Step by Step - Period Attendance - Secondary

Step One: Generate Rosters for Attendance Collection

Classroom teachers are responsible for submitting attendance, electronically, through Infinite Campus Instruction.   It is recommended that teachers have a current, PRINTED Attendance Roster, in the event that the teacher is absent, and a substitute teacher has been assigned.  Also, in the event of a system outage, a printed attendance roster (generated from Infinite Campus) should be used to record attendance. 

The secretary will use the roster for attendance entry using the Classroom Monitor.  Attendance not recorded on an Infinite Campus generated roster should not be accepted.  It is recommended the attendance roster is signed & dated by the teacher submitting the attendance before sending to the office.  

Generate a Sub Attendance Roster. 
Path:  Main Menu > Attendance Office > Reports > Sub Attendance Roster Report

The Sub Attendance Roster can only be generated for one day.  However, it can be generated for a range of periods, for specific teachers:

1. Effective Date defaults to the current date.  The date can be changed by typing in another date or use the date selector.  It is imperative that the date on the rosters is the date that the attendance is being recorded for.

2. Period: Select All

3. Teacher: Click on the name of the teacher the substitute is there for. 

4. Use the CTRL key and left mouse button to select multiple teachers.

5. Course: Select All

6. Click Generate Report.

However, the two reports listed below can also be used for attendance collection:

·      Attendance Register by Period Report

·      Course Section Attendance Register

Step Two: Generate Late Bus Route Sheets

Secretaries for all schools will run a route sheet to confirm that the students arriving late on a bus were assigned to ride the bus.  The students must be marked on the bus route sheet, not signed in on the Late Arrival log.  The route sheet must include the date and time of arrival for the bus, and clearly mark each student that came in on that route.

If a student arrived by personal means of transportation, they must also be added to the route sheet. Enter the late bus students along with students who are tardy to school in Step 5.

 Step Three: Verify All Other Classroom Attendance Has Been Entered

Use the Classroom Monitor to confirm that attendance has been entered by all present teachers. Secondary Teachers take attendance every period.  It is important to verify AFTER EACH period that attendance has been entered by all teachers.

 PATH:  Main Menu > Attendance Office > Attendance Management > Classroom Monitor

The Classroom Monitor will open to the current date.  To change the date, type the date or use the calendar tool to select the date.  Click the Refresh button to reload the Classroom Monitor for that particular date. Throughout the day, check the Classroom Monitor for completion of attendance for all teachers. 

Sections appearing in pink indicate that attendance has not been taken for that course.  Sections appearing in green indicates that attendance has been entered for that course. 

Step Four: Entering Substitute Teacher and Blocker Course Attendance

At the end of each period, enter the Infinite Campus generated paper roster received for a teacher for who is subbing, for a teacher who does not have computer access, or the computer is not working.  The absences must be entered using the Classroom Monitor. This step also includes entering any attendance information for students in the following blocker courses every day:  No Show, Unable to Locate, and Located not Attending.  

1. The Classroom Monitor will open to the current date.

   1. To change the date, type the date or use the calendar tool to select the date.  Click the Refresh button to reload the Classroom Monitor for the selected date.

   2. Sections displaying as pink indicate that attendance has not been entered and saved

   3. Sections displaying as green indicates that attendance has been entered and saved for that course.  If all students are present, the teacher will still need to click on the section and click Save.

   4. The number of student’s present displays with the number of students scheduled.

2. The teachers are listed in alphabetical order by last name. To the right of the teacher’s name, click on the course section.  The screen opens to reflect the teacher view of attendance.

3. All students are Present by default.  Mark the student’s absent by clicking the radio button under A or under T for Tardy. It is optional to enter comments in the Comments field in the Classroom Monitor.  Comments entered here will display on the Portal.  If all students are present, skip to Step 4.

   1. NOTE:  Do not enter tardy in the Classroom Monitor if the student was late to school.  Only enter Tardies in the Classroom Monitor if the student was Tardy to Class.

4. Click Save.  The page will refresh and display the Classroom Monitor view with the course section just modified in green.

Tardies

If a student arrived to school on time, but was late getting to class, the teacher may mark the student with a "T" if they are just wanting to indicate that the student was late to their class. The Tardy Unknown will be changed to a TTC: Tardy to Class during the overnight attendance process.

Attendance Taking Blocker Courses

Students scheduled into Attendance Taking Blocker Courses must be marked absent daily in the classroom monitor.  Attendance must be entered on the No Show, Unable to Locate and Located Not Attending blocker courses daily. The attendance secretary will go to the Classroom Monitor, locate the administrators name, and mark all students absent. If there are no students scheduled into those courses, the space will be empty.

Step Five – Late Arrivals and Late Bus Students

Students who arrive after the official start of school are considered to be tardy to school and must check in at the schools designated attendance area. The Check In/Out kiosk can be used by secondary students who arrive at school late or to track secondary students who leave before the end of the school day. Check In/Out Kiosk is designed to be used by students in a self-service mode to check in and out of school. After scanning in and selecting check in/out, students select a button for the reason.

Students who are at school, but have arrived late to their classroom for various reasons, usually due to being in the breakfast room too long, are considered tardy to class.  Attendance can be marked as tardy through classroom monitor by the teacher.  The tardy entered by the teacher will be changed to a TTC: Tardy to Class automatically overnight.

Launching the Kiosk

Path: Main Menu > Attendance Office > Scanning > Check In/Out Kiosk

Open

1. Select the Kiosk Mode. Options include Check In only, Check Out only, or both.

2. Click the Test Printer button to make sure the hall pass printer is ready to use.

3. If the printer is not configured correctly, the No Printer button will display. Consult the Scanning Printer Setup for configuration details.

4. Check In/Out Kiosk can be launched in two modes:

5. In Launch Kiosk mode, students can scan in with a connected barcode reader, by using a RFID reader if Alternate Identifier is enabled in Scanner Settings, or by typing in their student number.

6. Launch Kiosk w/Camera mode enables the webcam on the computer to read student barcodes on student ID cards.

7. The Check In/Out Kiosk will launch in a new window. You will be logged out of Campus. The kiosk will stay connected so students can scan in/out as needed.

8. The kiosk window can be maximized if desired.

9. When the kiosk is no longer needed for the day, the kiosk window can be closed.

Open

Students will follow the procedures outlined in the Attendance Training Agenda to check in to the building.  After the students have checked in to school using the kiosk, the attendance staff member for the building will use the Absence Request Processing tool to manage requests submitted in the kiosk by the students.  When viewing the Daily Attendance screen, we can see the students who were late have unknown absences recorded.

To access the Absence Request Processing Tool, follow the path below:

Path: Main Menu > Attendance Office > Attendance Management > Absence Request Processing

The tool will open and display all the students who checked in/out for the day.

You can select specific students by clicking the Toggle Mass Process button at the bottom of the screen.  This will allow you to select specific students.

In our first example we will process the late bus students.  First, select all of the students you have verified were on a specific late bus using the bus route sheets.  You may have multiple late buses.  Because you are adding a specific comment to each group of students, only select the students on a single bus to mass process them.  Then when completed select the next late bus group for processing.  To select the students, click the checkbox next to their information.

Click the Mass Process button at the bottom of the screen.   A dialog box will appear asking for the user to enter an Attendance Code and Attendance Comment.

For late bus students, add the comment ‘CCS Trans Issue’ as well as the route number and time of arrival for the late bus. Once you have entered the information, click Mass Process.  A blue message box will appear stating the request has been processed and the students will disappear from the Attendance Requests screen.

Now we need to process the remaining students.  Again, click the checkbox next to the name of the student you wish to process.

Click the Mass Process button at the bottom of the screen and enter the Attendance Code and Attendance Comment for the student and then click the Process button at the bottom of the screen.

Once all the students have been processed, you will be able to see their updated attendance information in Infinite Campus.

However, if the kiosk is NOT AVAILABLE, manual entry of late arrivals will be required.  When manually entering a student’s late arrival, the students first and last name, time and reason must be recorded on the Student Late Arrival Log.  This log is a paper document that will be used to record the information into Infinite Campus. The log must be maintained in the corresponding daily attendance file.  The entries will be added to Infinite Campus following the guidelines below:

PATH: Main Menu > Attendance Office > Attendance Entry Wizard

Late arrivals entered from the log must be entered using the Batch mode in the Attendance Wizard.  This process will calculate minutes accurately for students but will not interfere with attendance that may have been entered by teachers for other period(s).  

1. Date: defaults to the current date, but can be changed by typing in the date or using the Date Selector

2. Mode: Select Batch

3. Students: Search for the student by name.

4. Click Search

5. The Search results will appear in Columns B and C if you search for an individual student.  If you search for multiple students, you must click on their name in Column B to move them to Column C, after each search.

6. Select the appropriate attendance code based on documentation on the Student Late Arrival Log and/or documentation from the

7. From Date is the date the student reported late to school; From Time is the time school begins for the day.

8. To Date is the date the student reported late to school; To Time is the time the student arrived at school, recorded on the Student Late Arrival Log.  The system will calculate the time the student was absent from school and will calculate the minutes present.

9. It is required to enter the time the student arrived at school and a comment (as applicable) in the Comments field. 

10. Comments Options: Append comments - Make sure that Overwrite Existing Data is marked.

11. Click Save

Unlike Elementary Schools, students do not have to be marked absent before entering the late arrival!

Important Notes about the Kiosk:

• Occasionally, the printers will stop printing out passes for students.  If this happens, turn the device off, wait 30 seconds and then power it back on.  This will usually reset the printer and it will begin to print out the passes that were previously sent to the device. 

• Be sure to let students know that they will need to pull the pass forward towards their body to tear the paper.  Most students tend to want to pull the paper in an upward motion.  It works best if they pull the paper towards their body and tear it off from left to right. 

• To request more paper for your printer, please put in a TDX Support Ticket (Infinite Campus Support Ticket) to request supplies.

Check In/Out Individual Students

Staff members with attendance tool rights can also check in/out an individual student.

Path: Main Menu > Attendance Office > Scanning > Check In/Out

Type in the student ID number and click Enter.

An image of the student displays, as well as identification information and the current period schedule for the student. The current period is indicated with a clock icon.

The fields displayed for the student in the Check In/Out tool are defined below:

The attendance staff member can now select the correct attendance code to check the student in/out. 

Add a comment in each affected period, but do not remove the check in/out comment with the time.   In this example, the student arrived late due to a doctor appointment, but did not have a doctor’s note.  The staff member with attendance tool rights will select the correct attendance code (PMLA) for every period affected.

At the bottom of the screen are action buttons to help process the request.  The buttons located at the bottom of the screen are defined below:

Once the information is entered for the student, click the Confirm button at the bottom of the screen to save the entry.  The student’s attendance information is now updated.

Step Six – Printing the Caller Report

The Caller Report prints a list of students who are marked as absent unknown and includes the parent/guardian names, home phone number, work phone number and parent/guardian email.  This report only prints students marked with an “A” (Absent Unknown) in the Classroom Monitor.  It is necessary to print this report after the late arrivals have been entered. 

PATH: Main Menu > Attendance Office > Daily Attendance Processing > Attendance Management > Caller Report

The Caller Report will generate with a list of students who have an Unknown absence for any period until the time the report is being generated. The report includes the guardian information, including name and contact numbers.

The report opens in PDF format; click the Print icon to print the report or the Save icon to save it to your computer.

Each school is directed to have an Attendance team.  Designated member(s) of the team are to make phone calls to the parent/guardian of students absent the current day. The Caller Report (generated above) is an excellent tool to use when making the calls.  It is suggested, and helpful, to keep action notes directly on the caller report, however this does not replace documentation required for a student’s individual attendance folder.

Examples would be:

1. You attempted to contact the home number but there was no answer. Record the date you called and state "no answer".

2. The student was marked Absent Unknown (A) before mom called in that the student would be out ill. Record "parent called in".

Step Seven – Editing Attendance Reasons

The Daily Attendance tool allows a user to see at a glance all students who have an attendance event (absence/ tardy/early leave etc.) for a selected day.  From here, a user with the proper rights may also edit an attendance event.

PATH:  Main Menu > Attendance Office > Daily Attendance Processing

When a parent calls in or provides a note to excuse the absence for that day and the student’s attendance has already been marked as an unexcused absence, the user can click on the attendance code to make edits.  The conversation must be documented on the Student Absence Notification form.

1. Select the Attendance code from the drop-down list.

2. Enter a Comment - CCS requires a comment to be entered when an excused code is used. 

3. Click Fill Down (Note: Do not use the Fill Down feature if there is not an absence entered for every attendance period.)

4. Click Save at the top of the tab.

Step Eight – Students Leaving Early

When students leave school early, they can sign out using the kiosk or the parent will sign them out on the Student Release Log. The student's first and last name, time, reason, and the parent/guardian's signature must be recorded on the Student Release Log.  This log is a paper document that will be used to record the information into Infinite Campus. The log must be maintained with the daily attendance files.

Just like late arrivals, early leaves can be manually entered using the Batch mode in the Attendance Wizard.  This process will calculate minutes accurately for students but will not interfere with attendance that may have been entered by teachers for other period(s). 

To prevent inaccurate data entries, enter Early Leaves at the end of the day.  If a student leaves early then returns, the time of leaving and the time of return will be recorded accurately.

Path: Main Menu > Attendance Office > Attendance Entry Wizard

1. Date: defaults to the current date, but can be changed by typing in the date or using the Date Selector

2. Mode: Select Batch

3. Students: Search for the student by name.

4. Click Search

5. The Search results will appear in Columns B and C if you search for an individual student.  If you search for multiple students, you must click on their name in Column B to move them to Column C, after each search.

6. Enter the appropriate attendance code based on documentation on the Student Early Leave Log and/or documentation from the parent.

7. From Date is the date of the early leave; From Time is the time the student signed out.

8. To Date is the date of the early leave; To Time is the time school ends for the day.

a.    It is required to enter the leave time and a comment in the Comments field.

b.    Comments Options: Append comments

c.     Leave Overwrite Existing Data checked.

9. Click Save Attendance.

10. Enter Early Leaves no later than the following school day. 

Step Nine – Filing and Storing Attendance Notes and Documents

Daily Attendance Documentation File - Every school is to have a daily attendance documentation folder for each day of the school year. This folder will be used to file the following documents:

• Summary Report

• Student Late Arrival Log

• Student Release Log

• Route Lists of late bus arrivals

• Fields trips, etc.

• Attendance corrections for that day

• Paper Register/Rosters used to enter attendance

Student Attendance File - Every student with attendance events has an attendance depository on their attendance tab. The following files should be uploaded to the repository:

• Parent/Guardian notes

• Student Absence Notification Forms

• Class Excused Forms

• Request for Principal Approval Forms

• Other attendance documentation for that student