Office of Research, Development & Accountability REV. July 30, 2015

Administrative Class Based Attendance

Manual

For Administrators & Attendance Staff

Student Information Systems

“Our Mission is to provide comprehensive resources to

foster student achievement, decision-making and staff efficiency.”

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Table of Contents

Introduction & Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Procedural Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Process Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Teacher Documentation & Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Technical Troubleshooting & Helpful Information . . . . . . . . . 16

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Introduction to Class Based Attendance

For secondary schools, the process to record attendance has shifted from daily

attendance to collecting class based attendance. Teachers AND administrative

attendance staff will share the responsibility for maintaining student attendance

records. Attendance Office staff will continue to check in students, record late arrivals,

process notes, record early dismissals etc. The tasks and the software used to complete

those jobs in eSchoolPLUS have not changed.

Teachers will utilize eSchoolPLUS TAC or Teacher Access Center to record attendance,

to view the Morning Bulletin and to print attendance related reports. The tools for

accessing the data are different, but the records being updated are one in the same.

When a teacher records attendance thru TAC it is live and real-time and front office staff

will have immediate access. Vice versa, when admin staff enter late arrivals or absence

related information it is immediately available to teachers thru TAC.

Schools continue to have the ability to print bar code sheets if needed. Bar code scanners

can be used to enter student ids or they can be entered manually. The Attendance Entry

screen is used to record daily attendance for groups of students as it has been in the

past. On the Attendance Entry screen, each period attendance is to be recorded must

be identified as shown below. To select multiple periods of the day, hold the LEFT mouse

button and scroll over each applicable period. Once selected, the period(s) will become

highlighted in blue. If a student is absent for the entire day an entry must be made

for each period of their day.

*The Attendance Entry screen is essentially the same with identical functionality whether you record daily or class

based attendance. The noted difference being the PERIODS:* available to record attendance.

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Available Attendance Codes eSchoolPLUS Attendance allows for the tracking of official student attendance as well as providing an optional way to account for student whereabouts throughout the instructional day. In eSchoolPLUS ‘unofficial’ attendance codes have been developed. They are highlighted below. These codes are not official absence codes as dictated by MSDE.

For example, a student is scheduled to be pulled from class for testing tomorrow. The attendance office can proactively enter the code of ‘TST’ in the appropriate periods today. Tomorrow as each teacher opens TAC to record their attendance, they will see the entry of ‘TST’ providing an immediate explanation and accountability for the class absence.

If there are other standard reasons students are absent from class, schools may contact the eSchoolPLUS Help Desk to request additional internal codes.

The ‘unofficial’ local

attendance codes used to

track student whereabouts

during the day DO NOT

accumulate toward any

official absence. They are

informational only, they do

not equate to actual

absence.

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To update attendance for an individual student –

1. Log into eSchoolPLUS.

2. Navigate to the Student Center. Search and select the appropriate student.

3. Navigate to the Attendance Folder/Year View.

4. Select the appropriate date from the calendar view.

5. Make the necessary entries/updates.

a. Remember an entry must be made for ALL periods in which a

student is absent. For example if a middle school student is absent for the

entire day, an entry should be made in ALL eight periods. When processing

notes to indicate an absence was lawful, that entry must be made in each

period of the day as well.

b. No entry = Present. If a student is absent for an entire day but only half of

the teachers make an entry indicating such, the student will not be held

accountable for the entire day’s absence.

The most extreme example to date is a high school student who quit coming to school mid-year.

This student was scheduled into in work-study and SSL courses where attendance presents a

challenge and was not being monitored appropriately. At the end of the year the student’s name

appeared on a list to be awarded perfect attendance. It was at that time staff realized because no

one made absent entries each day, the student was counted present in eSchoolPLUS in error.

Bottomline, teachers need to record attendance for each class every day AND administrative

staff must monitor to ensure accurate, timely data entry.

It is CRITICAL

every teacher

is held

accountable

for recording

attendance for

each of their

classes in a

timely manner.

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Administrative end users have access thru eSchoolPLUS to enter the same

information teachers are recording in TAC. Attendance Office staff do not need to log

into TAC or impersonate teachers in TAC to complete any attendance related tasks

on behalf of a teacher or substitute.

Attendance Center/Attendance Entry By Class screen in eSchoolPLUS

Sample Attendance Entry screen from TAC for Comparison

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Procedural Overview of the Revised Attendance Process

The purpose of this overview is to allow each school’s administrative staff to walk thru the process,

digest the changes in procedure and then develop their own guidelines prior to the implementation

in August. It is also to provide school-based staff the information to offer instruction and guidance

to teachers responsible for taking TAC attendance as required.

Teachers were once required to take ‘roll’ and manually mark who was present and who was absent on paper when class began. TAC is simply automating that task. Teachers are encouraged to take attendance at the beginning of class.

o Teachers can easily click an ALL PRESENT icon from their home page for any class during the day where all students are in attendance. There is no need to open the class list if there are no absences to record.

o When attendance is recorded in a timely manner within each period of the day, schools can then rely upon the information to determine class cuts in real time.

Teachers record attendance Period 1 in eSchoolPLUS TAC within the first 20 minutes of the day or a set number of minutes determined by your school administration. This timeline will allow for the production of the standard Morning Bulletin at a specific, designated time each day.

If a student comes late to 1st period with a pass from the attendance office and the teacher has already taken their attendance, they are not required to go back and change their absent entry. The attendance office will update the entry based on the student checking in upon their arrival to school. If the late pass comes from the attendance office – no correction is required by the teacher as attendance staff will update accordingly.

If a student comes late to class with a pass from another teacher or staff member (not the attendance office) and the teacher has already taken attendance the teacher is required to go back at some point in time either today or within the next 24 hours and update the absent to Tardy. It is not the intention the teacher should stop instruction to make those updates. Teachers have the attendance day and the next day to make those updates.

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o If a student arrives late to class without an appropriate pass, the teacher should mark them ‘TU’ or Tardy Unexcused and proceed to assign discipline as determined by school administration.

If a teacher misses recording attendance for a particular class or classes, TAC allows them to go back one (1) prior day and record attendance. The teacher would have to ask the front office to make any entries in excess of one day overdue.

If there is a technical issue and TAC cannot be accessed or due to a calendar or scheduling issue teachers do not have access to the appropriate students to record attendance, revert to the Paper/Pencil method of collecting attendance. Bar code reports and bar code scanners can be used as they were in the past. There is a Substitute Attendance Sheet Report found in eSchoolPLUS that can be used to manually collect the information that will be entered by the Attendance Office. Each school can determine which tool works best for them. Your contingency planning throughout the year should have you prepared at any time to revert to paper/pencil for an individual class or for your entire building.

o Anytime attendance is recorded paper/pencil, teachers should be required to sign and date the rosters/bar code sheets to serve as the state mandated official source documentation for that date.

Substitutes will manually record attendance using a printed class roster and will not be using TAC. Attendance staff will be responsible for collecting and entering substitute attendance. As part of the teacher’s sub plan, they should make printed rosters available for substitutes. If they do not, attendance staff can run a roster from eSchoolPLUS without access to TAC and provide that report to the substitute.

Once attendance has been entered, teachers and front office staff can access the Morning Bulletin. The data is live and real-time, accessible by all staff using eSchoolPLUS and TAC.

At a set time each morning, the attendance staff or designated staff can run the ‘Missing Submissions Report’ which will provide a list of teachers who have not yet recorded their attendance in TAC. When running this report, an email can be generated to those teachers or you may opt not to use that functionality and possibly call or use another format to remind the teacher.

o ADMINISTRATORS it is critical you have a plan in place to monitor and address teachers who are not recording attendance in a timely manner. This monitoring should continue until all teachers are successfully recording attendance in a timely manner.

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Attendance Office staff will check in students, record late arrivals, process notes, record early dismissals, etc. as they have in the past. Attendance staff will be responsible for entering absences collected by substitutes each day and retaining the printed source documentation.

The attendance letter process is not changed or affected by the move to class based attendance.

If your school utilizes a call system or has a procedure in place to notify parents when students are absent, that process in not changed by moving to class based attendance.

Each school must provide the eSchoolPLUS Help Desk with bell schedules for any alternate day types. For instance 2 hour delay, 2 hour early dismissal, club day, etc. Any day that deviates from your normal periods of the day and the start and end times for those periods. The SIS Team will send out an email to solicit this information in August. Each alternate schedule must be defined in eSchoolPLUS.

MSDE auditing requirements - TAC based attendance allows for the migration from

printed, hard copy source documentation to electronic documentation of daily

attendance records. For auditing purposes, the Attendance Audit Trail Summary

Report captures ALL attendance entries made by admin attendance staff and

teachers.

To produce the Attendance Audit Trail Summary Report -

http://education.fcps.org/techservices/sites/default/files/MSDE_Attend_Audit_Source_Document%20_Audit%20Trail%20Summary%20Rpt.pdf

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Process Monitoring

The key to a successful implementation of class based attendance in your building is process monitoring. Administrative staff must have a process in place to monitor if teachers are entering their attendance accurately and in a timely fashion. Having a standard protocol to address teachers who are not in compliance is equally important. The Attendance Missing Submissions Report lists teachers who have not submitted attendance information in TAC for the specified periods on a selected date. A submission is considered missing until the teacher saves attendance for a class in TAC. Therefore even if no students are absent, the teacher should click the All Present icon to indicate they have made that determination and record that information electronically. Administrators can specify which users will receive the Attendance Missing Submissions Report via email by informing the SIS Team. The SIS Team will collect this information PRIOR to the start of the new school year.

To run the Attendance Missing Submission Report – 1. Log into eSchoolPLUS. 2. Navigate to the Attendance Center/Reports. 3. Select the Attendance Missing Submissions report. 4. Answer Prompts & Run.

*Staff can generate the report or it can be scheduled to run at a designated time.

Initially schools may

opt to run this report

after each class to

monitor which

teachers are not

meeting the

expectation to record

attendance during

each period. As the

year progresses

schools may decide to

run the report at the

end of each day OR

wait to run the report

the following day.

Admin staff may opt to run the

report AND also Send

Notification to the teacher(s) who

are missing submissions as a

report option.

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Reports

Listed below are some of the reports currently in use by schools taking class based attendance. Each school should explore the available tools.

Attendance Missing Submission

Attendance Audit

Class Cut Report – Period Based (ReportNet)

Class Cut Report – Period Based- Detail – MS Excel (ReportNet)

Morning Bulletin

Substitute Attendance Sheet Report

Morning Bulletin –

Teachers have access to the Morning Bulleting thru TAC. Admin users will access the Morning Bulletin from eSchoolPLUS.

1. Log into eSchoolPLUS 2. Navigate to the Attendance Center/Reports/Morning Bulletin 3. Enter Prompts

a. Select the Attendance Date (Today’s Date default) b. Show – All Students c. Building – Should default to your building d. Select Sort Order

4. Click Refresh Button

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Class Cut –

The Class Cut report and detail report in MS Excel format are ReportNet reports developed to assist schools recording class based attendance track student class cuts. 1. Log into eSchoolPLUS 2. Navigate to ReportNet 3. Select the Attendance Folder 4. Select one of the following

5. Answer prompts 6. Click on Finish

Class Cut Report – Detail – MS Excel

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Substitute Attendance Sheet Report -

This report option enables the front office to select and print a sheet so substitute teachers can take attendance manually as they will not have access to TAC. One page prints for each class taught by the selected regular teacher. These sheets should be signed by the substitute and returned to the attendance office for entry. They should then be retained as source documentation as bar code sheets have been in the past.

1. Log into eSchoolPLUS 2. Navigate to the Attendance Center/Reports/Substitute Attendance Sheet Report 3. Enter Prompts 4. Click Run

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Teacher Documentation For your information as you support your teaching staff in successfully recording class based attendance.

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Teacher Resources

Within TAC, teachers have access to online documentation.

Within TAC there is a comprehensive HELP feature available.

If there are issues that cannot be resolved at the building level, teachers are encouraged to reach out to the eSchoolPLUS Help Desk for assistance.

x45433 Internal line only, no outside calls

301-644-5337 External line

eschoolplus@fcps.org

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Technical Troubleshooting & Helpful Information

Help Desk for All staff – teachers, administrators, attendance staff, school based tech coordinators and gradebook managers who face challenges or have any questions should contact the eSchoolPLUS Help Desk for assistance at ext. 45433 internally, 301-644-5337 or by emailing eschoolPLUS@fcps.org.

o A successful model in place at several secondary schools includes the Technology Coordinator becoming familiar with the new procedure and taking on the role of liaison between the school-based staff and the SIS Team; essentially serving as the first line of support.

Internet Explorer is the only recommended and supported Internet browser for TAC. (Coming in SY’17, eSchoolPLUS and TAC will be upgraded and the new version will not be browser specific.)

TAC log in. Teachers currently taking TAC attendance have voiced their concerns regarding the log in procedure. To access TAC, teachers must essentially log in twice. Tech Services & FCPS network security staff have determined how to securely deploy TAC to teachers. It is the same way users log into any FCPS software from home or outside of the FCPS network. TAC is accessed thru VPN. The first log in required is for VPN. Once security is established, the second log in is for TAC. This is the recommended, secure log in procedure at this time.

“I was kicked out” or “The software timed out.” When fielding these calls the SIS Team has identified 3 main issues:

o It was caused by a momentary loss of connection to the network. Once network services are restored, the users are prompted to log back in.

o VPN timeout. FCPS Technology Services manages VPN accounts.

Currently they are set to timeout in two hours or 120 minutes. The majority of calls fielded by the eSchoolPLUS Help Desk to date have been VPN related.

o TAC timeout. TAC is set to timeout after 4 hours/240 minutes. It is

unlikely any teachers will experience a true TAC timeout as VPN is set to timeout well before TAC.

*The eSchoolPLUS Help Desk is available 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. to assist tech coordinators and teachers who are experiencing any difficulties with connectivity. Calling the eSchoolPLUS Help Desk when the issues arise will allow the SIS Team to remote in and better troubleshoot the exact cause of the issue.