Arizona Attendance Reporting Methods

Contents

Arizona Attendance Reporting Methods (SAIS Attendance Modes)

This document describes the Attendance Methods currently in use by Arizona State reporting. It describes legacy reporting methods and describes new attendance functionality implemented in the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years. This document does not discuss AOI Attendance. For Arizona Online Instruction (AOI) school setup instructions, please see the following Knowledge Base Article on PowerSource: Arizona Online Instruction (AOI) Information Page.

Note: This article is intended to help districts make decisions during implementation or when setting up the next school year. Unless there is a compelling business reason driving the decision, it is best practice to not implement substantial attendance-related changes in the middle of the school year.

Overview / Timeline

Prior to the 2017-18 School year, Arizona State reporting only supported the following Attendance Reporting Methods for traditional students (Not homebound, AOI, etc.):

• Meeting - Period to Day
• Meeting - Time to Day

Arizona Attendance Methods implemented in 2017-2018:

• High School
• Method 1: Percent Periods Attended
• Method 2: Minutes Attended

• K-8 Schools
• Daily - Code to Day
• Daily - Time to Day
• Percent of Day Present

• Alternative School
• Minutes of Attendance

Arizona Attendance Method implemented in 2018-2019 (After installation of PowerSchool 12.1.1)

• Use Core Conversions
  • Note: The Use Core Conversions method replaces all the above methods except for the Alternative School Minutes of Attendance option. This option tells AzEDS publishing to send Minutes instead of Absences for Alternative Schools.

See below for additional information about each of the above Arizona Attendance Methods.

New Attendance Methods and Functionality Introduced in 2018-2019 (PowerSchool 12.1.1+)

In the 2018-19 School Year, PowerSchool version 12.1.1 included significant attendance changes that benefit Arizona schools. These changes include Meeting Period Clock-in/out functionality, a Percent Attendance Conversion, and support for state-specific class exclusions (JTED Enrollments). After the release of PowerSchool  version 12.1.1, the Arizona State Reports and pages are updated to implement the following changes to make use of new Core Product Attendance Features:

• Migration of Arizona Clock-in/Clock-out records to the Core Attendance Clock-in/Clock-out tables when Core Meeting Clock-in/out functionality is enabled for a school/school year.
• Ability to select the 'Use Core Conversions' Arizona Attendance Method.
• Automatic calculation of JTED Exclusions during the PowerSchool Nightly Process (and use by Core attendance reports in their calculation).
• Arizona paper reports updated to use the same Attendance reporting views as Core attendance reports when the 'Use Core Conversions' SAIS Attendance Method is selected.
• AzEDS Publishing updated (on January 31, 2019, State Reporting release) to use the same Attendance reporting views as Core attendance reports when the 'Use Core Conversions' SAIS Attendance Method is selected.

Important: With the above changes to Core PowerSchool Attendance, and the changes to state reporting, it is now possible to configure Core Attendance Conversions to match Arizona state reporting needs (except for AOI). With this in mind, State Reporting has introduced a new SAIS Attendance Method: Use Core Conversions.

Use Core Conversions

The 'Use Core Conversions' SAIS Attendance Mode is displayed on the Attendance Preferences page after installation of PowerSchool 12.1.1. When this option is selected, the Arizona state reports calculating attendance bypass the Arizona-specific attendance calculations written into the reports, and instead pull attendance values from the Core Attendance Views (PS_ADAADM_Defaults_All, etc.). These are the views used by the Core attendance reports when reporting the calculated presence and absence amounts.

Recommendation: It is recommended that ALL Arizona districts start using the 'Use Core Conversions' SAIS Attendance Method in the 2019-2020 school year.

Benefits of using 'Use Core Conversions':

• The 'Use Core Conversions' method supports all other SAIS Conversion Methods in a single method.
• Core attendance calculations will match state-reported values.
• Can use Clock-in/out functionality (or not), based on a school's needs.
• Using FTEs, schools can specify groups of students within a school use certain methods/conversions, while other students use different methods conversions.

Student FTEs

When using the 'Use Core Conversions' SAIS Attendance Mode, it is necessary to designate an Attendance Method and Mode for each FTE at the school.

1. Select a school.
2. Navigate to Start Page > School > Full Time Equivalencies.
3. Select a Full-Time Equivalency, choose the appropriate 'Default Attendance Mode' and 'Default Attendance Conversion', and click Submit.
4. Repeat for each listed Full Time Equivalency.

Note: If you have different reporting needs for different groups of students, it may be necessary to create more than one Full-Time Equivalency.

• For instance, if you have a 6-12 school (all 1.0 FTE), you can have one FTE for your 6-8 students with a Meeting - Percent Time conversion (for example), and another FTE for your 9-12 students having either a Meeting - Time to day, Meeting - Period to day, or Meeting - Percent Period conversion.

Recommendations for Default Attendance Mode and Default Attendance Conversion:

• Grades K-8:
  
  • Using Core Clock-in/Clock-out:
    
    • Mode - Meeting | Conversion - Percent Time
    • Mode - Daily | Conversion - Percent Time
  • Not using Clock-in/Clock-out functionality:
    • Mode - Meeting | Conversion - Period Day
• Grades 9-12:
  
  • Method 2: Mode - Meeting | Conversion - Time to Day
  • Method 1: Mode - Meeting | Conversion - Percent Period
    • Note: Not recommended for less than 1.0 FTE students

Attendance Conversions

When using the 'Use Core Conversions' SAIS Attendance Mode, it is necessary to set up Attendance Conversions to calculate accurate Absence Amounts according to state guidelines.

1. Select a school.
2. Navigate to Start Page > School > Attendance Conversions.
3. Select the applicable option for each Bell Schedule and FTE, and specify values according to the XXYYZZ recommendations.
   1. Note: The Default conversion method for each FTE will be bolded. All bolded options on the page need to be configured.

Attendance Conversion Setup Recommendations

Setting Up Elementary School Bell Schedules – Walk Through

Minutes of Attendance (Alternative Schools)

The Minutes of Attendance method is available for schools with a School Type of ‘Alternative School’ or ‘Charter School with an Alt Calendar’ on the School Setup page at the District Office (Schools / School Info). It uses a combination of Bell Schedule Minutes and Meeting Clock-in / Clock-out times to arrive at the number of instructional minutes attended for the day.

Instead of reporting an absence amount, the actual minutes of attendance is reported -  one record for each day a student was in attendance. No record is reported to AzEDS if a student is in attendance 0 minutes of the day.

Note: Either the Arizona Meeting Clock-in/out or the new Core Meeting Clock-in/out functionality (introduced in PowerSchool 12.1) can be used for Alternative School 'Minutes of Attendance', but it is recommended to use the new Core Clock-in/out functionality if on PowerSchool 12.1 or above.

Daily Attendance

PowerSchool has two main attendance types, Daily and Meeting. With Meeting Attendance, attendance can be taken multiple times in a day, once for each meeting (class), but with Daily Attendance, attendance can only be taken once a day. Daily Attendance is recommended for use only in elementary schools.

Setup Recommendations When Using Daily Attendance

Note on Daily Attendance minutes for the day: In Daily Attendance, a student's minutes for the day (minutes possible) are determined by the Bridge Period in the Bell Schedule in the 'Use For Daily Attendance' - Default time-in and Default time-out values and applies to all students at the school. For example, if the Bell schedule Bridge period Default time-in and Default time-out values are 8:00 am and 3:00 pm, then all students at that school are counted as starting school at 8 am and ending at 3 pm.

When the 'Enable ADA Periods and Passing Time Deductions' attendance preference is selected, students will only receive minutes possible for the time they are scheduled in classes in the Bell Schedule. When this option is selected, minutes between 8 am and 3 pm where a student is not scheduled in a period counting for ADA will be excluded from the calculation. For example, if a student's first ADA period starts at 8:30 am and ends at 12:00 pm and his second ADA period starts at 12:30 pm and ends at 2:30 pm, the student will only receive minutes during those time ranges.

Bridge Period

Daily Attendance uses a Bridge Period to generate Daily Attendance records. There can only be 1 bridge period a day. If using Daily Attendance, all students must be enrolled in a Homeroom class and that class must meet in the same period for all students. It can be a 5-minute class excluded from ADA if desired.

Different Start / End Times

If you have groups of students starting school or ending school at different times of the day and wish to use Daily Attendance it is recommended to follow the 'Setting Up Elementary School Bell Schedules Walk Through' suggestions above and checking the 'Enable ADA Periods and Passing Time Deductions' Attendance Preference, selecting the 'Yes - All Passing Time' option.

Then when setting up Bell Schedules and scheduling classes, make sure all students have a homeroom and the homeroom meets the same period in the Bell Schedule. Then make sure students have Attendance periods in the Bell Schedule that count towards ADA matching their school start and end times.

For more information about Daily Time Exclusions, click the Help link then System Help and search for Daily Time Exclusion.

Note: The below information is for reference when looking at previous year attendance setups, or for districts not yet using the 'Use Core Conversions' Method.

Arizona Attendance Methods in use prior to 2017-2018

These Methods use values in the Attendance Conversions for determining presence Absence amounts. The values are modified at report run-time in State Reports (but not Core reports) to account for JTED Exclusions and FTE Amounts. State Reported values may not match Core reports depending on the FTE and JTED status of a student.

Limitations of the pre-2017-2018 Arizona Attendance Methods:

• Unable to Clock-in/Out of school (unable to get actual minutes of attendance)
  • All students either get full minutes for the period or no minutes for the period.
• No true percentage conversion
• May not match Core Attendance calculations for some students (JTED, Non-1.0 FTE Students)

Meeting – Period to Day

A student’s absence amount for the day is determined by counting the number of periods a student is either present or absent for the day, looking up a Daily Value from the appropriate Period to Day attendance conversion. A student is either present or absent for the whole period.

Classes and periods excluded from ADA, as well as applicable JTED Section enrollments, are excluded from the calculation.

Meeting – Time to Day

A student’s absence amount for the day is determined by the sum of the bell schedule minutes from classes not marked absent, looking up a Daily Value from the appropriate Time to Day attendance conversion. A student is either present or absent for the whole period.

Classes and periods excluded from ADA and applicable JTED Section enrollments are excluded from the calculation.

Note: The two above Attendance Methods will continue to be supported in the 2017-2018 school year and beyond, allowing districts to ‘opt-in’ to using the new Arizona-specific Attendance Methods.

Attendance Methods and Functionality Introduced in 2017-2018

The PowerSchool development team implemented four new Attendance Methods for 2017-2018. These methods more closely align with absence and attendance reporting guidelines described in the School Finance EX-18 document. Along with four new Arizona-specific Attendance Methods, Arizona State Reports were also updated to support the Core Daily Code-to-Day and Time-to-Day conversions.

Note: The below Arizona Methods and Functionality are displayed when the 'Enable Daily Attendance for State Reporting and Arizona Specific Attendance Methods' box is checked on the District Info page at District Office (Start Page > District > District Info).

Limitations of Arizona Attendance Methods introduced in 2017-2018:

• Calculation of absence/presence amount in State Reports does not match Core Attendance calculations.
  
  • State reports use a custom calculation.

Note: The following Arizona Attendance Methods introduced in the 2017-18 school year (except Method 1) use 'Arizona Meeting Clock-in / Clock-out' functionality, also released the same school year. For information about setting up and using 'Arizona Meeting Clock-in / Clock-out' functionality, see the article below:

Arizona Meeting Attendance Clock In / Clock Out

Percent of Day Present (K-8 Schools)

The “Percent of Day Present” attendance method is available for K-8 Schools. It uses Bell Schedule minutes to calculate a ‘Minutes Possible’ for the day (instructional time), then uses a combination of Period absent/present attendance codes and Arizona Meeting clock-in / clock-out times to calculate a ‘Minutes Attended’ value.

• (See above for information regarding Arizona Meeting clock-in / clock-out functionality.)

Minutes Attended divided by Minutes Possible = Attendance Percentage.

On the Attendance Preference page, you can use the Half Day, or Quarter Day method. A student’s absence amount is determined by the Half/Quarter Day designation and his or her Attendance Percentage.

Method 1: Percent Periods Attended (High Schools)

Method 1 is available for 9-12 Schools. This method does not look at minutes attended or Bell Schedule times. Instead, it divides the number of Periods Present (that count towards ADA) by Periods Possible (that count towards ADA) to arrive at a percentage of classes attended, multiplies this value by the student's FTE, then rounds up to the nearest quarter absence.

Calculation: (1 - (classes attended / classes possible)) X FTE

Example: A 1.0 FTE student attends two of his six scheduled ADA classes.

• 2 classes attended / 6 classes possible = 0.33 attended.
• 1 - 0.33 = 0.67 absence.
• 0.67 absence X 1.0 FTE = 0.67 absence.
• 0.67 rounds up to .75 absence reported to ADE.

Method 2: Minutes Attended (High Schools)

Method 2 is available for 9-12 Schools. It uses a combination of Bell Schedule Minutes and Meeting Clock-in / Clock-out times to arrive at the number of instructional minutes attended for the day.

On the Attendance Preference page, you can choose whether the high school has a 4 or 5 day per week schedule. A student’s absence amount is determined by the 4/5 Day designation and the number of instructional minutes attended for his or her FTE.

Note: The chart below assumes a 1.0 FTE. The absence amount reported is a sliding scale based on the student's FTE.

Instructional Minutes

When using the new AZ Attendance Methods, the PowerSchool State Reports and AzEDS Publishing will use the school’s Bell Schedule to determine a student’s Instructional Minutes for the day. For accurate attendance reporting using the new AZ Attendance Methods (except High School Method 1), it will be necessary to ensure the Bell Schedule reflects the actual start and end times of the instructional blocks for students.

Note: When calculating Instructional Minutes, all of the standard ADA exclusions apply (sections, periods, attendance codes, etc.), as well as applicable JTED section enrollments. These excluded classes or periods will not be used when determining Instructional Minutes and Attendance Minutes or Percentage.

High and middle schools typically have Bell Schedules that align closely with a student’s instructional time. If this is not the case, adjustments will need to be made at these schools for accurate attendance reporting. Elementary schools will probably need more adjustments to make use of the new Attendance Methods. Click the link below for more information on setting up Elementary School Bell Schedules.

Setting Up Elementary School Bell Schedules – Walk Through

Daily Attendance

As of the 2017-2018 school year, Arizona State Reports and AzEDS publishing now support the following Daily Attendance Conversions.

• Daily Time-to-day
• Daily Code-to-day

Daily Attendance is recommended for use only in elementary schools.

Setup Recommendations When Using Daily Attendance

Note on Daily Attendance minutes for the day: In Daily Attendance, a student's minutes for the day (minutes possible) are determined by the Bridge Period in the Bell Schedule in the 'Use For Daily Attendance' - Default time-in and Default time-out values and applies to all students at the school. For example, if the Bell schedule Bridge period Default time-in and Default time-out values are 8:00 am and 3:00 pm, then all students at that school are counted as starting school at 8 am and ending at 3 pm.

When the 'Enable ADA Periods and Passing Time Deductions' attendance preference is selected students will only receive minutes possible for the time they are scheduled in classes in the Bell Schedule. When this option is selected, minutes between 8 am and 3 pm where a student is not scheduled in a period counting for ADA will be excluded from the calculation. For example, if a student's first ADA period starts at 8:30 and ends at 12:00pm and his second ADA period starts at 12:30 and ends at 2:30, the student will only receive minutes during those time ranges.

Bridge Period

Daily Attendance uses a Bridge Period to generate Daily Attendance records. There can only be 1 bridge period a day. If using Daily Attendance, all students must be enrolled in a Homeroom class and that class must meet in the same period for all students. It can be a 5-minute class excluded from ADA if desired.

Different Start / End Times

If you have groups of students starting school or ending school at different times of the day and wish to use Daily Attendance it is recommended to follow the 'Setting Up Elementary School Bell Schedules Walk Through' suggestions above and checking the 'Enable ADA Periods and Passing Time Deductions' Attendance Preference, selecting the 'Yes - All Passing Time' option.

Then when setting up Bell Schedules and scheduling classes, make sure all students have a homeroom and the homeroom meets the same period in the Bell Schedule. Then make sure students have Attendance periods in the Bell Schedule that count towards ADA matching their school start and end times.

For more information about Daily Time Exclusions, click the Help link then System Help and search for Daily Time Exclusion.