Originally presented by Sarkis Gharibian to the SoCal PS Users Group meeting, January
20th, 2012
Purpose
Efficiently notify parents of chronic absents/truants
To automate the creation of notification letters in
PowerSchool when students hit specific triggers or
thresholds (e.g. 3, 6, or 9 combined unexcused
absences and or truancies)
Enable the district to easily track the notification
status of students
Sample SARB Process
The first truancy letter is triggered by any combinations of 3 unexcused
absences and or 30+minute tardies and results in a student being classified
as a truant and being reported to the district attendance administrator. Letter
1 sent by mail with a copy forwarded to the District Attorney.
The second truancy letter is triggered by any combinations of 6 unexcused
absences and or 30+ minute tardies and results in a student being reported
as truant to the district attendance administrator. Letter 2 sent by
mail. School site will attempt to contact parent/guardian to schedule meeting
with school administration to review truancy problem to avoid further
measures.
The third truancy letter is triggered by any combinations of 9 unexcused
absences and or 30+ minute tardies and requires that the student be
classified as habitual truant and informs them they are subject to summons to
appear at the Student Attendance Review Board (SARB).
Initial Setup
Carefully read the PS7x_atn_user_guide
Utilize the Powerschool help button on each configuration page
Utilize the ATN Cheat Sheet for simplified guidance
Verify attendance codes and categories conform to ATN
requirements
It may require you to modify your existing attendance codes
Create 3 separate letters in ReportWorks or as Object Reports
School Setup:
Attendance Tracking Modes
Meeting Period to Day, Meeting Time To Day, Daily Code To
Day, etc.
Attendance Tracking Categories (e.g. Illness and
Unexcused)
Attendance Code Categories (associate each
with a single tracking category).
District Setup:
Set up your Tracking Methods
Percent is required
Tardy Day is recommended
Period/Interval is recommended
Be sure to update your calculation year at
the start of each year
Thresholds or “triggers”
Trigger 1 – any combination of THREE
unexcused absences or truancies (defined as a
tardy > 30 minutes).
Trigger 2 – any combination of SIX Unexcused
absences or Truancies
Trigger 3 – any combination of NINE Unexcused
absences or Truancies
Note: You can customize the triggers to only include absences or to
different numbers (e.g. 5 unexcused absences per semester)
Attendance Code Rules:
• Must be associated with the correct
Attendance Code Category in order to track
attendance.
• Absent Codes must have an Absent presence
status (Unexcused and Illness).
• Tardy codes must have a Present presence
status (Tardies).
Three new fields!
UEAT_Absent_Dates (e.g. 9/15/2012, 10/5/2012)
UEAT_Trady_Dates* (e.g. 1/17/2013)
UEAT_Date_Reached (e.g. 1/17/2013)
*(that’s supposed to be TARDY, but Pearson actually spelled
it TRADY – no joke!)
These new fields only become active in your system AFTER
you run the FIRST EXTRACT.
In short:
Attendance codes must be associated with the
appropriate attendance code category.
Attendance code categories must be set up to
identify types of attendance.
Separate attendance code categories must be set up
for unexcused tardies and unexcused absences.
Attendance code categories must be associated with
attendance tracking categories.
Weekly Process
First, log in at the site level and run “Refresh Premier
Attendance Views”
Second, log in at DISTRICT level and:
Run System Report – “Refresh Attendance Tracking
Data” (Only once per week, right before you run
extract report and letters)
This updates the data in the [UnexcusedHistorical]
and [UnexcusedNotify] tables.
School Level
Log back in to SCHOOL level
Then run the “Truancy and Attendance Letters
(View Only) report. Verify that everything is o.k.
If all is good with the report, save the students
as a stored selection.
Weekly Process (Cont.)
Run the “Truancy and Attendance Letters
(EXTRACT)
Immediately select the students identified and
print appropriate letter (1, 2, or 3)
2 Tables Store ATN Data:
[UnexcusedHistorial]
[UnexcusedNotify]
Note: Attendance tracking and notification
data is collected using a different process than
basic PowerSchool attendance.
The ATN Process Does Not:
Store data in the ATTENDANCE table
Alter existing attendance reports in any way
Thanks!
The majority of the this presentation was
created by Sarkis Gharibian
sgharibian@csmci.com
For more information about this appended
presentation, please contact Keith Wright
(kwright@ramonausd.net) or Todd Barker
(barket12000@gmail.com)