Census

Definition

The count of participants actually attending, read daily against licensed capacity.

Why It Matters

A day program's economics are its census times its daily rate, so the census is the revenue line wearing a different name. Read average daily attendance across a full year rather than enrollment on paper, because enrolled participants attend a few days a week each and the gap between the roster and the room is where projections go wrong. Census against licensed capacity is also the growth story's honest ceiling: a program at ninety percent of license has little to sell but a waitlist.