Tempe School District #3 Synergy Student Attendance Information

Transcription

1 Synergy Attendance Tempe School District #3 Synergy Student Attendance Information

2 Attendance In Synergy, teachers will be taking attendance online each morning. They can choose to take attendance based on a class list or seating chart. This is an example of the attendance screen, by seating chart. Synergy will be pre-loaded with student photos once they have been loaded into Synergy (from last year), so teachers will see the students picture. Below the picture is the students name. From the left Class Info pane is displayed the Teacher s name, room number and period. The Menu Bar allows teachers to: switch to attendance mode (the calendar icon) display a class list instead of seating chart (green class icon) view grades takes them to Gradebook change classes (green book) go to current class (calendar day & clock) used if viewing a different classes information and needs to switch to current class. execute report (piece paper with printer on it) Note: Office staff will need to provide class roster for short-term subs (or teacher can print out and leave to sub) to manually take attendance. The office staff will have to enter and do the attendance for subs. Long-term subs will have a login and account for accessing Synergy just like teachers do. Page 2

3 Teachers can click on any student to get a list of student data they can View (only they can not change any of the data). They can look-up the student s health or registration information along with printing a student profile you will no longer need to do this for teachers. Below the Menu bar is displayed some details about the class, including number present and absent (once attendance is taken). Page 3

4 Switching to the attendance mode gives teachers the screen below. Teachers can simple click on the student who is absent which gives the student an unverified absence. When completed the teacher clicks the Save Attendance button. The attendance information is instantaneously available to the office staff. Sites will need to determine by what time in the morning teachers are to have attendance completed. Attendance clerks will need to continue the practice of calling parents to verify attendance and recording absences reasons. Office staff will be the ones to change the unverified absence, created by the teacher taking attendance, to the correct type of absence (excused, etc.). Page 4

5 When a teacher receives a new student or one withdraws, a pop-up window will appear the next time the teacher logs into Synergy to take attendance, notifying them that they have a new student or withdrawn one. The teacher needs to click the OK button to acknowledge the enrollment or withdrawal. Before starting attendance, it s recommended that the report (ATP602) is run. This report shows any teachers who have not yet taken attendance. It s located in the Attendance Reports menu group for office staff. Attendance Verification The most useful view for recording students absences is the Attendance Verification View. This view brings up the students that have been marked absent. (Note: you can access the parent phone number by clicking on the Parent Phone number icon.) Page 5

6 When getting ready to work on attendance, make sure you have a copy of your site s tardy calculator handy. It is very important that tardy, half-day and all day absences and leave early codes be recorded correctly as the state audits us this date and compares is to the sign in and out sheets. If you clicked on the Blue (underlined) date next to the student s name, it will open a detached absence window like the one displayed below. If the Parent Phone Number icon was on the Quick Navigation bar, you could access the parent information for calling them and then record the reason for the absence in the Attendance Note field and the Absence Amount. The only time the Absence amount should only.50, is when the student has a half day absence. The.25 and.75 amounts should never be used. Clicking on a Blue (underline) student name opens a detached window displaying student absence information. From here you can enter the type of absence. You still need to go to Daily Entry tab and record the reason for the absence in the Notes field and enter the Absence Amount (see screen below). Clicking on the student names link is good for seeing an overview of the student s attendance (several days and / or months). Page 6

7 Daily Attendance To access a student s individual attendance only (not all absent students on a given day), click on the Daily Attendance Menu Box icon, entering the student s name and clicking the Find button on the Action Bar. The student s attendance information is then displayed. The months and days are displayed. Locate the absence needing to be verified and changed. Clicking on the Quick Link for Parent s Phone Numbers will open a detached window displaying the student s contacts and phone numbers so parents or guardian can be called about the student s absences. Page 7

8 Once the reason for the absences has been determined, clicking on the Unv absence itself, will pop-up a list of absences reasons, select the correct one. The Daily Entry Tab allows for specific information to be entered regarding the absence. In the Attendance Note Field enter the reason provided by the parent or guardian for the student s absence (same as the data that use to be recorded on the back of the attendance cards). Be sure to enter the Absence Amount. Comments can be added to an attendance note field and if NO data is entered in the Reason field and the Absence Amount, it will NOT count towards tardies or absences. Page 8

9 Class Attendance Attendance can be taken by Class, click on the Class Attendance icon in the Menu Box List of teacher s students Enter the Staff members name in the Staff Name box to locate the staff whose attendance you need to verify. For either Elementary or Middle School attendance list, click on the unv absence to display the reason list and select a reason. Once again clicking on the blue (underlined) student name will take you to the student s specific attendance record, where you would need to enter the reason for the absence and the absence amount. Notes: The tardy calculator should be used to determine tardies verses half day absences or in all cases where students leave and return during the day. A tardy always has a 1.0 in the Amount field; it is never less than 1. Students, who make a habit of leaving early, need to have these early releases recorded so that we can track these students (and effects on their academic learning). No Daily Entry comments should be entered without a Reason code and an absence amount. There should not be any Unv Reason codes by the end of the school day, they should all be changed to a relative code for the absence even if that code is No Contact. Page 9

10 Filtering Attendance Reasons so only UV Codes are Displayed When working with the attendance verifications, the Reas 1 column can be filtered to show only the UV codes. This allows your verification list to display only those students that need to have parent contact/verification made. Right above the list of student names and the Section heading Attendance Verification List is the dimmed word FILTERS. At the other end of the row that says Filters, is an Arrow, click on the arrow to open and active the Filter Section. List of absent students When you click on the arrow, and open the Filter section, you will see options you can select or choose. In the Reason Type 1 box select Unverified. Page 10

11 Then click the Filter BUTTON (next to the date). Once the Filter button has been clicked, you will see just those students who have a reason code of UV. You can click the Arrow on the Filter Section to close it (allowing more of the student names to be displayed). Page 11

12 Once a listed student s parents have been contacted (or not contact has been made changing the code to NF for no contact) that students name will automatically drop off of the list when you click the SAVE button in the example above The student would drop off the list when his UV code is changed and the change is SAVED and the next student name will become the top name on the list. For those sites with more than 100 absences this Filter will allow your list to update, and students who are not displayed will be added to the bottom of the list. Once the Filter has been activated and students who have reason codes other than UV are removed, student number 101, 102, etc. (that you could not see before the Filter was activated), will now be on the list and displaying. Page 12

13 To Open and Print Attendance Letters Every morning each school Office Manager, Office Clerk and Office Assistant should receive 4 s with your attendance letters attached. This is located in the Attendance Conference Folder found on your First Class Desktop. Click to access s. The s will come from SYNERGYREPORTER@Tempeschools.org. Each represents a group of Attendance letters. The groups are as follows: , 6, 9, 12, 15, or 18 Unexcused Day Letters 18 Excused and Unexcused Letters Tardy Letters Leave Early At the end of the Subject line you will see either Problem or Success. (See print screen above). Success indicates that there are letter(s) attached to the . Note the Paperclip also to the left of the (this also indicates that there is an attachment in the ). Problem indicates there were no students meeting the criteria to generate a letter. (Note no Paperclip). There will be a message in the Synergy Student Attendance - JW Page 13

14 Open the first of your s. If message of No Data Found, this requires no action on your part. Close and open the next . If the has attachments you will need to determine which attachments need to be printed. The number of attachments may vary from day to day. You will only have to select certain attachments every morning. Not all are required. See list below No Action Required for the following Attachments: Any attachment named ATL_#_ TXT can be ignored. Any attachment starting with the word letters can also be ignored. When in doubt, open each attachment to see the detail. If not an actual attendance letter, close and go on to the next. Attachments that require action are any attachments that start with the word(s): Absence Thresholds Tardies Thresholds Leave Early Thresholds These 3 attachments contain the actual letter or form. If your school prints the daily list of letters that were generated, you will need to open the attachments that start with ATL, followed by _Absence or _Tardy. This is the List telling you what students have received a letter for a specific letter group. Page 14

15 Click on the printer icon located in the top left hand corner of the screen to print the list. Now you can close your attachment by clicking on the red X in the top right hand corner of your screen. (See above print screen) Follow these same steps for each attachment. After you are done with the entire process, DELETE YOUR S DO NOT SAVE! It is imperative that everyday your school receives these 4 s. If you open your Attendance Conference Folder in First Class and do not see your s from SYNERGYREPORTER@Tempeschools.org, you MUST make contact with someone in the Information Technology Department. This will typically be Armida, but if she is unavailable, please call Virginia Sample. Do not leave a voic or . Make sure to make person to person contact. No from SYNERGYREPORTER@Tempeschools.org indicates that there was a problem with the process. If the person who is typically responsible for the attendance process is out of the office, the Office Manager or Assistant needs to contact IT if there are no s. REMEMBER: ALL TARDY SLIPS AND LOGS MUST BE KEPT AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. These are used when we are audited by the auditors and the state retention laws apply to them. TARDIES AND LOG SHEETS Make sure all tardies and leave earlies are entered into Synergy each day. Make sure their arrival times and departure times are compared to the Tardy calculator to see if they are truly a tardy or a half-day / full days absence. Tardies have an Amount of 1.0 you can only be tardy once a day; however, if in checking the tardy on the calculator it becomes a half day absence, then the amount needs to be changed to.5. Page 15