School Setup
Introduction
The following data elements are required for state reporting.
To navigate to the school setup page:
- Click the School link at the top of the page. The School pop-up menu appears.
- Choose a school. The school Start Page appears.
Under School, click Setup.
Note: The following information describes the setup required for State Reporting. For information about general school setup, see Help > System Help.
Data Element | Additional Information | [Table]FieldName | Used in these Reports |
Entering Attendance CodesIn order for Core Attendance reports and screens to accurately reflect a student’s state reported attendance status, a student’s Daily Attendance Code ‘Presence Status’ should accurately reflect his attendance percentage. The ‘Presence Status’ of an attendance code should accurately reflect the student’s percentage attended if this code is assigned to the student as the Daily code for that day. For example, you may need an attendance code to represent the student was absent because of a Medical reason. The student may have been pulled out of school for a medical reason. The student is considered absent or present as far as the state is concerned based on how much of the day he attended. For scenarios like this where the student may be either absent or present because of a medical reason, you may need two Medical Attendance Codes.
When a student is pulled out of school for a medical reason, the student will be given one or the other code for Daily Attendance, based on how much of his day he attended. | |||
Code | Enter the attendance code abbreviation. | [Attendance_Code]Att_Code | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Description | Enter the attendance code description. | [Attendance_Code]Description | Required Setup |
Presence Status | Select Present or Absent as the presence status. | [Attendance_Code]Presence_Status_CD | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Code Categories | Indicate which attendance code category you want to associate to this attendance code by selecting the appropriate checkbox. Associate Excused attendance codes (both absences and presents) to the Excused category and Suspension attendance codes to the Suspension category (see below). | [Att_Code_Code_Entity]Attendance_CodeID [Att_Code_Code_Entity]EntityID | Monthly Student Data Daily Absentee |
Points | Enter the number of points associated with the attendance code – can be used to withhold credit when awarding grades. | [Attendance_Code]Course_Credit_Points | Not Required |
Teacher can assign | Choose Yes or No from the pop-up menu to determine whether the teacher can assign the attendance code. | [Attendance_Code]Assignment_Filter_YN | Recommended Setup |
Earns ADA credit | Select whether the attendance code affects attendance calculation. | [Attendance_Code]Calculate_ADA_YN | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Counts toward membership | Select whether the attendance code affects membership calculation. | [Attendance_Code]Calculate_ADM_YN | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Sort Order | Choose the sort order from the pop-up menu to determine where the code displays on the page. | [Attendance_Code]SortOrder | Not Required |
Defining Attendance Code CategoriesNote: Three attendance code categories are set up by default. Attendance code categories are associated with a specific school, but not a specific school year; i.e. they are copied from year to year. The Excused attendance code category set up by default is used to determine excused absences in state reporting. It is recommended that another attendance code category be created with a code of Suspended (name: Suspensions) for use in reporting Suspension absences on the Daily Absentee report. Note: The Suspended category does not require a specific Code or Name value, but should be a recognizable description. The Excused Category Code value must read "Excused" exactly. | |||
Name | Enter the name of the attendance code category. | [Code_Entity]CE_Code | Monthly Student Data Daily Absentee |
Code | Enter the attendance code category abbreviation. | [Code_Entity]External_Name | Monthly Student Data Daily Absentee |
Description | Enter a description for the attendance code category. | [Code_Entity]Description | Monthly Student Data Daily Absentee |
Sort order for display | Choose the sort order from the pop-up menu to determine where the attendance code category displays on the page. | [Code_Entity]SortOrder | Monthly Student Data Daily Absentee |
| Truancy Report Suspension Indicator | Select this checkbox if the category is a suspension category. When this checkbox is selected, absences that belong to this attendance code category will not count towards a student's truancy numbers in the Student Truancy Report. | [S_MS_CDE_X]TruantSuspenededInd | Student Truancy Report |
Configure Attendance Conversion Settings | |||
Defining Attendance ConversionsAttendance conversions are not used by Mississippi State Reports, but are used by global attendance reports like the ADA/ADM by Student. Mississippi Attendance Reports use a custom Daily attendance calculation. In order for Core attendance reports to align with Mississippi State reports, it is recommended that schools set up a ‘Daily – Code to Day’ conversion with the ‘Day Attendance Value’ matching up with the Code’s Presence/Absence status. For instance, if you have an Attendance Code of A – Absent and that Code is set to have a Presence Status of ‘Absent’, then the A Attendance Code will be given a ‘Day Attendance Value’ of 0. | |||
Name | Enter a name for each attendance conversion, such as Full-Time or Part-Time. When you click Submit, the FTEs for the school will automatically be listed under the attendance conversion. To set up an attendance conversion, see below. | [Attendance_Conversion]Name | Recommended Setup. |
Defining Code-To-Day AttendanceNote: Click the link under the Code heading for each FTE. If no conversion is set up, then the link appears with the text (NONE). If the conversion is partially set up, the link appears as with the text: Partial. If all attendance codes are defined, the link appears with the text: Defined. | |||
Code | The code for the code-to-day attendance conversion for the FTE. Use this attendance conversion if the school tracks attendance based on one attendance period per day. | [Attendance_Conversion_Items]Conversion_Mode_Code=codeday [Attendance_Conversion_Items]Input_Value Note: The value in the Input_Value field is the ID of an attendance code in the [Attendance_Code] table. | Required based on the school’s attendance conversion |
Day Attendance Value | Enter the day attendance value for the code-to-day attendance conversion for the FTE. It is recommended that Present Codes be given a value of 1, while Absent Codes be given a value of 0. | [Attendance_Conversion_Items]Conversion_Mode_Code=codeday [Attendance_Conversion_Items]Attendance_Value | Required based on the school’s attendance conversion |
Adding Full-Time EquivalenciesNote: FTEs are used to assign a default attendance calculation to students for use in the global core attendance reports like ADA/ADM By Student. Mississippi state reports have a custom attendance calculation and do not use FTEs. Each student must have an FTE because it is a required PowerSchool field, but FTEs are not used by Mississippi state reports. Even though Mississippi State reports do not use FTEs, it is recommended that all students be assigned an FTE with a ‘Daily’ default attendance mode and a ‘Code to Day’ Default Attendance Conversion. This will be used when running Core attendance reports. Review additional information about FTEs and guidance about assigning FTEs to students. | |||
Name | Enter the FTE name. | [FTE]Name | |
Default Attendance Mode | Choose the ‘Daily’ default attendance mode for the FTE from the pop-up menu. | [FTE]Dflt_Att_Mode_Code | |
Default Attendance Conversion | Choose the ‘Code to Day’ default attendance conversion for the FTE from the pop-up menu. | [FTE]Dflt_Conversion_Mode_Code | |
Setting Attendance Preferences | |||
Attendance Recording Methods | Select the Meeting and Daily checkboxes. | [Prefs]Value [Prefs]Name=ATT_RecordModeMeeting [Prefs]Name=ATT_RecordModeDaily | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Default attendance page | Select the desired default attendance page. This determines the default attendance view when navigating to a student’s Attendance screen. | [Prefs]Value [Prefs]Name=ATT_CalcCntPresentsAbsences | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Meeting and daily attendance bridge | Select either one or two way:
One-way will create a Daily attendance record if an attendance mark is given in the bridge period, two-way will also update the section meeting attendance period if a change is made to Daily attendance. Recommendation: If students change from one teacher to another (like in a high school) select one-way. If students stay with the same teacher the whole day or most of the day (like elementary school) select two-way. | [Prefs]Value [Prefs]Name=ATT_CalcCntPresentsAbsences | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Daily Attendance Calculations | Clear the Enable ADA Periods and Passing Time Deductions checkbox if already selected. Select the No option for Deduct Passing Time. | [Prefs]Value [Prefs]Name=ATT_DailyEnableADAAndPassTimeDeducts [Prefs]Value [Prefs]Name=ATT_DailyDeductPassingTime | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Creating Bell SchedulesNote: To edit a Bell Schedule name, or the attendance conversion assigned to the bell schedule, click on the name of the bell schedule (do not click Edit Schedule). | |||
Name | Enter the bell schedule name. | [Bell_Schedule]Name | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade |
Attendance Conversion Method | Choose the attendance conversion method for the bell schedule from the pop-up menu. | [Bell_Schedule]Attendance_Conversion_ID | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade |
Editing Bell Schedule ItemsTo edit a Bell Schedule item, click Edit Schedule (do not click the name of the bell schedule). Bell Schedules are used to determine a student’s potential attendance minutes. All students must be enrolled in a class or classes that meet in periods assigned to the bell schedule. A student’s Bell Schedule classes should align with a student’s actual instructional time. Note: If one or more of your Bell Schedule periods are longer than actual instructional time to account for Lunch and Recess time, that extra time in the period will be excluded in MS Attendance reports if the Section Lunch/Break Time override option is used (see the Section Lunch/Break Time Exclusion section below) The Bell Schedule is also used to determine the earliest and latest time that may be entered when entering Daily time-in and time-out records for students and is used to designate which period to use as the bridge period. | |||
Period | Choose the period from the pop-up menu for this bell schedule item. | [Bell_Schedule_Items]Period_ID | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Start time | Enter a start time for the period. This is the time that the class begins. | [Bell_Schedule_Items]Start_Time | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
End time | Enter an end time for the period. This is the time that the students leave the classroom. Note: Remember to leave time gaps between the start and end times of periods if passing time is deducted for the school. | [Bell_Schedule_Items]End_Time | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Counts for ADA | Select the checkbox to include attendance recorded for this period in attendance calculations. Do not select the checkbox for lunch periods or other non-attendance periods. | [Bell_Schedule_Items]ADA_Code | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Use For Daily Attendance | If Daily attendance is used for the school, then select the checkbox for the period in the bell schedule designated as the attendance “bridge” period. You may create a separate period just for attendance or you may simply choose an existing period. Review additional information setting up the bridge period. | [Bell_Schedule_Items]Daily_Attendance_Code | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Default Time In | For the attendance “bridge” period, enter the time that school starts for the day. | [Bell_Schedule_Items]Daily_Time_In_Default | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Default Time Out | For the attendance “bridge” period, enter the time that school ends for the day. | [Bell_Schedule_Items]Daily_Time_Out_Default | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Setting Up the School Calendar | |||
Date | The date is view-only on this page. The days included in the calendar are determined by the start date and end date of current school year. | [Calendar_Day]Date | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Day | Choose the appropriate cycle day from the pop-up menu. | [Calendar_Day]Cycle_Day_ID | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Schedule | Choose the appropriate bell schedule from the pop-up menu. | [Calendar_Day]Bell_Schedule_ID | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Tracks | Select the appropriate tracks. | [Calendar_Day]A, B, C, D, E, F | Not Required |
In Sess | Select the checkbox to count the calendar day in attendance calculation. | [Calendar_Day]InSession | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Memb Value | Enter the membership value for the calendar day to use when calculating membership. Note: The value is normally 1 for each day. | [Calendar_Day]MembershipValue | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Type | Choose the appropriate calendar membership type from the pop-up menu. | [Calendar_Day]Type | Not Required |
Note | Enter a note to describe the calendar day. | [Calendar_Day]Note | Not Required |
Defining Cycle DaysNote: A cycle is the group of repeating days that comprise the schedule. Schools normally use a 1, 2 or 3 day cycle. Days in a cycle are often referred to as Day 1 and Day 2; Day A and Day B, etc. PowerSchool can schedule 26 days, the number of letters in the alphabet. Keep in mind that a cycle day is not the same as a calendar day of the week. | |||
Day Letter | The day letter is view-only on this page. To edit the number of days associated to this school year, navigate to School Setup > Years & Terms > Edit School Year. | [Cycle_Day]Letter | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Day Abbreviation | Enter the day abbreviation. | [Cycle_Day]Abbreviation | Required Setup |
Day Name | Enter the day name. | [Cycle_Day]Day_Name | Required Setup |
Defining Schedule Periods | |||
Period Number | The period number is view-only on this page. To edit the number of periods associated to this school year, navigate to School Setup > Years & Terms > Edit School Year. | [Period]Period_Number | Monthly Student Data District Personnel Data |
Period Abbreviation | Enter the period abbreviation. | [Period]Abbreviation | Required Setup |
Period Name | Enter the period name. | [Period]Name | Required Setup |
Creating Course Sections | |||
Course Number | Enter the course number for the section. | [Sections]Course_Number | Required Setup |
Term | Choose the term for the section from the pop-up menu. | [Sections]TermID | Monthly Student Data District Personnel Data |
Schedule | Select the meeting schedule for the section. | [Sections]Expression [Section_Meeting]SectionID = [Sections]ID | Required Setup |
Teacher | Choose the teacher for the section from the pop-up menu. | [Sections]Teacher | Monthly Student Historical District Personnel Data |
Section Number | Enter the section number. | [Sections]Section_Number | Required Setup |
Record Attendance (only applicable if Record Attendance Using Attendance Mode includes Meeting) | Select from:
This value is used in determining Period Absence inclusion or exclusion for multi-period sections when a Daily Time-in or Time-out record occurs within a multi-period section. See the ‘Mississippi Attendance Reports and the 63% Rule’ section for additional information on how this setting effects Daily Attendance Minutes. | [Sections]Attendance_Type_Code | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee Attendance Reconciliation |
Exclude Section from State Reporting | Check the box to exclude the section from state reporting. | [Sections]Exclude_State_Rpt_YN | Monthly Student Data Monthly Student Historical Summer School Student Data District Personnel Data |
Enter Term Semester Code for this section | Enter a value in this field to override the calculated TERMSEMCODE value for this section. See the Report Output section of each report for a description of how TERMSEMCODE is calculated. | [S_MS_SEC_X]TermSemCode | Monthly Student Data District Personnel Data |
Enter Attendance Minutes for this section | Enter the number of minutes that the section is taught. This value must be between 0 and 499 minutes. Leave blank to use course level settings. Minutes are used to determine how much time a student spends in class. Students with disabilities (SWD) often leave general education classes before the end of the period to receive special education services. This value cannot be greater than the teacher’s minutes in the same period. | [S_MS_SEC_X]AttendMin | Monthly Student Data District Personnel Data |
Period Number Override | Enter a period number to report on the Personnel Data and Monthly Student Data reports. Leave blank to use the period number of the period the section is assigned. | [S_MS_SEC_X]SectionPeriod | Monthly Student Data District Personnel Data |
Carnegie Override | Populate this field only if the Carnegie value that is calculated on the Monthly Student Data report should be overridden. If the Override field is populated, stored grades that reference the section will be reported with the Carnegie Override value. | [S_MS_SEC_X]Carnegie | Monthly Student Data District Personnel Data |
Vocational Program Level | Enter the vocational program level for this section. Leave blank to use course level settings. Used when reporting vocational course information for vocational students. | [S_MS_SEC_X]VocProgLevel | Monthly Student Data |
Schedule Type | Enter the schedule type for the section if the section schedule type differs from the schedule type for the school. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ScheduleType | District Personnel Data |
Low Grade Level | Enter the low grade level for the section. If blank, the low grade level for the school will be reported. Note: It is recommended that Low Grade Level be populated for Special Ed sections. | [S_MS_SEC_X]LowGradeLvl | District Personnel Data |
High Grade Level | Enter the high grade level for the section. If blank, the high grade level for the school will be reported. Note: It is recommended that High Grade Level be populated for Special Ed sections. | [S_MS_SEC_X]HighGradeLvl | District Personnel Data |
Special Programs | Select the relevant special program from the drop-down list. Valid values:
If Section is blank, Course value is reported. If Course and Section are blank, 0 is reported. | [S_MS_SEC_X]SpecProg | District Personnel Data |
| Special Ed Section | Select the checkbox if this section is intended for special education students. Note: Selecting this checkbox will override the course's special ed settings for this section only. | [S_MS_SEC_X]SpecialEdInd | Monthly Student Data |
| Gifted Section | Select the checkbox if this section is intended for gifted students. Note: Selecting this checkbox will override the course's gifted settings for this section only. | [S_MS_SEC_X]GiftedInd | Monthly Student Data |
Setting Section Lunch/Break Time ExclusionsSection Lunch/Break Time Exclusions provide the ability to designate a time frame in which students take lunch or break within a period. Administrators can check a box on the section stating that the section includes Lunch or Break time, then provide the start and end time of that lunch or break. The MS Attendance Reports will exclude minutes within this time range when calculating a student’s potential minutes and minutes attended. Note: This functionality should be used if lunch and break times happen at the same times each day, and those lunch and break times fall within the time frames of the period the section meets for all Bell Schedules. | |||
Section includes out of session lunch/recess minutes | Check the box if the section includes a lunch or recess break within the section period, which needs to be deducted from the instructional minutes of the period. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTime1 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
First Exclude Time Start | Enter the time the first exclusion starts. Note: All exclusion times are entered on the screen as times (ex. 12:35 PM), but are stored in the database as ‘seconds past midnight’. The time 12:35 PM is 45300 seconds past midnight, so is stored as 45300 in the database. To import these times, it will be necessary to convert the time to seconds past midnight before import. To convert to seconds past midnight, multiply the hour times 60, then add the number of minutes past the hour, then multiply that number by 60 to get the total seconds, 12 * 60 = 720 720 + 35 = 755 765 * 60 = 45300 | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTimeStart1 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
First Exclusion Time End | Enter the time the first exclusion ends. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTimeStart1 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Section includes additional out of session lunch/recess minutes | Check the box if the section includes additional lunch or recess break within the section period, which needs to be deducted from the instructional minutes of the period. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTime2 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Second Exclude Time Start | Enter the time the second exclusion starts. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTimeStart2 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Second Exclusion Time End | Enter the time the second exclusion ends. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTimeStart2 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Section includes additional out of session lunch/recess minutes | Check the box if the section includes additional lunch or recess break within the section period, which needs to be deducted from the instructional minutes of the period. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTime3 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Third Exclude Time Start | Enter the time the third exclusion starts. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTimeStart3 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Third Exclusion Time End | Enter the time the third exclusion ends. | [S_MS_SEC_X]ExcludeTimeStart3 | Monthly Student Data Monthly Attendance Summary by Grade Daily Absentee |
Entering Section Civil Rights Data Collection Information | |||
Defining Years & TermsYears & Terms > Edit Terms Note: It is recommended to set up semester terms (and or quarters terms) for each school. Semester terms (or quarter terms) are used by the Monthly Student Data report when creating CLASS records for year-long sections. The semester or quarter term abbreviation needs to match the term/semester code to be reported in the MSD report. | |||
Name | Enter the name of the term. | [Terms]Name | Required Setup |
Abbreviation | Enter an abbreviation for the term. | [Terms]Abbreviation | Required Setup |
First Day of Term | Enter the first day of the term. | [Terms]FirstDay | Required Setup |
Last Day of Term | Enter the last day of the term. | [Terms]LastDay | Required Setup |