Preventing Orphaned Attendance Records
Period Attendance for All Students
Overview
The student Attendance page is utilized to update an individual student’s attendance. This page introduces a new layout and uses a combination of existing tables and new tables when a school is set up for Flex Scheduling taking Period Attendance.
For information on Attendance configurations, see Flex Attendance Options Chart.
Security ↑
Each table listed has a Flex equivalent which inherits permissions from the existing non-Flex table.
Table | Permission | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance Data (ATT) Class Attendance - (CAT) - Flex | Read Insert Update Delete Mass Update | View page Add new record Update records Delete Records To over-ride a locked month on the Mass Change Attendance page |
| Attendance Log (ATL) Class Attendance Log (CAL) - Flex | Read Insert Update Delete | View page Add new record Update records Delete Records |
| Attendance Submission Log (ASL) Class Attendance Submission Log (CAS) - Flex | Read | View the Attendance Submission Log page Run the Missing Attendance report |
| Attendance Notes (ATN) | Read Insert Update Delete | View Attendance Notes Add Attendance Notes Update Attendance Notes and Update on the Mass Change Period Absences form. Delete Attendance Notes |
Query-Only Security
Giving a User account Read permissions to any of the following tables will enable the ability to query the data stored.
| Table | Permission | Description |
| Flex Student Attendance (Query Only) (CAT) | Read | Query the CAT table |
| Flex Attendance Changes Log (Query Only) (CAL) | Read | Query the CAL table |
| Flex Attendance Submission Log (Query Only) (CAS) | Read | Query the CAS table |
Tables/Fields ↑
| Table | Field | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ATT - Attendance Data (Existing) | AL - All day | Existing field which is used to store an attendance code when entered in the All-day field on a particular date. |
| ATN - Attendance Notes (Existing) | SE - Section Number (New) | Attendance Notes will be associated with class sections as opposed to periods. |
| CAT - Class Attendance (New for Flex) | ID - Student ID SCL - School Code SQ - Sequence Number SE - Section Number DT - Attendance Date SID - Staff ID AC - Attendance Code ST - Start Time ET - End Time TT - Total Time | - Attendance codes entered in any of the Flex Period fields will be stored here and will be saved by Section Number. They replace the individual period fields used in traditional scheduling on the ATT table. - Flex Period attendance codes entered by Teachers will be stored in this table. -Security is inherited from ATT permissions. |
| CAL - Class Attendance Log (New for Flex) | ID - Student ID SCL- School Code SQ - Sequence Number DT - Attendance Date SE- Section Number FC - Field Code OD - Old Data ND - New Data UN -UserName IP - IP Address SY -System DTM - DateTime Modified | -CAL is the equivalent to the Attendance Log (ATL) table used in traditional scheduling. -Security is inherited from ATL permissions. |
| CAS - Class Attendance Submission Log (New for Flex) | SC - School Code DT - Attendance Date LT - Last Modified DateTime FT - First DateTime SE - Section Number | -CAS table is the equivalent to the Attendance Submission Log (ASL) table used in traditional scheduling. -This table is used for the Missing Attendance report and the Attendance Submitted Early report in Flex schools. -Security is inherited from ASL permissions. |
Student Attendance ↑
Navigate to Student Data > Attendance.
The Attendance page will display the following:
- Basic demographic information on the top portion of the page.
- Attendance summary data fields on the bottom of the page.
- Tardy and Absent letter totals above the attendance calendar section.
- The current day is highlighted in yellow and bold letters.
- The RED FLAG icon, located at the top left corner, which is used to flag any student with attendance issues. By clicking the flag icon, an attendance Red Flag will be created and an attendance comment can be added for a student. Before adding a Red Flag, check district protocol and procedures.
- The Attendance section has an Options filter to enable or disable showing the Flex Period Time and Teacher. These settings are user settings stored in the UAO table and will be remembered when the user logs in again.
- A Summarized View option is available to reduce the header information and show more calendar days at once. This setting is a user setting stored in the UAO table.
Multi-School Views
Aeries has recently enhanced Student Attendance to allow users to view a student's attendance that exists in any school the student attended in the current year. However, only the Student Attendance at the school the user is logged into will be available to edit.
When logged into Student Attendance for a specific school, the default view is for that school. If you wish to view attendance details for this student at another school they attended, select the school from the drop-down menu. Notice that this view is Read-Only.
The Fill Periods, Update ATT Data, Refresh Totals, and Print Readmit Slip buttons are not displayed when in Read-Only view. The Legend, Print, and Print Attendance Notes buttons are available in Read-Only view.
Attendance is only editable at the school you are logged into.
Colors ↑
Absence codes can have a color assigned to them through the Update Absence Code page. If colors are assigned to an absence code, the colors will display on the Student Attendance page as well as the Attendance legend.
Information on assigning Absence code colors is described in this document Setup Absence Codes.
When colors are assigned to Absence codes, the Attendance page will display a color options feature so users can select how or if they want the colors to display.
Flex Period Headers ↑
Each student will have a different number of column headers display based on the number of Flex Periods they have in their Class Schedule at any given point throughout the school year. Each period column header will include the Period Short Title, the Start and End Time of the period, the Class Calendar name, the section number, Course Title and the name of the teacher for the class.
As the calendar page is scrolled, if the student schedule changes based on CAR records, the header display will change to reflect the matching classes per Course Attendance and will lock the period header to the top of the Attendance Calendar page.
In the example below, this student has a class schedule change for P4 and has a new class section and teacher. If a class was removed for a period and nothing replaces the class, the period will display with N/A in the header. The remaining calendar days in this column will be grayed out unless another change in the student's schedule is made where it will require a Flex Period to display.
Holidays or days where school is not in session based on the school's calendar setup will display a row that is grayed out and will display date ranges if they span multiple days.
If a particular class does not meet on a given date, the class will be grayed out for that particular day. If a class is marked as non-attendance (MST.ST = 'Y' or 'Z'), the dates will also be grayed out for that class.
Summarized View ↑
An option is available in flex schools using period attendance, Summarized View, that will change the page display, enhancing visibility by showing more calendar days at once. The option is a user option that when selected, will be stored in the User Account Options table (UAO) so the setting will be honored when the page is loaded again later by the user.
Enabling the Summarized View will hide all additional information in the Period Header, leaving only the flex period short title name and reducing the date rows to allow more visibility of calendar dates in the school year. When this option is enabled, the Options filter that includes Show Flex Period Time and Show Teacher will be temporarily hidden since they are not used in the Summarized View. When the Summarized View is not selected, the Options will display again and will load the previously saved User Account Options for this page.
Period Attendance ↑
Clicking in the All Day code field on the Attendance form will manually input an absence code for a specific date and auto-populate all the periods assigned for the day, depending on the Fill Periods option. Entering a code in the All Day field will populate the ATT.AL field and the Flex Period fields will populate in the CAT table.
Clicking a specific Period for a student on the Attendance form will manually input an absence code for individual periods stored in the CAT table.
Fill Periods will allow the user to default to these settings when entering absence codes on the Attendance screen.
- All Day code will go in every period the student has classes - The value entered in the all day code will go in every period.
- All Day code will only replace actual period absences - The value entered in the all day code will only replace the existing codes in the periods and will leave blank values 'as-is'.
- Do not allow All Day code to update the period absences - The value entered in the all day code will not overwrite any values in any periods
- Ask whenever an All day code - The user will be prompted with a message every time an absence code is entered into the All Day code prompting to replace the data in the periods
Selecting the Update ATT Data button, will result in the following:
- The Update ATT Data button will update a student’s attendance for a specified date range with the selected Absence Code from the dropdown. Any Unverified absence codes (usually "A") in the period fields will be updated by this process. Classes setup as meeting on different days will be honored based on the Class Calendars assigned to the sections.
- Update All Day code with this reason - The All Day code will be updated and will store code in ATT table (all-day code only).
- Fill all class periods with this reason - All class periods will be updated and will store code in CAT table.
- The Print button will print the student's attendance for the current year. Clicking the button will open Report Options and will include the following:
- Start Date - Enter the start date for the report options
- End Date - Enter the end date for the report options
- Detailed: Include All Dates - Will include all dates beginning with the first day of the Calendar to the last Day of the Calendar.
- Summary: Include dates where absence codes exist - Will include only dates that have any type of attendance code within the school day for all periods including the All Day Code.
- The Print Attendance Notes button will print all notes for the entire year or a specific date range.
- The Refresh Totals button will refresh totals after entry on the Attendance page. Both the totals and summary sections will be updated using the latest data including the CAT table.
- The Print Readmit Slip button will print from a receipt printer or from a laser printer.
Future Attendance Submission ↑
When updating future attendance, the system will prompt the user with 3 options:
- OK
- Cancel
- OK (Don't Ask Again)
Selecting the OK (Don't Ask Again) button allows the user to temporarily disable any further alert notifications while updating future attendance for the current student or any other student within the first 30 days from the current date until the user leaves the Attendance page. Upon reloading the Attendance page, the notifications will be enabled again.
If updating attendance will affect attendance totals and ADA reporting, such as the Monthly Attendance Report, a warning will display. It is recommended that attendance changes that affect ADA reporting be verified before continuing with changing the attendance data.
Preventing Orphaned Attendance Records ↑
When attendance is submitted in a Flex period school, the codes are stored in the CAT table and are linked by the section number. When a class is removed from a student's schedule and period attendance records exist for the section being removed, it is important to remove any attendance after the course attendance end date, otherwise orphaned CAT records will exist.
On the classes page, when the user deletes a class where future CAT records exist after the Course Attendance End Date (CAR.ED), the user will be prompted with a notification to Delete Att Records.
To avoid leaving orphaned attendance in the system for the class period, it is suggested that the user selects Yes to delete any existing attendance records after the class has ended. Selecting No will not delete the CAT records linked to the class being removed and the records will remain in Aeries as orphaned attendance records.
Selecting No to Delete Att Records will result in a red audit error message to display at the top of the student's schedule. These errors can also be identified by printing the Attendance Audit Listing - code AJ.
NOTE: Permission to delete the attendance record during a schedule change is inherited by the SEC permission. If a user has permission to delete the class, the user will inherit the necessary permissions needed to adjust CAR automatically and delete CAT records when the user selects "Yes" for Delete ATT Records popup alert. This special permission is only applied to this schedule change process. It is not necessary to grant the user any special permission to the ATT table in order to delete the attendance record as a result of the Delete ATT Records alert.
Attendance Enrollment ↑
The Attendance Enrollment page will display enter or leave records if a student has had their Attendance Initialized or dropped. Adding an Enter code (E) is usually done in mass at the beginning of the year or individually when a student enrolls after the first day of school. If a student has their Attendance Enrollment records ended during the school year, a Leave code (L) will display.
If a student's enrollment is ended by adding a Leave Record, the system will prompt the user to delete any existing attendance that exists after the leave date. Click Yes to delete the records.
When changing an existing leave date to an earlier date and attendance records exist, a message will display prompting to delete the records between these dates letting the user know there may be orphaned records. Click Yes to delete the records.
If the user selects to not delete these records, the student may end up with orphaned attendance records. These records will display on this page and the user with delete permissions to ATT will have the ability to delete these records individually. The orphaned records will display in two separate categories in a Flex School.
- All Day Attendance Without Enrollment - Will display the orphaned records coming from the All Day column which is stored in the ATT table.
- Class Attendance Without Enrollment - Will display the orphaned records coming from Class Attendance (period attendance) which is stored in the CAT table.
To delete these records on an individual basis, select the delete icon to the left of the date. After the message prompt appears, click OK.
NOTE: All orphaned Attendance or Class Attendance records will display on the Attendance Audit Listing. It is important to run this regularly and clean up any errors appearing on the report.
Student Attendance Report ↑
Navigate to View All Reports. There are two reports available for printing student's attendance: Student Attendance Report and Print Period Attendance for all Students Report.
The Student Attendance Report will open to a Report Options page. This report will print the currently selected student from the Attendance page. This report only prints for one student.
- Report Format - Select the report format desired, i.e. PDF
- Report Delivery - Email w/Link; Email w/o Link; None
- Start Date - Enter the start date for the report options
- End Date - Enter the end date for the report options
- Detailed: Include All Dates - Will include all dates beginning with the first day of the Calendar to the last Day of the Calendar.
- Summary: Include dates where absence codes exist - Will include only dates that have any type of attendance code within the school day for all periods including the All Day Code.
When the Detailed version is printed, the entire year will display on the report for each student.
When the Summarized version is printed, only days where attendance codes exist will display on the report.
All students will have a Summary at the end of the report to breakdown the attendance by period. A calculation of the Days Enrolled, Days present, excused and unexcused totals, tardies, etc. will display on the right. The Attendance Enrollment information will also display at the end of the report.
NOTE: The summary information will calculate based on the Report Option's start date and end date.
The report can also be printed using the Print buttons on the Attendance page. There is a printer icon located in the upper right corner with a print button in the dropdown. Also, a print button is available below the attendance data.
Period Attendance for All Students ↑
The Print Period Attendance for All Students Report will print for all students in the school. A query can be used to keep only a certain group of students. The options for this report are minimal. The report can be sorted by Name and can include Inactive Students.
