Attendance Basics

Getting the Attendance Office Ready for the Day

• Keep copies of the Student Absence Notification form near the telephone so they are easily accessible when a parent/guardian calls to report an absence.

• If a parent/guardian is calling to notify the school of an absence, a "Student Absence Notification" form for this student should be completed by the person who took the phone call.  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 to send a note with their student when he/she returns to school.  The note should indicate the student’s first and last name, date(s) of absence, reason for the absence, and the parent/guardian's signature. 
  
  

• 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 and the Student Absence Notification Form will need to be filled out. 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.

• The attendance secretary should assign a specific location for staff to place absent forms in the office. Absent forms should be recorded in IC as soon as possible to prevent gaps in attendance and allow teachers to see the students reported absence for the day.
  
  

• 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.  Not recording a comment will result in a Certify Notification.  See the guidelines here for more details. 

• A new Late Arrival and Student Release log must be used daily with the school name and current date indicated at the top of each page. 

• Generate substitute attendance rosters for absent teachers.  Attendance taken by hand MUST be completed on an Infinite Campus generated roster.  Do not accept hand written attendance rosters or attendance that is not completed on a roster. Substitute attendance rosters are to be filed in the daily file at the end of the day. See the Attendance Reports page for directions on generating a roster.

• Verify in the Classroom Monitor that attendance has been entered within 15 minutes of each period for secondary schools or by 9:30am in elementary.
  
  

• Each teacher responsible for recording student attendance should have an attendance folder.  The attendance folder will be used to receive attendance notes or distribute information to teachers.  After the attendance notes are uploaded into the student’s attendance documents tab in Infinite Campus, the notes can be shredded. For more information regarding coding attendance notes: https://columbus.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SC/pages/3172663297/Attendance+Codes+22-23+School+Year?search_id=e1cba640-7b80-44da-879c-80a790ea27f2

• Use the Daily Caller Report to make phone calls to parent(s)/guardian(s) whose students have unexcused or unknown absences 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. 
  
  

• 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:  Attendance Reports
  
  

• Substitute Secretaries must submit a Campus Support Form to request Infinite Campus access to their assigned school building. https://columbus.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SC/pages/130547769

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 Early Leave log.  Attendance is to be taken every day on every student enrolled in your school.  

• 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.

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 Online registration and schedule an enrollment appointment. 

The Attendance Team in your building will work together to locate students that are actively enrolled in your building but are not attending school.  All attempts to locate the student MUST be recorded on the Student's PLP log.  A district must take several steps to engage the student and his or her family before filing a complaint with juvenile court.  This includes parental notification, an absence intervention team and an absence intervention plan.  A complaint cannot be filed until: a. the 61st day after failed implementation of an absence intervention plan; or  b. A child has been absent without a legitimate excuse for 30 or more consecutive hours or 42 or more hours in a school month during the implementation of an absence intervention plan.  

The Absence Notification letter is also a required component of the Unable to Locate Student checklist.   

For more information regarding letters: Attendance Truancy Letters

The Unable to Locate Student Checklist (Forms) can be used after 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.  When completing the Unable to locate interventions, if contact is made with the Guardian, the Unable to Locate Checklist is null and void and cannot be used to process a withdraw.

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: Attendance Forms

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.  It is important to review and make any applicable corrections for errors reporting on Certify.

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.

Attendance Course Blockers

             Gifted Academy All Day - Course Number N92300

              Global Academy All Day - Course Number N92320

              Home Instruction Blocker Course - Course Number N92200

             Student Support Center - Course Number N92111

            VCAP Full Time - Course Number N92112