EMIS Membership Types, Local Attendance Patterns, and Update Calendar

Contents

Associating EMIS Membership Types with Calendar Membership Types, Creating Local Attendance Patterns, and Updating the Calendar with EMIS Membership Types

Overview

For the collection of Calendar information, districts must complete three steps as described below:

1. Associating District Membership Types with the new State calendar attribute names, which will be known as EMIS Membership Types for PowerSchool purposes
2. Defining Local Attendance Patterns Codes
3. Updating Building Calendars with EMIS Membership Types

The first two set-up actions should only require updates, at a minimum, each year after the initial setup year.

Note: If your district allows each building to update their calendars with planned and unplanned events, it is very important to ensure these first two district-level setups are completed accurately and fully; otherwise, buildings will not be able to assign calendar events appropriately.

Associating EMIS Membership Types to Calendar Membership Types

The Calendar Membership Type page, Start Page > District Setup > Calendar Membership Types, is a page of district defined planned and unplanned event codes and descriptions, as well as their associated EMIS Membership Types (new). The Calendar Membership Types usually roll over from year to year, so updates are usually the only edits necessary for this page. However, for this first year, 14-15, the defined Calendar Membership Types need to be associated with the new EMIS Membership types and for this first year you may need to add additional Calendar Membership Types to cover the new reporting requirements.
The user defined codes and meanings appear as links on this page and to associate these to the EMIS Membership Types, users can click on either the code or the meaning to open the Edit Calendar Membership Type page. When the user clicks on either of these a new page is displayed where updates to the code and meaning can be made as needed, as well as the assignment of the EMIS Membership Type. Only one EMIS membership type can be assigned to a Calendar Membership Type.

Creating Local Attendance Patterns

The Local District Attendance Patterns tab, Start Page > District Setup > Local District Attendance Patterns is a page where districts can assign defined attendance patterns to schools within their district, available buildings appear on this page. This is a two-step process, first defining the attendance pattern and then assigning them to the appropriate building(s). When attendance patterns have been created they will be displayed on this page and either a green checkmark or a red 'X' will appear as appropriate for each building.
 

Defining Attendance Patterns

First the attendance patterns must be defined. This first page has a link to add or modify attendance patterns and appears as Add/Modify Attendance Patterns. When the user clicks Add/Modify Attendance Patterns the user is brought to a page where they can initially add the attendance patterns for their district and later modify as needed. Once on this page the user will find:

• a button to add an Attendance Pattern;
• the ability to mark days for weekday non-attendance and weekend attendance attributes and their assignment rules; and
• a checkbox to exclude an attendance pattern from the percent of time portion of the attendance calculation.

When entering the attendance pattern code, it is important to provide a simple but clear description of what the code means. Theses codes are 4 character codes, two for grade level and two for the locally defined attendance pattern. Once the attendance patterns have been entered/modified the user will click on the Submit button and the page refreshes to the initial Local Attendance Patterns page. The defined attendance pattern(s) will display across the top of the table and all buildings will be associated with each of the created attendance patterns initially. The next step is to assign the appropriate buildings to the attendance patterns.
 

Assigning Buildings

The user will now see an additional link on the display tab, Assign Schools which is used to modify the list of schools associated with the defined attendance pattern. When the user clicks on the Assign Schools link that column becomes active and the user has several options to update the building assignments:

• Deselect All,
• Select All, and
• Click on the green checkmark or red X to change

The user updates each Attendance Pattern column separately, clicking on the Submit button to save. If an attendance pattern is appropriate for every building in the district, no further action is required.

Updating the Calendar with EMIS Membership Types

Once the above two actions have taken place, the building-level calendars will need updated for all planned events (e.g., breaks, holidays, parent-teacher conferences, etc.). Make sure you are in the 14-15 school year as the new link will not work in years prior. For each day where school is not in session, the user will need to have a Calendar Membership Type selected in the column labeled, Type. Once they are defined for the month the user will need to click on the Submit button to save, prior to adding the EMIS Membership Types. The user will see a red triangle with an exclamation point and the number 0 in the new column labeled EMIS Type. To add the EMIS Membership Type, the user will click on the icon and this will bring the user to a new page, Start Page > School Setup > Calendar Setup - CCYY-CCYY > EMIS Calendar Attributes for MM/DD/CCYY, where the user will choose the applicable EMIS Membership Type and the Attendance Pattern(s) impacted. If the EMIS Membership Type selected requires hours/minutes to be entered, the Attribute Hours In Session section will be available for data entry. Once the data has been entered the user will click on the Submit button. To return to the Calendar Setup page the user can use the bread crumb trail to return to the Calendar page.
Data can always be modified by clicking on the icon under the EMIS Type Column if necessary.
Under the EMIS Type column the following icons could be displayed:

• Pencil – No data entered. Edit icon. (usually means a normal day of school in session)
• Green Checkmark – The Calendar Type drop down has a valid option and the State data has been entered, Successful Icon (number indicates the number of EMIS Types associated with this event)
• Yellow Triangle with a number – State data has been entered, but not a valid value in the calendar Type dropdown. Alert Icon (number indicates the number of EMIS Types associated with this event)
• Red Triangle – The Calendar Type drop down has a valid option, but State data has not been entered. Error Icon (number = 0 as no EMIS Membership Types have been associated with this event)