Set up attendance, take it in lessons and follow absences

This guide follows attendance from start to finish: the school prepares the absence reasons and decides who is told about absences, teachers take attendance in their lessons, and parents and students follow it in SmartClass.

Who does what

• School management prepares the absence reasons and the attendance settings, in Academic → Settings.
• Teachers take attendance for their own lessons, in Teaching → Attendance.
• Parents and students follow it in Learning → Attendance, and receive a message about an absence when the school switches messages on.

1. Prepare the absence reasons

Absence reasons are what a teacher chooses for a student who is not present, for example an excused or an unexcused absence.

1. In Academic → Settings, open the Absence reasons card.
2. Choose Add absence reason. The form opens beside the list.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Reason: the name teachers and families see, up to 65 characters.
   • Short code: up to three characters, shown in compact attendance views.
   • Available to teachers: leave it on if teachers may choose the reason in their lessons. Turn it off for a reason only the school records.
   • Color: optional, for example #336699.
4. Choose Save.

Important: Absence reasons belong to the school’s country, so every school of your institution in that country uses the same list. A reason you add counts as an absence; only the built-in late reason counts as a late arrival. A reason marked System behavior, or one already used in attendance records, cannot be deleted.

2. Choose who is prompted and who is told

In Academic → Settings, open the Attendance card. Each card on the page is one setting and shows its Current value. Open a card, change the switch or choose a value, and choose Save at the bottom of the panel.

• Do not prompt teachers for attendance automatically and Prompt teachers only in the day's first lesson decide whether SmartClass offers a teacher the lesson in progress whose attendance is not taken yet.
• Let teachers edit attendance on other dates and Let teachers clear attendance on other dates decide whether a teacher may change or remove their own records for a day other than today. Today is always open to the lesson’s teacher.
• Automatic absence text message to the guardian sends a text message through the school’s SMS provider when a teacher completes a lesson’s attendance with an absence: Do not send a text message, At the first lesson and at the end of the day or For every lesson.
• Notify families in the app when a student is marked absent or late sends the guardian and the student a message in SmartClass, and a push notification to anyone who has not turned it off. It costs nothing and is independent of the text message. It is off until you switch it on.
• Remind the teacher when a lesson's attendance is not taken reminds the lesson’s teacher once, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes after the lesson starts. Do not notify turns the reminder off.
• Notify staff when attendance is not taken tells the staff members you choose, once a day, which lessons still have no attendance. Choose its Time and its Recipients. It is kept for the school’s current academic year, so a new academic year starts with it off.

Important: A setting changes only when you choose Save, and switching a message on sends nothing about attendance recorded before.

3. Take attendance in a lesson

Teachers open Teaching → Attendance. The page lists the day’s Scheduled lessons; change the Date, or choose a Batch or Class, to find another lesson. While one of your lessons is in progress and its attendance is not taken, the page says so and offers Take attendance.

1. Open the lesson with View.
2. Beside each student, choose Present or an absence reason. Notes are optional, up to 255 characters.
3. To give several students the same state, select them, choose the state under Attendance for selected students and choose Apply to selected. This changes your draft only.
4. Choose Save changes to keep your work without finishing, or Complete attendance and confirm. Completing marks every student still without a record as Present, except a student with an approved leave, and the lesson shows Checked in the list.

Important: Families are told only when you complete attendance, and only about a student marked absent or late; Save changes sends nothing. You can open a colleague’s lesson in your batches and classes, but not change it. Teachers who use the SmartClass mobile app can take attendance there too.

4. What parents and students see

Parents open Learning → Attendance. A parent with more than one child first chooses the child in the student list at the top of the menu. Students open Learning → Attendance to see their own record.

• The list shows each lesson in which the student was marked absent or late, with its date, time, absence type, teacher and class. Select a row to open its Attendance details, which also show the Explanation.
• When the academic year has grading terms, the top of the page shows Attendance, the totals for the current term and the Year, and Absence Type, the current term’s totals for each reason. Hourly then shows the list, and Daily totals the daily absences of each reason, term by term.

When the school has switched on Notify families in the app when a student is marked absent or late, the guardian and the student find a message about the absence in their SmartClass inbox, written in the school’s language, and a push notification unless they turned it off. When the school sends text messages, a guardian with a mobile phone number on record also receives a text.