also report whether stakeholders take part in the CQI process (0 for no involvement, 1 for involvement). This data feeds into CDE’s site quality review process and is part of the AOBD/CQI report.
2026-27 Reporting Timeline and Submission Windows
Understanding which report is due when is the starting point for staying in compliance. Here is the full calendar for 2026-27:
| Deadline | What’s Due |
|---|---|
| July 31, 2026 | Second semiannual attendance report (Jan 1–Jun 30, 2026) Fourth quarter expenditure closeout report (Apr 1–Jun 30, 2026) |
| October 31, 2026 | Fifth quarter expenditure report First quarter expenditure report (FY 2026-27) |
| January 31, 2027 | First semiannual attendance report (Jul 1–Dec 31, 2026) Sixth quarter expenditure report Second quarter expenditure report |
| April 30, 2027 | Seventh quarter expenditure report Third quarter expenditure report |
| July 31, 2027 | Second semiannual attendance report (Jan 1–Jun 30, 2027) Eighth quarter expenditure report Fourth quarter closeout report |
Grantees submit attendance reports through ASSIST, the CDE’s Consolidated Application and Reporting System, an online portal ASES grantees use to submit attendance and expenditure reports. The Annual Outcome-Based Data report is typically due in September. The APR (Annual Performance Report) has two data-entry windows: Window 1, for activities, staffing, and participation, runs from August through October; Window 2, for outcomes, runs from November through March.
Q4 2026 note: The October 31 expenditure deadline and the January 31 attendance deadline are the two most immediate windows for programs in the current school year. If your program is approaching either deadline without clean data, this is the time to address it.
Mistakes That Are Easier to Prevent Than to Fix
These are the most common documentation and submission errors in ASES programs, and the ones that create the most scrambling when they surface at deadline time.
Dual-Funded Site Misallocation
Programs that receive both ASES and 21st CCLC funding cannot report the same student to both grants on the same school day. This applies even when the site operates as an integrated program.
CDE requires either that the programs maintain separate staff and activities with independent attendance counts, or that integrated sites count attendance toward ASES first up to 85% of the ASES target before applying any remaining attendance to 21st CCLC. Reporting the same student to both on the same day is one of the most frequently cited audit findings in the ASES program.
Gaps in Sign-In Documentation
Document attendance at the point of activity, not after. Programs that rely on memory or end-of-day summaries rather than real-time sign-in records routinely find gaps when auditors request a month of sheets. Missing entries, blank departure times, and unsigned forms are the three most common documentation deficiencies.
Missing or Invalid SSIDs
Student-level CALPADS data requires a valid 10-digit SSID for every record. Programs entering SSIDs manually from enrollment forms create opportunities for transcription errors that generate validation failures at submission. A single invalid SSID blocks the entire batch, not just that student’s record.
Neglecting CALPADS LEAP Submission
The LEAP file requirement is new enough that some programs still don’t know it applies to them. Missing the EOY 3 window results in a certification error that prevents end-of-year submission. Contact your district’s CALPADS coordinator now if you are unsure whether your district is generating LEAP records for your program.
Attendance Target Drift
Programs that don’t compare actual attendance with funded targets may discover compliance gaps at renewal, when it’s too late to act. Ask your director for your site’s target now. It measures aggregate attendance, not enrollment or individual attendance. Monthly monitoring takes five minutes; finding a sustained shortfall at renewal doesn’t.
When You’re Not Sure What to Do
Most documentation issues are solvable if caught early. If sign-in sheets are missing, an SSID won’t validate, or you’re unsure how to count a dual-funded student, contact your supervisor before the deadline instead of resolving it alone. For CALPADS or SSID issues, first contact your district’s CALPADS coordinator. For ASES reporting questions, contact CDE’s Expanded Learning Division at expandedlearning@cde.ca.gov or 916-319-0923.
Your 2026-27 ASES Reporting Checklist
Use this checklist to stay on top of what needs to happen before each submission window. The items under Enrollment, Attendance Documentation, and CALPADS LEAP are things to maintain throughout the year, not just at deadline time. The submission-specific sections are what to verify in the two weeks before each window closes.
2026-27 ASES reporting checklist
Enrollment and Student Records
Attendance Documentation
Semiannual Attendance Report (ASSIST)
Expenditure Reports
CALPADS LEAP File
AOBD/CQI Report
APR (Annual Performance Report)
Free download
Get the printable ASES Reporting Checklist
The full version adds more detail to every item and comes in two formats: one with the 2026-27 deadlines filled in, and an undated template you can reuse every year.
How AfterSchool HQ Supports ASES Reporting
In the two weeks before submission, coordinators face paperwork, attendance reconciliation, and missing departure times. AfterSchool HQ digitally records sign-ins and outs during activities, so the data is ready by January 31, with no reconstruction, last-minute reconciliation, or uncertainty about what you submitted.
ASES-ready reports come straight from the attendance data your program captures every day. What you submit reflects what your records actually show, and that’s exactly what auditors want to see.
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If your program is heading into the October or January window and the data isn’t clean, that’s a good time to see what a different system looks like.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Requirements and Attendance Tracking
LEAP, Dual Funding, and Deadlines
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