6th Annual
Focus Users’ Conference
Attendance
Presented by:
Bridget Foster
Attendance Agenda
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Key Functions of Focus Attendance Module
Attendance Code Setup
System Preferences
Period Setup
Section Level Setup
Teacher Attendance Options
• List View
• Seating Chart
 Teacher Completion Report
 Administrative Attendance Functions
• Update Attendance
• Create Attendance Rosters
• Mass Add Absences
 Attendance Reports
• Attendance Chart
• Absence Summary
• Attendance Verification Sheets
• Perfect/Excessive Absences
Key Functions of Focus Attendance
 Daily attendance or period-by-period attendance
 Customizable Attendance Codes
 Add Absences en masse for student groups
 How many students marked absent
 How many teachers have not taken attendance
 Variety of attendance reports at the individual or group level
 Ability to merge attendance data with other data for detailed
analysis of student performance
 Ability to automate parental alerts of absences via email,
letters or portal alerts
Attendance Module
 Real-time alerts show administrators
What’s New in Focus
Assigning a color to Attendance Codes
System Preference to use Percent of Periods to calculate Daily Attendance
Attendance Module
System Preference to allow teachers to comment on period attendance
Setting Up Attendance Codes
Attendance Codes
• To set up new or edit existing attendance codes go to
the Attendance menu > Setup > Attendance Codes
• To edit a code, click on any blue-dotted field
Attendance Codes
• To delete an existing code, click on the - sign
IMPORTANT: Do not delete a code if it has been used in the
current school year. Deletion should only occur before the school
year begins
• To add a new code, click on the + sign at the bottom left and
complete the fields
New Attendance Codes
Complete each box for the new code:
• TITLE
The title of an attendance code serves as a description of the code. Examples
include Present (needs to be a code), Unexcused Absence, Medical Absence,
Out-of-School Suspension, etc.
• SHORT NAME
The short name serves as the abbreviation of the code. Short names for
attendance codes are usually 1-3 characters in length.
Examples include U or UA for Unexcused Absence, P for Present, etc.
In the Absence Summary for a student, the Title of the attendance code appears in
the daily attendance field, while the Short Name appears for the period attendance.
SORT ORDER
TYPE
The type field determines whether or not a teacher can use the
attendance code when taking attendance. From the pull-down, choose:
Teacher & Office: allows teachers to enter the attendance code
when taking attendance.
Office Only: This will restrict usage of the attendance code to only
office staff. The code will not appear on the Take Attendance screen
for teachers.
New Attendance Code
The sort order of the attendance codes will determine the order in which the
codes appear in any pull-down menus such as on the Attendance
Administration screen
DEFAULT FOR TEACHER
STATE CODE
This field determines whether the attendance code indicates the student
was present or was absent for state reporting purposes.
EXCUSED
This field indicates the attendance code represents an excused absence.
Check if YES and leave blank if NO
TARDY
This field indicates the attendance code represents a tardy.
Check if YES and leave blank if NO
DISCIPLINE
If an attendance code is marked for discipline, the code will appear as an
option when adding action to the discipline referral.
New Attendance Code
Only one attendance code should be selected as default for teacher. When
the teacher takes attendance, students will automatically be assigned the
default attendance code which most districts set to Present. The teacher
can then modify the code for applicable students.
Changing Attendance Codes
IMPORTANT
Changes to attendance codes during the school year are not automatically applied
to previous attendance.
If the change needs to be applied to previous attendance data, then attendance must
be recalculated for the specific time frame. To recalculate attendance:
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Open the Attendance menu and select Recalculate Daily Attendance.
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Select a timeframe.
If attendance needs to be recalculated for all schools, select the Run for all schools
checkbox.
Click OK to recalculate attendance.
Reasons to Recalculate Daily
Attendance
1. If you change a code from Daily – Present
2. If you change the System Preference for how attendance is
calculated, such as switching from Minutes to Percent of
Periods
3. If you change the bell schedule enough to affect the
attendance calculation
System Preferences
Daily Code Calculation
• Attendance daily codes can be calculated using total time present. This setting is
found in System Preferences. A district default can be set, however, this setting
can be changed for specific schools.
• If half-day present is not tracked, put a value that is greater than the minimum
minutes needed for full-day present in the half-day present field as seen above.
• If half-day present is tracked, then enter the appropriate minimum minutes in
the field.
System Preferences
Daily Code Calculation
This setting impacts the student Absence
Summary Report
System Preferences
Teacher Access for Attendance
• The number of days that teachers can view and modify previous days’ attendance is
also set in System Preferences.
• If an administrator has entered an attendance code, the teacher will not have the
ability to edit the code regardless of these settings.
• On the Take Attendance screen for teachers, previous attendance will appear to the
left of the student’s name.
System Preferences
FTE Attendance Period (Texas Districts)
• Texas districts can choose a specific period or Vary the Periods for taking
attendance for FTE reporting purposes
• Be sure that the FTE attendance period is
marked Used for Attendance in the
Periods setup screen.
(See next 2 slides for explanation)
Setting Periods to Take Attendance
• Be sure that the Length (minutes) field in the Periods setup is
accurate for each period as this impacts the Daily Attendance
code for Present
Secondary
• Check “Used for Attendance” if the period counts towards the
Daily Attendance minutes
Period Setup
For Attendance
Elementary
Periods can be set to take attendance at the Section level as well:
• Go to Scheduling > Setup > Courses & Sections
o Select the Subject
o Select the Course
o Select the Section
o Check “Takes Attendance”
o Click SAVE in the top right corner
Period Setup
For Attendance
Teacher Attendance
• Teachers access attendance by clicking the link on the Portal Alert
or using the Attendance > Take Attendance menu tab.
Teacher Attendance
Options
• There are two options to select from: List View or Seating Chart
• The screen defaults to whichever option was last used
by the teacher to take attendance
I
remember!
Teacher Attendance
Options
Teacher Attendance using List View
• The attendance codes that teachers have been given access to will
appear as columns to the right of student names.
• Attendance for the current day is taken in those columns.
• If enabled in System Preferences, Previous Days’ attendance is
displayed on the left of the screen.
• Attendance taken in other periods that day is displayed in the
boxes immediately to the left of student names.
Teacher Attendance using List View
Teacher Attendance
Options
• If an administrator has entered an attendance code for a
student, that code will display for the teacher
• Teachers cannot override codes entered by administration
• In the rare situation where a student is scheduled into two
different sections for the same period, the teachers will
receive conflict messages indicating that attendance has
already been taken for the student. The exception to this is if a
CTE School has set the System Preference to allow attendance
for more than one section in a period
Teacher Attendance Using the Seating Chart
remembers
which view you
used last
Teacher Attendance
Options
• Seating Chart view is interactive
• Must select action: Enter Attendance or Move Pictures
• All students listed Present by default
o Click on code above picture to change attendance or
o Use “All Students Are Present” link at top right if no
changes are necessary
o Each action is autosaved
Focus
Teacher Completion
Report
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Administrators will have daily Portal alerts indicating how many teachers have not
taken attendance that day and how many teachers did not take attendance the
previous day.
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These alerts can be clicked to open the Teacher Completion Report directly or go
to Attendance > Reports > Teacher Completion
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A red X indicates that a teacher has not taken attendance for a specific period.
Administrators can take attendance for teachers by clicking the red Xs.
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Clicking on the teacher name displays a completion report for only that teacher
for the previous school days.
Teacher Completion
Report
Clicking on a red x for a teacher opens the Take AttendanceTeacher Program window and administrators can take
attendance for that teacher.
The pull-down menu above the calendar pull-down allows you to switch
between the different sections for that teacher.
Administrative
Attendance Options
Attendance Administration Feature
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Administrators receive Portal Alerts indicating the number of students marked with a Daily
Code of Absent for the current and previous day. Clicking on these alerts opens the
Administration report
The number of students showing on the report will be higher than the number shown on the Alert
because the report includes all students with a daily code of Absent PLUS students with any other NonPresent attendance code in at least one period.
Administrative
Attendance Options
Attendance Administration Report
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Date to pull attendance
Filter the report by one or multiple attendance codes; Click + to add codes
Hover over the phone icon to display contact information for student
Shows the Daily Attendance code earned as set by System Preferences
Comments about the attendance notated here
Use this field to apply a code to all periods at one time
Click UPDATE
Modify individual class period codes here
after making
changes
Administrative
Attendance Options
Attendance Administration Report
If a student has been scheduled into two classes the same period and
neither teacher has marked the attendance, administration can fix it
here for the class the student is actually attending.
Administrative
Attendance Options
Add Absences
The Add Absences screen can be used to assign attendance codes to multiple students and for
multiple days. To access the Add Absences screen, go to Attendance > Add Absences.
Examples for which the Add Absences screen is useful:
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A student brings a doctor’s note excusing them for the entire week.
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An entire class needs to be marked with an attendance code for a field trip for
the afternoon.
Use the Student Search for one student and More Search Options for a
specific group of students
Administrative
Attendance Options
Add Absences
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Select the periods to which the absences will be added
Select the Absence Code/Reason for the absence
Select the dates the absences will apply
Select the student or students for which the code applies
Click the “Add Absences to Selected Students” button
Attendance Chart
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The Attendance Chart is used to view and update the records of student absences by
attendance code and in a specified frame of time.
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View individual students or a group of students using the Search features
From the Attendance menu, select the Attendance Chart
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Select the time frame to view the attendance
Select Daily to view only or select a Period to edit
Hover over the icons to see what the codes mean:
Attendance Reports
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Attendance Chart
Click on the student name to see the student’s absences for all
courses if Daily is selected
Attendance Reports
Attendance can be edited
from this screen
Absence Summary Report
The Absence Summary report allows you to review school-wide
attendance information over a specified date range.
 Access the report from Attendance menu > Absence Summary
The report provides totals and % ages of absences by
student for each Attendance Code in use
Attendance Reports
 View individual students or a group of students using the Search
features
Absence Summary Report
 View individual student Summary by clicking on student name
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A blank cell means the student has no class that period
A dash in the cell means attendance was not taken that period
Totals by Attendance Code in days and periods
Average Daily Attendance data
Administrators can update student attendance using:
• Fill All Periods
• Individual Periods
• + Add Absences button at top right corner
Attendance Reports
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Absence Summary Report
 If a student is co-enrolled, the Absence Summary will be broken
out for both schools
Attendance Reports
Comparing Attendance Chart to Attendance Summary
Both can be viewed by all students, individual students, or specific group
Both can be viewed by specific time frame and by Daily or Period Attendance
Both allow updating when viewed at the individual student level
Attendance Chart shows attendance by code only for the specified date range
Attendance Summary shows overall attendance totals and percentages for all
codes for a specified date range
Attendance Chart vs.
Attendance Summary
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Perfect Attendance/Excessive Absences Report
• Access the Perfect/Excessive Absences Report from
Attendance Menu > Reports > Perfect/Excessive Absences
Perfect Attendance
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Students that have less than or equal to the set threshold of
absences will be listed.
The timeframe can be set for the entire school year, month-todate, or a specific quarter.
Excused absences can also be ignored.
Attendance Reports
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Excessive Absences Report
Any students that have greater than or equal to the set
threshold of absences will be listed
Attendance Reports
Attendance Verification Sheets
The purpose of the Print Verification Sheets feature is to allow teachers to
see attendance from a bird’s eye view to confirm, print, and sign-off for
auditing purposes and state reporting.
Attendance Reports
Verification sheets can also be used as Substitute Teacher Attendance Rosters.
1. Specify the Teacher, Period and Timeframe for which to print
the reports
2. Select One page per class or One page per day per class
(includes columns for attendance codes for Sub Roster)
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Check Page Breaks between sections and Print Teacher
Signature Lines
2. Select Print at the bottom of the box.
Attendance Reports
Attendance Verification Sheets
One Page Per Class
Codes:
? Means student is presumed Present
- Means student wasn’t enrolled in the school
* Means student wasn’t enrolled in the class
Attendance Verification Sheets for Sub Roster
Attendance Reports
One Page Per Day Per Class selected
6th Annual
Focus Users’ Conference
Presented by
Bridget Foster, Software Trainer
bridgetf@focusschoolsoftware.com
727-388-1454
Thank You
Please be sure to complete the comment card for this session and
enjoy the rest of the Users’ Conference!