PowerSchool Attendance Letter for Utica School District€¦ · attendance letter sent to the...

PowerSchoolUticaAttLetter.doc 08/12/2009

1of 13

PowerSchool Attendance Letter for Utica School District Attendance letters are mailed to parents when a student has exceeded a set number of excused/unexcused absences in a school class room (period). PowerSchool reports have the ability to list attendance totals by class room, but it is difficult to scan all the students for each school period. In place of a PowerSchool report, a screen is provided with several input parameters, identifying students with excessive absenteeism. The screen summarizes absence counts in a class period, within a school semester, for each attendance letter absentee criteria. PowerSchool absentee reporting consists of:

Student fields ABS_LETTER_MISD and ABS_LETTERDATE_MISD indicate the last attendance letter sent to the parents and the date the letter was sent.

An online form lists all students in the school semester, reaching a defined number of absences.

An online form is used to update the student attendance letter and attendance date. A PowerSchool report is run to create the attendance letters. The students printed in the

attendance letters are selected by using the attendance letter date (ABS_LETTERDATE_MISD).

The attendance letter refers to the student attendance letter number, changing the text in the letter according to the severity of the absenteeism.

The absence letter number and date is updated for each student. This process can be tedious and is not required to be done each day. The selection screen has a “last attendance date”, which is used to identify new attendance records added since the last review period. Only students with new attendance changes, made in the current review period, are necessary to update.


2of 13

Beginning of Semester Initialization At the beginning of each school semester, blank out the ABS_LETTER_MISD and ABS_LETTERDATE_MISD student fields. Select all the students in the school building.

Start Page > Special Functions > Group Functions > Student Field Value Enter the Absence letter attribute and Absence letter date. Check the “Clear Field Value” option. Press submit to blank the absence reporting fields.


3of 13


4of 13

Attendance Letter Selection Criteria Schools use two sets of criteria, placing students in credit review status.

The “Send Letters at” indicate limits reached for excused and unexcused absences. The limits are defined as: Option 1 Option 2 Absence limit 3 2 Credit review for excess of unexcused absences in a period 7 4 Credit review reaching excused absences with a new unexcused absence15 8 Credit review limit for excused absences 2 1 Warning for reaching limit on unexcused absences 7 4 Warning for reaching limit on excused absences


5of 13

The matching attendance letter has the five credit review checks, printing the dates and counts by class period.


6of 13

The order of processing the attendance letter is arranged in increasing significance. Letter #

Option 1

Option 2

Absence limit Definition

1 2 1 = unexcused absences Warning for … unexcused absences 2 3 2 >= unexcused absence reached Credit review for … unexcused

absences 3 7 4 >= excused absences reached Warning for … excused absences in a

period 4 7 4 a unexcused absence is

included after reaching the excused absence limit

Credit review because of an unexcused absence subsequent to … or more excused absences.

5 15 8 >= excused absences reached Credit review because of … absences

Daily letter creation If the absence review process is run for each school day, then the limits can be checked for the minimum absence occurrence. The absence changes are analyzed for the current school day. This may be an easier procedure than to analyze the letters on a weekly basis or bi-weekly basis. For each letter, select the following input parameters:

Select the valid set of excused and unexcused absence codes used in your school for reporting purposes.

The Start date is set to the beginning of the school semester. The End date is set to the current school day being analyzed. The Min/Max frequency is entered according to the letter number and absence criteria,

following the pattern in the table referenced above. PowerSchool meeting attendance is by classroom and/or period. PowerSchool daily

attendance is only taken once a day. Please select “daily” or “meeting” attendance. Do not select both check boxes.

The last date >= is set to spaces. Setting the end to the current school day examines all the absence records up to the day being examined.

The input screen saves data input, except for the daily/meeting attendance check box.


7of 13

The example screen shows the selection of unexcused absences on the first day of school, looking for one unexcused absence in a class period. Start Page > Attendance Count Report

Proper entry of the input selection parameter should only display the students with absences equaling the input criteria on the school day be analyzed.


8of 13

Click on the absence count to update the letter number and date Clicking on the student absence will display a pop up form to update the letter number and absence date. The form displays the student records, using the selection criteria to calculate the absences. Note: please insure you enter a full 8 digit date with leading zeros. PowerSchool does not perform date formatting very well. Example: 06/07/2009 will make selecting the students for the tardy report much easier. Press the submit button to change the letter number and date. The close button may be used to return to the report without updating the student data.


9of 13

Letter 1 – identify first unexcused absence limit Select only the unexcused absence codes used in the calculation. Obtain the list of students with 1 or 2 unexcused absences for the school day and update the student letter number and date. Letter#

Attend codes

Start End Opt 1 Min

Opt 1 Max

Opt 2 Min

Opt 2 Max

1 U 09/01/2009 School day 2 2 1 1

Letter 2 – credit review for reaching the second unexcused absence limit Select only the unexcused absence codes used in the calculation. Obtain the list of students with 2 or 3 unexcused absences for the school day and update the student letter number and date. . Letter#

Attend codes

Start End Opt 1 Min

Opt 1 Max

Opt 2 Min

Opt 2 Max

1 U 09/01/2009 School day 3 3 2 2

Letter 3 – warning for reaching excused absence limit Select the excused absence codes used in the calculation. Obtain the list of students with 4 or 7 excused absences for the school day. Letter#

Attend codes

Start End Opt 1 Min

Opt 1 Max

Opt 2 Min

Opt 2 Max

1 E 09/01/2009 School day 7 7 4 4


10of 13

Letter 4 – credit review for additional unexcused absence Select the excused and unexcused absence codes. Check to see if the last absence was an unexcused absence. A special report program is in process to remove this entire procedure. Letter#

Attend codes

Start End Opt 1 Min

Opt 1 Max

Opt 2 Min

Opt 2 Max

1 U, E 09/01/2009 School day 8 999 5 999

Letter 5 – credit review for reaching limit for excused absences Select the excused absence codes used in the calculation. Obtain the list of students with 8 or 15 excused absences for the school day. Letter#

Attend codes

Start End Opt 1 Min

Opt 1 Max

Opt 2 Min

Opt 2 Max

1 E 09/01/2009 School day 15 15 8 8


11of 13

Printing the absence letter Select all the students for the initial selection.

From all the students, select students with the current absence letter date. Enter the date as an eight (8) digit number.


12of 13

For the selected student(s) print the absence report. Start page > Special Functions > Group Functions > Print Reports Choose the absence report created for your school building. Verify the “courses enrolled during current term” option is set. Click on submit.


13of 13

An absence letter is printed for your school building. The report may be changed to meet your particular school requirements. The decode statement is used in the report to change the letter text, depending on the letter number. The decode statement has a limit to the number of characters it will insert per letter. An example decode statement is used to change the text in the letter: ^(decode;^(ABS_LETTER_MISD);1;one (1) unexcused absence;2;two (2) unexcused absences;3;four (4) excused absences;4;unexcused absence subsequent to four (4) or more excused absences;5;eight (8) excused absences) The decode statement consist of:

1. The decode statement ^(decode, followed by a semicolon. 2. The value to translate from, or in the example the letter number ^(ABS_LETTER_MISD),

followed by a semicolon. 3. The first value to decode, followed by a semicolon (1 is the letter number one). 4. The related text for letter one, followed by a semicolon. 5. The second value to decode followed by a semicolon, etc. 6. The related text for the letter number etc. 7. The end of the decode statement has a closing right parenthesis “)”.

PowerSchool has an unknown limit on the text entered for each “decode” statement. Please limit the substitution text to one or two sentences. A paragraph can be built using multiple “decode” statements.

PowerSchool Attendance Letter for Utica School District€¦ · attendance letter sent to the...

Documents

Transcript of PowerSchool Attendance Letter for Utica School District€¦ · attendance letter sent to the...