The data includes a series of implausible statistics and misleading mistakes, school officials say.
TRENTON -- None of Piscataway Township's teachers took a sick day last year, faculty at one Sussex County school were absent for nearly half of the year, and teachers at another school showed up only 10 percent of the time.
Those unlikely scenarios all played out last school year, at least according to data released in the state's school report cards.
New Jersey for the first time last week released statistics for how often teachers and support staff miss school, showing that the vast majority of teachers are in the classroom more than 90 percent of the time.
But the faculty attendance rates, released amid a national push to judge schools on more than just test scores, also include a series of implausible statistics and misleading mistakes, school officials say.
Among them:
- 69 schools reported a 100 percent attendance rate, meaning no teachers or academic support staff took a single sick day last school year.
- Some entire school districts, including Piscataway, said none of their teachers used sick days.
- Eight schools reported faculty attendance rates between 2 and 11 percent
- 110 schools, including every school in Newark, the state's largest school district, either failed to send data or somehow reported that teachers never showed up at all.
Use the lookup tool at the bottom of the story to see what your school reported.
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The mishaps come as New Jersey is collecting and publishing an increasing amount of school data sought by parents and education groups, and the state Department of Education is preparing to comply with a new federal law that requires schools to find new ways to rate schools.
Beginning next school year, New Jersey plans to base as much as 15 percent of a school's federal rating on chronic absenteeism among students, another statistic that is self reported by schools.
Several districts said they were unaware of the errors in teacher attendance data until contacted by NJ Advance Media.
Despite the zeros in the report for Newark Public Schools, most schools had faculty attendance rates above 90 percent, said Paul Nedeau, a district spokesperson.
"We're trying to get to the bottom of that," Nedeau said of the error.
In Bergen County, River Edge Superintendent Tova Ben-Dov said the 10 percent attendance rate reported for Cherry Hill School was "ridiculous, obviously a mistake."
"There is a huge problem," added Craig Hutcheson, superintendent in Hampton Township, where the district inadvertently submitted a 54 percent attendance rate for an elementary school.
As much as Piscataway would love a perfectly healthy teaching staff, its 100 percent attendance claim was a clerical mistake, public information officer Judy Palermo said.
"The person who entered the data misread the question," Palermo said. "Just an error on our part."
The faculty attendance statistics were one of the datasets most requested by education groups, prompting the state to publish it for the first time in this year's School Performance Reports, Department of Education spokesman David Saenz said.
Though the state collects and publishes dozens of data points for the reports, it does not analyze the data, he said.
"School Performance Reports are designed to be conversation starters by informing parents, educators and communities about how well a school is performing and preparing its students for college and careers," Saenz said. "If the public thinks that the data submitted by the district is questionable, they should reach out to the district and to have a conversation about that data."
The faculty attendance data covers teachers and certificated support staff but does not include administrators.
Sick days are supposed to count against a school's attendance rate but other approved absences, such as professional days, personal days, staff training days, bereavement days or jury duty, are not, according to the state.
New Jersey teachers are usually guaranteed at least 10 sick days, said Steve Baker, spokesman for the state's largest teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association.
The majority of the missed time reflected in the new faculty attendance data is likely related to illness, he said.
"The worst thing anybody can do to a student or educator is go to school when they are sick and create a bigger problem," Baker said. "You are not being a hero if you go to work when you are sick."
Teacher attendance data should help communities better understand the climate in their schools, including teacher morale, said Rosie Grant, executive director of the Paterson Education Fund.
The organization pushed for the release of the data in hopes that seeing problem areas among teachers could also help schools address chronic absenteeism among students, she said.
Staff writer Carla Astudillo contributed to this report
Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.