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LETTERS OF FAMILY NAME


Technical name: Person - letters of family name, text XXX
METeOR identifier: 349481
METeOR link: http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/349481
METeOR definition: The combination of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th letters of a person's family name.

Scope
Inclusions: The 2nd, 3rd, and 5th letters of the child's family name, for all children enrolled in a preschool program.
Exclusions:

• The 1st, 4th, 6th, and any subsequent letters of the child's family name.

• Children not enrolled in a preschool program.

• Letters of given name

• Date of birth

• Sex

• Nominal and operational definitions of Family name differ as operationally, it is infeasible for children in-scope of this collection to self-report. Therefore, the child's parent or guardian must be asked to identify the child's family name on the child's behalf.

2 - Missing letters (i.e. a family name of less than five letters)
999 - Not stated/inadequately described

	Edit specifications	Edit resolution
1.	If field is blank.	Provide valid letters of family name, otherwise amend to code ‘999’.
2.	If character length is greater than 3.	Provide valid letters of family name.

• Enter the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th letters of the child's family name consecutively. For example, if the child's family name is Thompson, the reported value should be HOP. If the child's family name is Brown, the reported value should be RON.

• If the child's family name includes non-alphabetic characters such as hyphens (as in Lee-Archer), apostrophes (as in O'Mara), or blank spaces (as in De Vries), these should be ignored when counting the position of each character.

• Regardless of the length of a person's family name, the reported value should always contain three characters. If the legal family name is not long enough to supply the requested letters (i.e. a legal family name of less than five letters) then agencies should substitute the number '2' to reflect the missing letters.

• The placement of a number '2' should always correspond to the same space that the missing letter would have been positioned within the 3-digit field. A number (rather than a letter) is used for such a substitution in order to clearly indicate that an appropriate corresponding letter from the child's name is not available. For example: If a child's family name is Farr, the value reported would be AR2 because the 2 is substituting for a missing 5th letter of the family name. Similarly, if the person's family name was Hua, then the value reported would be UA2 because the 2 is substituting for the missing 5th letter of the family name.

• In some cultures it is traditional to state the family name first. To overcome discrepancies in recording/reporting that may arise as a result of this practice, agencies should always ask the child to specify their legal first name and their legal family name separately. These should then be recorded as first given name and family name, regardless of the order in which they are traditionally given.

• If the child's family name is missing altogether, record the number 999 for all three spaces associated with the family name (not the number 2).

• This data element should be reported for the child only, i.e. this information is not required for teachers.