Teacher Attendance Guide
The Focus Teacher Portal provides the necessary tools for teachers to accurately and efficiently record student attendance. Attendance is recorded in real time by period and the daily code is derived from period attendance. Attendance records are immediately available to administration.
Combining Sections
for Attendance
Prior to taking attendance for the first time, multiple sections of a course during the same class period can be combined for attendance purposes only. All students in the period will be listed as one class. Choosing this option does not combine the classes in the teacher gradebook, nor does it impact posting grades for the sections. This feature is beneficial for multi-level courses taught during the same period such as Band 1 and 2 or elementary grade level specials.
This option will only be displayed for teachers who have multiple sections scheduled during the same period. All sections will be listed in the section drop down.
Sections must be combined PRIOR to taking attendance the first time in a school year.
Accessing
Attendance
Option 1: Navigate to Attendance and select Take Attendance.
Teachers have two options for accessing the Take Attendance screen.
Option 2: Click on Attendance Portal Alert on the main Portal page.
Clicking on an alert will direct you to the Take Attendance screen for the section.
Regardless of the option selected, the first time attendance is taken the screen will default to the List View.
Accessing
Attendance
The following features are determined by district-defined settings:
Student List View
All students default to the Present code.
Click the radio button under the attendance code applicable to any non-present students, pursuant to district attendance policy.
A green check mark and message stating “You have taken attendance today for this period” will display.
The link “Click if you’re not finished” also displays. If an interruption occurs before finishing, this will keep the Attendance Portal Alert for the section displaying on the portal page until attendance is saved again. Once you select this link, the page refreshes and the checkmark no longer displays.
In the Today’s Attendance column, colored boxes populate as teachers take attendance.
Legend
Gray= Not Taken, Green= Present, Red= Absent, Yellow= Tardy
Student List View
Take Previous
Day(s) Attendance
Dependent on district settings, teachers can view and/or modify attendance for previous days without affecting the current day’s attendance. The number of days available for modifying and viewing are determined by district attendance policy.
Click the “X” by the current date to expand the summary of the previous days’ attendance. This is available in List view only.
All previous attendance records the teacher has permission to view or modify will display to the left.
Take Previous
Day(s) Attendance
The ability to modify previous attendance is pursuant to district attendance policy.
Click in the code drop down field to select a code for the student.
Click Save
Click Return to viewing today’s attendance to collapse the previous days’ attendance.
Other Features
Refresh
The Refresh icon allows teachers to refresh their attendance prior to clicking the Save button.
Student Photos
Teachers can select the photo icon to see an image of the student and access a menu of student information.
Absence Summary
The Attendance Reports commonly available to teachers are the Absence Summary, Attendance Chart, and Attendance Verification. Teachers may also print Sub Rosters with profile permission.
Absence Summary
The Absence Summary displays all district-defined attendance codes and how many periods those codes were assigned to students from the first day of the school year to the current date.
This is a view-only report; teachers cannot update attendance from this report.
Absence Summary
Click on Search without entering any criteria, or select Simple List to return the students for the section appearing in the course drop down.
By default, the report counts totals school days from the first day of school to the current date.
The attendance codes display in the column header and each column displays the number of periods for which the students received the specific attendance code.
Absence Summary
To display the Absence Summary for an Individual Student
Click on a student’s name from the class list to display the individual student’s Absence Summary.
Student Name
This will display how many periods the student has received each attendance code, total number of absences, total instructional minutes missed due to absences, late check-ins and early releases (if enabled) and the exact days any attendance code other than Present occurred.
Attendance Chart
The Attendance Chart displays the student’s attendance values over a specified timeframe.
Select Search without entering any criteria to return the students for the section appearing in the course drop down menu at the top right. You can also select Simple List for the same result.
Attendance Chart
If a field does not have a dotted line, the code was entered by the office, the district defined time period to change attendance has expired, or the student is not scheduled with the teacher for the period.
Attendance Chart
To view an individual student, click on the student’s name from the class list to view the student’s individual Attendance Chart.
Attendance Chart
Attendance Chart Colors and Symbols
Green - Present and/or any attendance code defined as present
Red - Any attendance code defined as absent
Yellow - Tardy
? -Presumed Present (attendance was not taken
- (grey dash) the student was not enrolled in the school on this date or school was not in session
* (asterisk) - The student was not enrolled in class on this date.
Attendance Verification & Sub Rosters
The Attendance Verification feature gives teachers the ability to confirm, print, and verify (sign) attendance. In addition, the same sheets can be used as a roster so a substitute can easily take attendance.
Attendance Verification & Sub Rosters
Attendance Verification/Sub Rosters Continued
Attendance Verification & Sub Rosters
Student Names print on the report based on preferences selected in Student Name Format