Documentation for Administrators

Absence Summary

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The Absence Summary report allows you to review school-wide attendance information over a specified date range, as well as a breakdown of attendance data per student.

Student Search

1. From the Attendance menu, click Absence Summary.

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2. If searching for specific students by name or student number, type the information directly into the Student Search text box.

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To generate report cards for all students, leave the Student Search text box empty.

3. For a more advanced search and the ability to define a specific subset of students, click More Search Options. In the example shown, Gradelevel 11 has been selected; therefore, report cards will be generated only for students in 11th grade.

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Apply as many search options, as needed.

See Searching for Students for details about conducting and saving student searches.

4. To run the parameters against a Student Group, select the applicable group from the corresponding pull-down.

5. Select the Include Inactive check box to include students who do not have an active enrollment record at the selected school or all schools (if Search All Schools is selected).

6. Select the Previous Years check box to include previous year of inactive data in your search, when Include Inactive is enabled.

7. Select the Use Most Recent Enrollment check box to use the most recent enrollment records when conducting a search with Include Inactive enabled.

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8. Click Search.

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The Absence Summary

Conducting a search navigates to a new Absence Summary screen where you can set different parameters for reviewing the students attendance.

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The colors set for each attendance code via Attendance Setup > Codes tab > Attendance tab displays as customized by the district.

1. To adjust the attendance summary to reflect a specific period of time, use the Report Timeframe date text boxes to enter a date range. You can also click on the calendar icons to select the dates. By default, the report timeframe defaults to the first day of school through the current date.

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2. You have the option to choose whether you'd like to see the attendance by day or by period. This option will default to Daily. Use the pull-down to select a period instead.

The Daily attendance code cannot be edited because it is based on Period attendance codes combined.

3. Once a time frame has been set and a period selected (or daily), click Go.

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Directly beneath the Report Timeframe are the number of Days Possible per the Standard District Calendar and the Summer Term.

In the attendance summary, you will see the student's Photo, Student name, Student ID, the students Grade level, and attendance codes used at the school; the codes displayed in the image shown are specific to the school and may not reflect the codes used at your school.

Scroll to the right to see all listed attendance codes. The Total for each column is also listed in the last row of the report.

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4. Click on a Student in order to view and/or edit a breakdown of his/her attendance. For more information on viewing a specific student's absence summary, see The Absence Summary Breakdown per Student.

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The Absence Summary Breakdown per Student

Clicking the student name and opening the individual student's Absence Summary is beneficial if more than one period of attendance in a day must be updated. Changing the attendance code for any period will update the daily attendance code. This screen also allows users to upload and view excuse notes.

1. Click on a Student in order to view and/or edit a breakdown of his/her attendance.

Clicking the Student name generates an Absence Summary for the selected student, as shown in the image. From this screen, you have the ability to review the student's daily attendance displayed by period. The Report Timeframe pulls in the dates selected on the previous Absence Summary screen, but can be changed as needed.

Absence Summary

The colors set for each attendance code via Attendance Setup > Codes tab > Attendance tab displays as customized by the district, as shown in the image above.

At the top of the screen, the number of periods absent displays (Absent: X periods (during X days), along with Other Marks: X periods (during X periods), which would include Tardy, Clinic, etc. The top section displays the Total Full Days Possible, Total Full Days Attended, Total Full Days Absent, and the Enrollment Dates. Note: The figures calculated is dependent on the dates selected in the Report Timeframe.

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2. Click the arrow to display a list of all applicable attendance codes and the codes applied to the student.

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a. All attendance codes are displayed along with the number of periods applied to the student during the timeframe selected. Click the arrow again to close the attendance code legend.

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3. Click +Add Absence to add absence records to the student from the Add Absences screen.

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4. While reviewing the absence Summary, you have the option to click Chart in order to navigate to Attendance Chart. You also have the option to view the student Attendance Calendar by clicking Calendar.

Absence Summary

The Absence Summary displays Date, Daily code, Comment, Excuse Note, Note Status, Fill All Periods, and applicable period attendance codes, sch as U for Unexcused or C for Clinic.

Absence Summary

When checking in or out using the kiosk or the Late Check In/Early Release screen, the Time In and Time Out columns in the Absence Summary are updated. Updating the Time In and Time Out columns in the Absence Summary will update the corresponding Entry and Release columns on the Late Check In/Early Release screen. Note: The setting Track Time In/Time Out on Daily Attendance must be enabled for the Time In and Time Out columns to display on the Absence Summary via Setup > System Preferences > School Preferences/Default School Preferences > Attendance tab.

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There are also totals for each code listed at the bottom of the Absence Summary chart under ABSENCES.

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5. With editing permissions, you have the ability to enter a comment. Click the Comment field and type your message.

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6. If a parent, teacher, or another user has uploaded an Excuse Note, you can view the excuse note by clicking the Title of the note or by clicking Download.

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Click the red X to Delete the excuse note.

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Hover over the attached excuse note with the mouse to view additional information.

If your district has enabled the Approve Excuse Notes permission via Users > Profiles, Portal alerts will display for administrative users when excused attendance notes are added by other users, such as parents or teachers. When you click the Portal Alert, you will be brought to the Absence Summary screen where the applicable students will be listed.

Portal

a. To add excuse note(s) for a student, hover over the Excuse Note field, then click Scan to scan the file from your scanner into Focus.

i. Select the Scanner from the pull-down, set additional settings, then click Scan.

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Administration

b. Click Upload if the file is already saved on your computer.

i. Search for the file, click the file, then click Open. Note: You cannot upload Word documents. However, you can save a Word document as a PDF, then upload it.

c. Click Take Photo to take a picture of the note with your computer camera.

i. Once the note is in view of the camera, click Take Photo.

Click the expansion arrows to view the Excuse Note field in a pop-up window where you can drag files for uploading, view uploaded files, and take photos, as needed.

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If Excuse Notes have been disabled by the district, then you will not see the Excuse Note column. The Disable Excuse Notes for All Users setting determine whether the Excuse Note column displays, which can be enabled/disabled via Setup > System Preferences > School Preferences / Default School Preferences > Attendance.

Note: Administrative users can also Disable Excuse Notes for Parents via Setup > System Preferences > School Preferences / Default School Preferences > Attendance, which hides the Excuse Note column for all applicable attendance screens prohibiting parents from uploading excuse notes.

To ensure added excuse notes are visible to teachers, be sure the View Excuse Notes permission is enabled for the Teacher Role via Users > Profiles > Attendance tab.

7. If an excuse note has been uploaded by teachers or parents, and you have permission to Approve Excuse Notes, you can select the Note Status of the excuse note from the corresponding pull-down. The status defaults to Pending. Select Approved once the note has been reviewed and deemed acceptable. Select Denied, if the uploaded note isn't acceptable.

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8. To add a Note Status message viewable by parents and teachers, click Set Message.

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a. Enter the message in the pop-up and click Save Message.

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b. To edit a saved message, click Edit Message.

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9. Hover over each code for detailed information about the course, period, date, etc.

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10. If needed, select an attendance code from the Fill All Periods pull-down to populate all periods with the selected code.

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Attendance codes that have been changed are highlighted in red.

11. Click the period fields to adjust individual attendance periods, such as 01, 02, etc. Once, enabled, select the applicable attendance code from the pull-down.

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When setting a future date to N/A, the period attendance record is removed and the daily code for the student is set to present. When setting a previous date to N/A, the period attendance records are set to the default code and the daily code is changed accordingly.

If attendance is logged based on an hourly attendance method, you will also have the option to enter the amount of time present in addition to the attendance code.

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12. Click the Save button to apply the changes made and save excuse notes and note status changes.

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Did You Know?

If the student has been flagged as a Protected Student, a warning message displays on the Absence Summary screen: DO NOT RELEASE STUDENT INFO. The warning message displays for all users. For more information about how to set up a Protected Student, see Student Fields: Protected Student.

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The setting, Show minutes missed in Student Absence Summary enabled via Setup > System Preferences > Attendance tab, calculates and displays Minutes missed from late check-in/early release in the report when using the late check-in/early release functionality.

Additional Features

When the review of the selected student's absence summary is complete, click the red X next to the student's name located in the header to return to the Absence Summary Search Screen.

Absence Summary

To return to the listed students of your last conducted search, click Back to Search Results.

From the student breakdown screen, click the following tabs to navigate to the student's Demographic, Enrollment, Schedule, Requests, Grades, Activities, Referrals, Test History, Grad, SSS, and Billing. These tabs are listed in gray across the top of the page. Please note that in doing so, you will be navigating away from the Absence Summary.

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Click the down arrow next to the student Photo to open the category menu, which includes quick links to the following screens/information, most of which can be accessed by Student Info: Demographics, Schedule, Grades or Course History, Absences, Add Referral, Test History, SSS, Enrollment, Requests, Standard Grades, Activities, Referrals, Grad Reqs, and Billing.

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Click the floppy disk icon to export the information to an Excel spreadsheet.

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Click the Filter button to add Filter Rules to the report. Start by adding one rule, such as Periods Contains 1, as shown in the image. The first pull-down is the listed columns. The second pull-down is the rule, such as contains, equal, starts with, etc. Then enter the information you'd like to filter by in the text box.

a. Click Add Rule to add an additional filter.

b. You can clear the filter by clicking Clear Rules.

c. To remove just one rule/filter, click Remove next to each listed filter.

d. Select AND or OR from the pull-down to determine how filter rules are applied when more than one filter is used.

You can sort data by clicking on any of the headers. Click once for ascending results; click twice for descending results.

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If looking for specific information housed within the resulting students, type the information in the Search text box provided and press Enter.

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To make the list full screen, click on the expansion icon (four arrows) next to the Search text box. Once in full screen mode, click the icon again to exit full screen.

To print the Absence Summary report, click the Print button located in the footer of the screen.

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Clicking Print generates a print preview screen.

Click the Download as a PDF icon (down arrow) to download the file to your computer.

Click the Print icon (printer) to print the page.

When finished, click the black X to return to the Absence Summary screen.

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a. If there is a specific template you'd like to use in the printing the Absence Summary report, click the arrow next to Print to select the Template. You also have the option for Small Font, and Print Preview before printing.

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