Board exams11 min read
CBSE attendance rules for Class 10 and 12: the 75% rule for 2027
The rule is CBSE's: 75% attendance to sit the board exam. Whether a borderline student can be helped depends on your school's paperwork — the register, the leave applications and the certificates collected months before January.
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CBSE reminded schools of its attendance rule in October 2024 and again in August 2025, both times with a warning about surprise inspections. For 2026–27 the rule is unchanged: CBSE's circular of 17 September 2026 on the 2027 list of candidates says schools must sponsor only students who attend regularly and meet the minimum attendance norms.
The rule is short. The work is your school's: a register that survives an inspection, the right documents collected at the time of each absence, and a shortage noticed while there are still days left to fix it.
The short versionA Class 10 or 12 student needs 75% of the teaching days from the start of Class 10 or 12 teaching to 1 January to sit the board exam. Shortage cases, with documents, must reach your CBSE regional office by 7 January. Nothing is accepted after that, and the register cannot be changed once you have sent them.
What the CBSE attendance rule says for Class 10 and 12
The rule is in Rules 13 and 14 of CBSE's Examination Bye-Laws. CBSE's standard procedure for shortage cases, repeated in its circulars of 9 October 2024 and 4 August 2025, sets out how it is applied.
- 75% of the classes held. Counted from the day Class 10 or 12 teaching begins to the first of the month before the board exam. CBSE's procedure fixes this as 1 January, and its shortage form asks for teaching days, days attended and the percentage up to 1 January.
- Practicals count separately. Subjects with practicals also need 75% of the practical work, or the student may not take the practical exam.
- Transfers carry over. Attendance at a previous recognised school counts towards the total.
- Leave must be in writing. Leave without a written request is unauthorised absence. For illness, the application and medical documents are due immediately after the leave.
The 25% relaxation, and who decides
CBSE's 2024 and 2025 circulars say the Board "offers a 25% relaxation only in cases of exigencies": medical emergencies, national or international sport, and other serious reasons, with documents. The bye-law text CBSE publishes is narrower: the Chairman may condone a shortage of up to 15%, and attendance below 60% is considered only for serious illness needing long hospitalisation.
Either way, CBSE decides, case by case. Under Rule 14 your principal sends each case to CBSE with a recommendation, or with reasons for not recommending it. The school cannot grant relaxation itself.
Grounds for relaxation and the documents to keep
| Ground | What CBSE asks for | Keep on file from the day (our suggestion) |
|---|---|---|
| Prolonged illness | Parent's request; certificates for the period of absence from a Government doctor; medical reports and X-rays; school's recommendation | Dated leave application; a certificate covering the exact dates |
| Loss of father or mother, or a similar incident | Parent's or guardian's request; death certificate; school's recommendation | Leave application with dates; a copy of the certificate |
| Any other reason of similar serious nature | Parent's request; certificate from the government authority concerned; school's recommendation | The written reason, dated; the certificate |
| National-level sport organised by CBSE or SGFI | Parent's request; certificate from the authority concerned; school's recommendation | Selection letter; event and travel dates |
| National or international sport through recognised federations | Parent's request; letter from the Sports Authority of India; school's recommendation; strictly within CBSE's schedule | Federation selection letter; the SAI letter; event dates |
| Inter-school or higher tournaments, NCC and NSS camps | Counted as full attendance under the bye-laws, including travel days | Mark present or on duty, not absent; keep the permission letter |
Note the medical line: a Government doctor's certificate for the period of absence. Tell parents when the leave is taken, not in January.
When shortage cases go to CBSE
Highlighted boxes are CBSE rules; plain boxes are our suggestions. The January and February dates come from CBSE's standing procedure for shortage cases, applied to the 2027 exams. Writing to the parents of frequently absent students is required; doing it in October and November is our suggestion. RO is your CBSE regional office.
Shortage cases go to the regional office in one table per class, with documents, on CBSE's form. Three lines in the procedure matter most:
- No case is accepted after 7 January.
- Cases without the required documents are rejected outright.
- Once a shortage is reported, a later claim that attendance is now complete is treated as manipulation, and the status does not change.
CBSE had not issued a fresh attendance circular for 2026–27 by 21 September 2026. The bye-laws and the procedure still apply.
What your school must record and keep
The August 2025 circular lists what CBSE expects to find on an inspection:
- A daily register. Updated every day, signed by the class teacher and the competent authority, ready for inspection.
- A written leave application for every absence, with medical documents for illness.
- Proof that parents were told. Students and parents must know the 75% rule and the consequences. The circular also asked schools to email it to all parents.
- Written warnings. When a student is often absent, write to the parents by registered or speed post, or email, and keep a record.
If inspectors find students absent without proper leave records, the circular says CBSE will presume they are not attending regularly and may treat them as non-attending or "dummy" candidates, who cannot sit the exam.
Parent communication
CBSE's procedure asks schools to explain the rule and the grounds for relaxation at the start of the session, and to warn families when a student is not attending. Our suggestion: make each warning a dated letter giving the days attended, the teaching days so far and how many more days the student can miss.
How many more days can a student miss?
A running percentage tells you where a student is, not what is still possible. For that you need the teaching days left until 1 January.
The arithmetic: 75% of the teaching days to 1 January, rounded up to a whole day (our suggestion, to be safe), minus the days already attended, is what the student must still attend. The rest of the remaining days can be missed.
A worked example
An example, not CBSE data: your calendar has 190 teaching days from the start of Class 10 teaching to 1 January, so the target is 143 (75% of 190 is 142.5). By the end of September, 120 days have been held and 70 remain.
| Student (example) | Attended of 120 | Running % | Must attend of the next 70 | Can still miss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 96 | 80.0% | 47 | 23 days |
| B | 88 | 73.3% | 55 | 15 days |
| C | 80 | 66.7% | 63 | 7 days |
| D | 72 | 60.0% | 71 | None: cannot reach 75% |
Student B is below 75% today but can still make it. Student A looks safe but has 23 days of room across three months, including any winter illness. Student D cannot reach 75% by attending, and can only be helped by a relaxation with a valid ground and documents.
If you do one thingRun the days-left number for every Class 10 and 12 student at the end of September and again at the end of November. Fifteen days of room needs a conversation; three needs a letter home and a plan. This is our suggestion, not a CBSE rule, but it is how you act before 1 January instead of after.
What happens if a student falls short
- They cannot sit the board exam unless CBSE grants relaxation.
- Their result may not be declared. CBSE's public notice of 15 September 2025 says internal assessment is a two-year process that cannot be done for a student who does not attend. Without it the result cannot be declared, and even regular students are placed in the "Essential Repeat" category.
- The May exam is not a way round it. In Class 10, internal assessment is done only once, before the main exam. The main exam is compulsory, and a student who misses three or more subjects in it cannot sit the second exam; they sit the main exam the following February as Essential Repeat.
- The school is at risk too. Incomplete records or students clearly not attending can lead to disaffiliation. After surprise inspections of 27 schools in Rajasthan and Delhi on 3 September 2024, CBSE withdrew 21 affiliations and downgraded 6 schools from Senior Secondary to Secondary. After inspecting 29 more in December 2024, it issued show-cause notices to all 29.
How iVake handles it
Attendance is marked once, in the room. Teachers tap only the absentees on a phone, even offline, and biometric and RFID punches land in the same register. Medical leave and on-duty days, such as a sports event, are recorded as what they are, not as absences, and your school decides how each one counts.
You set the threshold. Every student is checked against it daily, one shortage list covers every section, and the class teacher and parent are alerted when a student falls below the line. Parents can send the reason for an absence from the app, and it stays on the record against that day.
Every mark and correction goes on the audit trail with who made it and the previous value. Registers and shortage lists export by class, subject or date. CBSE still wants a register signed by the class teacher and the competent authority, and its own form for shortage cases, so decide early who prints, signs and files them.
See attendance alerts on your own classes
Frequently asked questions
What is the CBSE attendance rule for Class 10?
A student needs at least 75% attendance, counted from the start of Class 10 teaching to 1 January, to be eligible for the board exam, and 75% of practical work in subjects with practicals. CBSE may relax this for documented medical emergencies, national or international sport and other serious reasons. The decision is the Board's, not the school's.
Does the 75% attendance rule apply to Class 12 in 2026–27?
Yes. Rules 13 and 14 apply to Class 10 and 12 alike, and shortage cases go in a separate list for each class. CBSE's circular of 17 September 2026 for the 2027 exams repeats that only students who attend regularly and meet the minimum attendance norms may be sponsored.
Do CBSE attendance rules apply to Class 9?
Class 9 has no board exam, so CBSE's eligibility check happens in Class 10. But the bye-laws as CBSE publishes them define a regular course of study as 75% attendance for Classes 9 to 12. CBSE also says Class 10 is a two-year programme covering Classes 9 and 10, with internal assessment that cannot be done for a student who does not attend.
Is there a CBSE attendance register format?
The attendance circulars do not prescribe a layout. They require a register updated daily, signed by the class teacher and the competent authority, and open to inspection. It should give each student's teaching days, days attended and percentage up to 1 January, because CBSE's shortage form asks for exactly that.
Which CBSE attendance circular applies to the 2027 exams?
The latest, dated 4 August 2025, covered the 2025–26 session and attaches the procedure and form for shortage cases. As of 21 September 2026 there is no new one for 2026–27, but the bye-laws have not changed, and CBSE's 17 September 2026 circular for the 2027 list of candidates repeats the attendance condition.
Sources
- CBSE Examination Bye-Laws, updated up to January 2013, Rules 13 and 14 (PDF)
- CBSE circular on strict compliance with attendance requirements, with the procedure and form for shortage cases, 4 August 2025 (PDF)
- CBSE circular on strict compliance with attendance requirements, 9 October 2024 (PDF)
- CBSE, Shortage of attendance: standard procedure and schedule
- CBSE public notice on essential requirements for the board exams, 15 September 2025 (PDF)
- CBSE circular on the list of candidates for the 2026–27 Class X and XII exams, 17 September 2026 (PDF)
- CBSE notification, Two Board Examinations in Class X from 2026, 25 June 2025 (PDF)
- CBSE clarification on who may sit the second exam, 14 February 2026 (PDF)
- CBSE press release on surprise inspections in Rajasthan and Delhi, 6 November 2024 (PDF)
- CBSE press release on surprise inspections across five states and Delhi, 16 January 2025 (PDF)
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