Whenever a student enrols, the school sends a transfer note to the previous school. This enables the previous school to forward on a copy of the student’s records to support the transition process.

If a transfer note is not received when a student stops attending and the student cannot be located within a reasonable amount of time (15 days), then that student is known as ‘missing’.  A missing student is one that cannot be located using usual school based contacts, but is still actively being followed up, using school, interagency and system level resources that are available. 

If students still cannot be located, then they may be reported as being ‘Children Whose Whereabouts are Unknown’ (CWU) through the district’s Attendance Officer or equivalent, as outlined in the Attendance Policy.  Once a child’s name has been placed on the CWU List by the Student Tracking team, schools should remove the child’s name from the current school enrolment record and place it on the former enrolment record.

The CWU List is circulated by email to all school principals of government and non-government schools throughout the state at the beginning of each month. Principals and/or clerical staff should regularly check the latest CWU List, especially when new enrolments are received.  If a student is located, the school should immediately advise the Senior Consultant Attendance and Student Tracking so that the student’s name may be removed from the list.  Information should be sent to the generic email address Student.Tracking@det.wa.edu.au. 

Full details about Student Tracking and the Children Whose Whereabouts is Unknown list can be found in the Student Tracking System Information package. This package includes the form used to request that a student be placed on the ‘Children Whose Whereabouts are Unknown’ (CWU) list.