Mississippi Attendance Reports and the 63% Rule
Introduction
Mississippi House Bill 1530 requires that a student be present for at least 63% of his instructional day in order to be considered present. If the student is not present at least 63% of his instructional day he is to be reported as absent all day. PowerSchool Mississippi Attendance Reports divide a student's Attendance Minutes by his Potential Minutes for the day to arrive at an Attendance Percentage. This section describes how the Mississippi Attendance Reports within PowerSchool determine a student's Attendance Minutes, Potential Minutes, and Unexcused Status.
The information in this section applies to the following Mississippi State Reports:
- Daily Absentee Report
- Monthly Student Data (New)
- Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade
- Attendance Reconciliation Report
- Attendance Reconciliation Export
- Daily Attendance Totals student screen (accessible from the Daily Attendance student screen)
- Student Truancy Report
Instructional Minutes (Potential Minutes)
All Mississippi Reports that calculate attendance numbers use the Bell Schedule to determine a student's instructional minutes for the day. A student's potential minutes for the day equals the total minutes of all scheduled classes in the Bell Schedule:
- Excluding all Courses or Sections excluded from ADA, and
- Excluding all periods in the Bell Schedule excluded from ADA, and
- Excluding all Section Lunch/Break time exclusions entered for a Section
Attendance Minutes
The Mississippi Attendance Reports use a combination of Daily and Meeting Attendance marks to determine the number of minutes a student is in attendance for the day.
Daily Attendance and Time-in/Time-out records
Daily Attendance Time In/Out records are used to define time ranges within which a student is in attendance of his regularly scheduled day. It is a modification of a student's Minutes Attended, not his Potential Minutes.
- If a student has no Daily Time-in/Time-out entries, the student's school day starts at the beginning of his first scheduled class of the day (as defined by the Bell Schedule), and ends with his last scheduled class of the day.
- If a student has a Daily Time-in/Time–out entry (or more than one), the student is considered to be in attendance only between the In and Out times (minus exclusions listed below).
- For example, a student arrives at school on time for his first class at 8:30am but is later checked out of school by a parent at 11:45am for a Doctor Appointment. The student should be given a Daily Time-in/Time-out entry of 8:30 – 11:45. The reports will only look within this new time-range to compute his Minutes Attended for the day.
Minutes Attended
1. If a student has a Daily Absent code with NO Time-in/Time-out records, the student is considered ALL Day Absent, otherwise…
2. A student's minutes attended for the day equals the sum of the Bell Schedule minutes attended between Daily Time-in / Time-out entries (or the start and end of his Bell Schedule day if none exist), excluding:
- Any Courses or Sections excluded from ADA
- Any periods in the Bell Schedule excluded from ADA
- Any Section Lunch/Break time exclusions entered for a Section
- Any classes a student is marked absent (Meeting Attendance), conditionally:
- If the Meeting Period Absence is within the student's Daily Time-in / Time-out entries (or the start and end of his day) the minutes for the whole period are excluded. The student will not be counted as in attendance for that period's minutes.
- If a Meeting Period Absence overlaps a Daily Time-in or Time-out record, the minutes for the whole period are not excluded. The student is counted as present for the time within the Time-in / Time-out range, and not present for the time outside of the Time-in / Time-out range.
- For sections that span multiple periods, the Record Attendance – 'Once for All Meetings' or 'Each Meeting Separately' Section setting determines Meeting Period Absence exclusion determination:
- If the 'Once for All Meetings' option is selected, all periods are evaluated together when determining if period absences will be included or excluded. If a daily time record overlaps ANY of the section's periods then ALL of the section's period absences are excluded.
- If the 'Each Meeting Separately' option is selected, each period of a multi-period section is evaluated separately when determining if period absences will be included or excluded.
Unexcused Absences
The Mississippi Attendance Reports use a combination of Daily and Meeting Attendance marks to determine whether an absence is Excused or Unexcused.
Note: An attendance code is considered Excused if it is associated with the Excused Attendance Code Category.
Mississippi Attendance Reports use the following logic to determine if an Absence is excused:
- If the student has a Daily attendance code for the day (presence or absence), the Daily code is used to determine the absence Excused/Unexcused status.
- If the student has no Daily attendance code for the day, then a student's Meeting attendance absence codes are used to determine the Excused/Unexcused status
- If all Meeting attendance absence codes are excused, the absence is flagged as Excused.
- Otherwise the absence is flagged as Unexcused.
Attendance Reconciliation
The Mississippi Attendance Reports use a student's Attendance Percentage to determine his Absence/Presence status for state reporting purposes (as described above). The PowerSchool canned Attendance Reports and Screens do not use Attendance Percentage to determine absence/presence status. They use either the Absence/Presence status of the Attendance Code assigned, or Attendance Conversion values (depending on which report or screen is used).
Important: In order for canned PowerSchool screens and reports to align with a student's Attendance Percentage, it is recommended that a student's Daily Attendance Code Presence/Absence status align with his attendance percentage. For instance:
- If a student is not present 63% of his day, he should have a Daily Attendance Code with an Absence status
- If a student is present more than 63% of his day, he should not have a Daily Attendance Code with an Absence status.
The PowerSchool Attendance Reconciliation Report and Attendance Reconciliation Export reports are designed to find Attendance Discrepancies and display/export the discrepancies so they can be corrected. It is recommended that these reports be run at regular intervals, so as to correct all discrepancies shortly after they occur.
Note: Correcting Attendance Discrepancies will result in the following non-state reporting benefits to Districts:
- Since the Daily Attendance Code status aligns with a student's attendance percentage, the Quick Look up and Parent portal screens will display the correct number of absences reported to the state in the 'Attendance by Day' section.
- Because partial day check-ins and check-outs will have a Daily Absent code if they are not present 63% of the day, the Perfect Attendance Report will be accurate if the Daily option is selected.
- Because a student's Daily Attendance Code aligns with his attendance percentage, school staff may set up a 'Daily – Code to Day' Attendance Conversion, which correctly reflects the student's attendance total for the day. Attendance Conversions are used by non-state attendance reports and by any Data Access Tags (DATs) that calculate attendance numbers, for instance the DABS tag.