Why are there dashes instead of numbers in some places in the New York State Report Cards and “s” instead of numbers in the report card database?

To ensure student confidentiality, the New York State Education Department does not publish data for groups with fewer than five students or data that would allow readers to easily determine the performance of a group with fewer than five students. When fewer than five students in a group (e.g., Hispanic) are tested, percentages of tested students scoring at various levels are suppressed for that group as well as for the next smallest group. Suppressed data in the report cards are indicated with a dash (–). Suppressed data in the database accompanying the report cards are indicated with an (s).  The performance of tested students in suppressed groups is aggregated and shown in the Small Group Total field. In the accountability section of the report card, data for fewer than 40 students in a group for participation calculations and 30 students in a groups for performance and graduation rate calculations are suppressed, as results for groups with counts these small would not be valid and reliable.