Attendance Basicsn17-18

Getting the Attendance Office Ready for the Day

• Be ready when the telephone rings.  It is suggested to keep a stack of "Student Absence Notification" forms near the telephone so they are easily accessible when parents call in to report an absence.
  
  
• Greet the caller with a welcoming greeting, such as "Good Morning or Good Afternoon, School's name, and give your name".  It is important to identify yourself so that the caller will immediately know whom he/she is speaking to.
  
  
• If a parent/guardian is calling to notify the school of an absence, complete a "Student Absence Notification" form for this student.  Thank the parent/guardian for calling and let them know they may receive an automated phone call from the District regarding their student’s absence.  Remind the parent/guardian it is required for them to send a note with their student when he/she returns to school.  The note should indicate the student’s first and last name as well as the date(s) and reason for the absence. 
  
  
• When you receive a phone call for a full day absence it is suggested that you record the absence in IC as soon as possible.  This will prevent gaps in attendance and will also allow teachers to see that the parent has already reported this student absent for the day.
  
  
• Late Arrival and Student Release logs must be set out daily and the current date indicated at the top of each page. 
  
  
• Confirm that attendance has been entered each period by teachers through the Classroom Monitor.
  
  
• Plan how you will distribute and receive attendance folders, to receive attendance notes.  At most schools, the teacher sends the attendance notes to the office by a student in the classroom. After the attendance notes are entered into Infinite Campus, they are to be filed. For more information regarding coding attendance notes, click here => Attendance Notes 18-19
  

• Parents can be enlisted as partners to reinforce the benefits of regular, on-time school attendance. The school can help parents believe in and share the following messages:
  
  
  • The more you are in school, the more you learn.
  • The more you learn, the higher your grades will be.
  • The better your grades, the more you will enjoy school.
  • The longer you stay in school, the more likely you are to succeed in career and life.
  • Regular, on-time school attendance is a goal that can only be achieved with the cooperation of both parent and child. Absences contribute to loss of learning.

• Use the Daily Caller Report to make phone calls to parent/guardian to inquire as to why the student is not in school.  Note: students who are absent for any amount of time during a day will receive an automated phone message to the parent/guardian indicating the absence. Attendance is tracked by the minute, therefore any absent code on the students record will generate the call. 
  
  
• Prior to filing a complaint alleging a student to be an unruly child due to habitual truancy or a delinquent child due to chronic truancy, a Truancy Warning Letter shall be prepared and sent to the student’s parent/guardian.  Attendance letters are sent out weekly so action can take place in a timely manner.  The letter is also a required component of the Unable to Locate Student checklist.   For more information regarding letters, click here => Attendance Truancy Letters
  
  
• Check the Attendance Reports module frequently. New reports are added periodically. There are some attendance reports that have been created specifically for CCS in the Ad Hoc Reports area: Attendance Summary by Team, Attendance Summary by Year, Absence Marked Unknown, and Unexcused Tardies.  For more information regarding specific reports, click here =>  Attendance Reports
  

Attendance Accountability 

Every Minute Counts!  All students arriving after the school's designated start time must be recorded on the Late Arrival Log.  Likewise, all student's leaving before the end of the school day must be recorded on the Student Release log.  Attendance is to be taken every day on every student enrolled in your school.  

Students that are actively enrolled in your building are allowed to attend school.  If a student is actively enrolled in another building (not in your building) they must attend the building at which they are actively enrolled.  If a student is present at your building but not enrolled, you need to contact the parent/guardian and have the student picked up from your building.  If and only if you cannot contact a parent/guardian, please keep the student on site and contact Safety and Security at (614) 365- 5638 to complete a house check and inform the parent/guardian that their child is not enrolled at your building and needs to be picked up from school.  If the student is not actively enrolled at any Columbus City School, please direct the student and parent/guardian to Central Enrollment to complete the SpeedyPass and schedule an enrollment appointment. 

Attendance events are modified when the reason code or comments are changed.  This happens when the school receives notification either written or verbal as to the reason for the absence.  CCS has a Guidelines for Verifying Proper Attendance Coding & Correcting Attendance Data Errors.  If a student is absent, a comment must be entered for any attendance code used with the exception of Absent Unknown and Absent Unexcused. A comment providing details to the excuse code must be entered in each period for the respective excuse code. See the guidelines here for more details. 

The "No Show" blocker placed on a student schedule is used to record absences for students that have not attended your school but were expected to.  An "Unable to Locate" blocker placed on a student schedule is used to record absences for students who once attended at some point during school year but stopped.  Attendance for student's scheduled into these blockers must be entered daily on these sections.

The Attendance Team in your building will work together to contact the homes of these students to determine their whereabouts and enrollment status. All attempts to locate the student MUST be recorded on the Unable to Locate Student Checklist.  Once all efforts have been exhausted and the student still cannot be located, the principal will sign the Unable to Locate Student Checklist indicating the student is not attending school and should be withdrawn.  After the student is withdrawn, the checklist will be uploaded to the student's documents tab by Central Enrollment.  The school will NOT upload to the documents tab.

Certify Data Scorecard

Certify promotes a daily, proactive process by an automatic reading of Infinite Campus each night, and sending email alerts to notify school personnel about specific data issues that need to be reviewed, monitored or corrected. 

Each rule in your scorecard looks at specific data and makes sure that it is valid. If it appears on your scorecard, in needs to be corrected. The prescription page lists all of the rules defined in Certify, and a 'prescription' for how to fix them. Some may be simple fixes that can be described in a sentence or two, others will link to a page with step-by-step documentation and/or videos to assist you.

Coding Attendance

Modifying any attendance entry must be in compliance with Administrative Guidelines and the appropriate documentation must be collected and maintained at the school.  A complete list of the approved attendance codes and a description of the required documentation can be found here =>  Attendance Codes**

• Absences are unexcused unless the parent has notified the school of the reason for non-attendance, and it is a board approved reason. 
• Students who do not check in may be marked with an unexcused absence for the day. 
• The Student Absence Notification form may be used to code a student's attendance event in lieu of a parent’s written note, if the absence is for a board approved reason.  
• If the student has already accumulated 9 full day equivalent parent authorized absences, the Principal must review the absence documentation and determine if the absence should be excused or unexcused.  (9 full days is calculated by total minutes absent and an accumulation of any/all parent authorized codes).
• Student attendance notes must be filed in individual student files, labeled Last Name, First Name, sorted alphabetically.
• At the end of each school year you should store all attendance documentation in the approved box clearly labeled and appropriately stored in your building.

Attendance Forms 

The Attendance Accountability Committee has developed and adopted specific forms for the collection and documentation of attendance information.  For more information regarding each form, click here =>  Attendance Forms 17-18