Regular attendance at school is important for students to achieve social and academic outcomes of schooling. The monitoring of student attendance is seen as a school function, with state education departments collecting only summary school attendance data. Recent developments in information management systems have allowed education departments to collect student level attendance data from schools, offering opportunities for administrators to improve their understanding of the nature of student non- attendance, and providing schools with benchmarks for attendance. In 1997, the South Australian Department of Education, Training and Employment commenced an annual collection of student level non-attendance records for Term 2 of each year. 60 percent of schools, accounting for more than 62 percent of students in Reception to Year 12, provided data in the first year; a similar number of schools provided data in 1998. This paper reports on the analysis of these data, providing details on the first comprehensive collection and examination of student non- attendance data in a state education system in Australia. Using the available data, analyses were conducted to identify: patterns of student non-attendance; differences in absence rates between groups of students by gender, indigenous background, socioeconomic status, year level and location; and reasons reported for student non- attendance and the relationship with student background. This paper reports on the findings of the first comprehensive analysis of student absence data in Australian schools and recommends actions for further research.