Attendance Office Preparation

When preparing to start work in the attendance office, keep the following in mind:

Substitute Secretaries must submit an TDX Ticket (Infinite Campus Support Ticket) to report what school you are assigned to for the day so that tool rights can be granted.. To submit a ticket follow the screenshot below:

Open

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.

1. 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. THIS FORM CAN BE COMPLETED BY ANY STAFF MEMBER.

   1. 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.  

   2. 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. 

• Complete the Student Absence Notification Form, then record the absence in IC immediately. This will prevent gaps in attendance and allow teachers to see that the parent has already reported this student absent 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 or attendance that is not completed on an Infinite Campus generated 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 10 minutes of each period for secondary schools or by 9:15am 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: School Year Attendance Codes 2023-2024 School Yeararchived

Use the Daily Caller Report to make phone calls to parent(s)/guardian(s) whose students have 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 a 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

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. Notify the school of enrollment that the student is present in your building.

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 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 view Enrollment Information.

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 in the Student's PLP log. 

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.

Elevate Data Quality (EDQ) - Previously know as Certify

EDQ or Certify promotes a daily, proactive process by evaluating all data entries into Infinite Campus each night. Email alerts with an attached scorecard are sent to notify eligible 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 reported on Certify each day.  However, some errors may have to remain on the scorecard if it reflects what truly happened.

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.