Manual: Attendance

“No-Showing” a Student

The term "no-show" applies to students who are registered to attend a Jordan District school on the first day of school, but don't end up attending.  The District may still count for these students and get funding for them for the first ten days of the school year. Therefore, it is important to "no-show" a student correctly.  A student who is "no-showed" to another Jordan District school is handled differently than a student who is "no-showed" to a school outside of Jordan School District. 

Use the Information Systems No-Show Guidelines to correctly process a "no-show" student.

End-of-Year Attendance / “Same As” Days

Daily student attendance must be taken through the last day of the school year. Skylert notices continue to go home as students attend school through the end of the school year. Once the final Skylert message has been sent, the “Same-As” utility in Skyward may be applied to the last six days of attendance.  This utility allows a “best case scenario” to finalize school attendance reporting to USBE for the year.

Elementary school Skylerts go out at 10:30 am. The “same as” days may be applied any time after 10:30 am on the last day of school and must be completed by 5:00 pm on the last day of school.

Middle/High school Skylerts go out at 4:00 pm and must be completed by 3:00 pm. the following day.

Instructions for running the utility can be found in the Information Systems documentation. The utility will apply the attendance as follows:

• A student attends all six days: no change in their attendance.
• A student attends the first three days (of the six) and not the last three days: it changes their last three days of attendance to present.
• A student does not attend the first three days (of the six) but attends the last three days: no change to the last three days.
  Any attendance which shows as present will not be changed.

Run all the end-of-year attendance reports before running the utility in order to have accurate accounting of students’ actual attendance. Do not change any attendance showing as present.  Only absences on the last three (3) days will need to be compared to the first three (3) days (of the last six) attendance days for changes.

Ten Day Withdrawals

According to Utah Administrative Rule, a student must be withdrawn after ten (10) consecutive days of unexcused absences (R277-419-5).   The school shall send a certified letter notifying the parents of the pending withdrawal and provide adequate time for a response before withdrawing the student from school PRIOR to the actual withdrawal (see sample letter in the “Resources” section).

Excused absences do not fall under this rule, and therefore, do not require withdrawal.  An "excused absence" includes:

• Illness
• Hospitalization
• Home and Hospital services
• Any pending court investigation or action
• A pre-approved education leave

Schools shall withdraw students after ten (10) consecutive days of absence, unless they fit one or more of the exceptions listed above. The withdrawal date would be entered as of the eleventh day to show the previous ten (10) days as unexcused absences regardless of the total number of accumulated unexcused absences.

If it is determined that the pupil has left school for one of the following reasons: completion, dismissal, death, transfer or administrative withdrawal, the date of withdrawal must be the day after the last day of attendance or within ten (10) days after the last day of attendance.

Elementary
An elementary attendance day consists of two (2) periods. The first half of the day is considered first period and the second half of the day is considered second period.

Entering Absences using the "2-Hour" Method:

• If no attendance is entered into Skyward during the day, the student is considered present.
• If the student checks in during the first two (2) hours of the morning, the student is tardy.
• If the student checks in after the first two (2) hours of the morning, the student is absent for 1st period.
• If the student checks out after the first two (2) hours of the morning, the student is counted present ½ day (marking an absence for 2nd period).
• If the student checks in during the first two (2) hours of the afternoon, the student is counted present ½ day (marking an absence for 1st period).
• If the student checks in after the first two (2) hours of the afternoon, the student is absent all day.
• If the student checks out after the first two (2) hours of the afternoon, the student is counted as present, indicating the reason for leaving in Skyward.
• On short day, adjust the check in and check out hours to fit the shortened day.
  Enter attendance notes in Skyward in the “Comment” field of the attendance entry.

You may use Attendance notes in the Attendance tab to make any additional comments for check-in and check-out.

Entering Absences using the "Secondary" Method:

• When a student comes in late without a parent note or parent contact, the student is considered tardy (T).
• When a student checks in or comes in late WITH a parent note/contact, mark C-I.
• When a student  checks in or comes late without parent note after lunch, mark A for first period and T or C-I for second period.
• If a student checks out during the morning period (1st period), mark with a C-O.  If they will be absent the rest of the day, you may mark the 2nd period of the day as an excused absence (E).  If they return in the afternoon, change the E to a C-I.
• When a student checks out, mark C-O.
• If a student checks out and then back in during the same period, C-SP.

Be aware that when you use the check in and check out codes, they will report as a absence code for the period of the day in which they are entered.  If you choose the C code in the "Absence Types" when you  run attendance reports, they will count in the report absence totals.

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Secondary
A secondary attendance day consists of either a seven (7) or eight (8) period day.

• A student is considered present if no attendance is marked for the period. (Some schools use the Skyward positive attendance program which is entered differently. )
• Attendance is entered in Skyward by the end of each period by the classroom teacher.
• A student is considered tardy “T” if the student comes to class after the bell but within the first ten (10) minutes of class.
• If the student comes to class after the first ten (10) minutes of class they are considered “way late” and the attendance code of “W” may be entered in Skyward.
• Schools may set up attendance requirements in Skyward which trigger a “No Grade” in a student’s gradebook for students who have not met attendance requirements. An NG results in a loss of credit for that class. Schools may offer Attendance School for students to recover their credits due to absences. Students may be required to attend  and charged a fee (according to unexcused absent type) to attend Attendance School.

Attendance Codes

All schools use the standard set of attendance codes recorded in Skyward and listed on the Attendance Code Reference Sheet.

Schools may choose to add additional reason codes if needed and approved by the building principal. Because Skyward only allows for reports to be run on absence types, creating large numbers of absences reasons does not provide much in terms of utility or benefit. Schools should use the comment field whenever possible to clarify the details of an absence instead of creating an additional reason code.

Absence codes count in Total Attendance/Truancy for the period in which they were entered in Skyward attendance.

Education Vacation Leave

A student may be excused for up to a maximum of ten (10) days for Education Vacation leave provided prior arrangements have been made with the school for the student to make up his/her homework (JSD Policy AA432 - Student Attendance and Teacher Disclosure Statements). This procedure allows a student the educational experience of travel without scholastic penalty; however, it does disqualify the student for receipt of any awards associated with attendance (e.g. 100% attendance award, etc.)

Students must be allowed to make up work and earn points/credits missed during their pre-approved educational leave. 

Daily attendance shall be marked to indicate the days a student is away from school for Education Vacation leave (Skyward attendance code of ‘V’). The student shall not show present on the days they are away from school for Education Vacation leave.