Calculate Truancy - Legacy

Contents

Introduction

This school-level report calculates membership days, absent days, and tardy days for students during the semester date range. All students enrolled in the school year date range are included in the report. The report also automatically updates the student’s Truant indicator on the Louisiana State Information page based on the threshold values entered for absences and tardies at report runtime.

Per state requirements, a student must have 5 unexcused tardies or 5 unexcused absences in a semester to be considered truant. This total cannot be a combination, such as 2 absences and 3 tardies; the value must be 5 of either to be considered a truancy.

A valid unexcused absence occurs when the student is assigned an unexcused absence attendance code (identified at report runtime) for a full school day. A valid unexcused tardy occurs when the student either arrives late at school or leaves school early. The student may only have 1 unexcused tardy instance per day.

Recommended Setup Steps

If one does not exist, create an Attendance Code Category with a name like: Absent Unexcused
Verify all of your Unexcused Absence Attendance Codes are checked to be associated with the Attendance Code Category from step 1.
If one does not exist, create an Attendance Code Category with a name like: Unexcused - Late to School
Verify all of all of your Attendance Codes that would be considered a Late Entry are checked to be associated with the above category. This could include a mixture of Unexcused Tardy codes and Unexcused Absence codes. (If a student is unexcused late or absent for first period, but is present a portion of the remainder of the day the student the student is Truant Tardy)
If one does not exist, create an Attendance Code Category with a name like: Unexcused - Early Checkout
Verify all of your Attendance Codes that would be considered an Early Checkout are checked to be associated with the above category. This could include all of your Unexcused Absence codes, but not all of your Unexcused Tardy codes. For example, do not include tardy codes that represent a tardy to class. (A student is not considered Truant if marked Unexcused Tardy passing between classes, but is considered Truant if leaving school early unexcused.)

How it Works - Truant Tardies

Late to School

When running the report, choose an Attendance Code Category for the 'Select Tardy Unexcused - Late to School Category' parameter.

The report will look at a student's first scheduled class of the day. If the student has any attendance codes for their first period of the day that match the attendance codes associated with the selected Attendance Code Category, the student will be considered Truant Tardy for that day.

The report will not count the student Truant Tardy if the student has already been counted Truant Absent for the day.

Early Checkout

When running the report, choose an Attendance Code Category for the 'Select Tardy Unexcused - Early Checkout Category' parameter.

The report will look at a student's last scheduled class of the day. If the student has any attendance codes for their last period of the day that match the attendance codes associated with the selected Attendance Code Category, the student will be considered Truant Tardy for that day.

The report will not count the student Truant Tardy if the student has already been counted Truant Absent or Truant Tardy (first period) for the day.

Student Truancy Flag

A student will have their [S_LA_REN_X]Truant_TF field set to true if:

The student has a count of unexcused full day absences greater than or equal to the Absence threshold entered at runtime during a single semester. –or-
The student has a count of unexcused tardies (late to school or early checkout) greater than or equal to the Tardy threshold entered at runtime during a single semester.

Examples:

The Absence threshold is set to 5 and the Tardy Threshold is set to 5.

A student is absent unexcused 2 days and is Tardy late to school unexcused 3 days. The student will not be flagged as Truant. The student must have 5 unexcused absences or 5 unexcused tardies.

A student is unexcused absent 2 days, is Tardy - late to school 3 days, and is Tardy - early checkout 2 days. The student will be flagged as Truant because he had 5 total Tardies (3 days late to school, and 2 days early checkout)

Selection Criteria

Selection criteria determine which database records are used in the report. Refer to selection criteria for analysis when the report does not return the correct records.

Student Selection

The report selects records from the [Students] or [ReEnrollments] table that meet the following criteria:

The student must be enrolled in a school included in the report and the school must not be excluded from state reporting.
The student’s school exit date must occur on or after the report start date.
The student’s school entry date must occur on or before the report end date.
The student’s school exit date must occur after the school entry date (excludes no-shows).

Report Input

For help with navigation and running the report, see How to Find and Generate a Report.

Field	Description
Students to Include	Indicate which students to include in the report by selecting one of the following options: The selected [number] students only – Run the report for students in the current selection. All students – Run the report for all students in the current school or district that meet the selection criteria. Note: If running the report for a single student, or group of students, select the students prior to running report.
Processing Options	Choose a time to run the report from the pop-up menu: In Background Now (Recommended) – Execute the report immediately in the background. ASAP – Execute the report in the order it is received in the Report Queue. At Night – Execute the report during the next evening. On Weekend – Execute the report during the next weekend. On Specific Time – Execute the report on the date and time specified.
Specific Date/Time	Enter a date using the format mm/dd/yyyy or mm-dd-yyyy in order to run the report on a specific day. The incorrect format displays an alert and the date field is submitted as a blank entry. Use the pop-up menus to schedule the report to be run at a specific hour and minute. Example: 7/29/2008 @ 10 AM : 05.
Start Date for Students	Enter the first day of the school year reported.
End Date for Students	Enter the last day of the school year reported.
Count to be Absent	Enter the number of unexcused absent attendance days the student must have to be considered truant (usually 5).
Count to be Tardy	Enter the number of unexcused tardy attendance days the student must have to be considered truant (usually 5).
Select Semester	If your school uses semesters, set up in PowerSchool Years & Terms as equal halves of the school year with the codes S1 and S2, choose the appropriate semester from the pop-up menu. Otherwise, ignore the value in this field and enter the Semester Start and Semester End Date as overrides below.
Semester Start Date	Enter the report start date. Per state requirements, semesters are defined as 2 equal parts of the school year. If your school does not set up semesters as part of the Years & Terms in PowerSchool, then enter the appropriate start date for the half the school year that you are reporting.
Semester End Date	Enter the report end date. If your school does not set up semesters as part of the Years & Terms in PowerSchool, then enter the appropriate end date for the half the school year that you are reporting.
Select Unexcused Absent Category	Select the attendance code category used to identify unexcused absences. Attendance codes used to assign unexcused absence must be assigned to this category to be included in the calculation. See the School Setup section above for information about setting up attendance codes and attendance code categories.
Select Tardy Unexcused – Late to School Category	Select the attendance code category used to identify unexcused tardies for students arriving late to school. Attendance codes used to assign unexcused tardies (late to school) must be assigned to this category to be included in the calculation. See the School Setup section above for information about setting up attendance codes and attendance code categories.
Select Tardy Unexcused – Early Checkout Category	Select the attendance code category used to identify unexcused tardies for students leaving school early. All attendance codes used to assign unexcused tardies (early checkout) must be assigned to this category to be included in the calculation. See the School Setup section above for information about setting up attendance codes and attendance code categories.

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Report Output

Each of the fields displayed in the output of the report are described below. See Understanding the Report Output Table for a definition of each column in the table.

Item #	Data Element	Description	[Table]FieldName
1	Student ID	The student’s internal ID.	[Students]ID
2	School	The school’s internal ID.	[Schools]ID
3	Name	The first and last name of the student in the format: last, first.	[Students]LastFirst
4	Entry Date	The student’s school entry date.	[Students]EntryDate
5	Exit Date	The student’s school exit date.	[Students]ExitDate
6	Membership	The number of days the student was enrolled in the school during the report date range.	[Students]EntryDate [Students]ExitDate
7	Absences	The number of days the student was unexcused absent during the report date range. To be considered absent, all attendance codes assigned to the student for the day must be a part of the unexcused absence attendance code category selected at report runtime. The report only includes full-day unexcused absences, based on the attendance conversion set up for the school and assigned to the student using their FTE. Review additional information about troubleshooting attendance.	[Attendance]StudentID [Attendance]Att_Date
8	Tardies	The number of days the student was tardy during the report date range. Students may only have 1 unexcused tardy instance per day. The attendance code assigned to the student for the day must be part of one of the unexcused tardy attendance code categories selected at report runtime. For meeting attendance, the “Late to School” attendance code must be assigned to their first class of the day (not necessarily the first period at the school) and the “Early Checkout” attendance code must be assigned to their last class of the day (not necessarily the last period at the school). Review additional information about troubleshooting attendance.	[Attendance]StudentID [Attendance]Att_Date

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