School Setup

Entering Attendance Codes

Attendance Code, Edit/New Attendance Code

Code

Enter the attendance code abbreviation.

See the Appendix for attendance codes approved for use in South Carolina by SCDE.

[Attendance_Code]Att_Code

N/A

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Description

Enter the attendance code description.

[Attendance_Code]Description

N/A

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Presence Status

Select Present or Absent as the presence status.

All codes must be marked as either Present or Absent.

[Attendance_Code]Presence_Status_CD

N/A

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Points

Enter the number of points associated with the attendance code.

[Attendance_Code]Course_Credit_Points

N/A

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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

N/A

N/A

This attendance code is considered in ADA calculations

Select whether the attendance code affects attendance calculation.

This must be checked for all codes.

[Attendance_Code]Calculate_ADA_YN

N/A

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This attendance code counts toward membership

Select whether the attendance code affects membership calculation.

This must be checked for all codes.

[Attendance_Code]Calculate_ADM_YN

N/A

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Sort order for display

Enter the sort order to determine where the code displays on the page.

[Attendance_Code]SortOrder

N/A

N/A

Setting Up Attendance Code Categories

Attendance Code Categories > Edit/New Attendance Code Category

Note: Attendance code categories are associated with a specific school, but not a specific school year; i.e. they are copied from year to year. Required categories are Excused, Unexcused, and Tardy. You may create as many attendance code categories as needed. You may assign more than one category to an attendance code.

Code

Enter the attendance code category abbreviation.

See the Appendix for attendance code categories approved for use in South Carolina by SCDE.

[Code_Entity]CE_Code

N/A

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Name

Enter the name of the attendance code category.

[Code_Entity]External_Name

N/A

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Description

Enter a description for the attendance code category.

[Code_Entity]Description

N/A

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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

N/A

N/A

Defining Attendance Conversion Information

Setting Up Attendance Conversion

Attendance Conversions, Edit/New Attendance Conversion

Name

Enter the attendance conversion name.

The use of both Meeting and Daily attendance requires two attendance conversions: Period-to-Day and Code-to-Day.

[Attendance_Conversion]Name

N/A

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Setting Up Period-To-Day Attendance Conversions

Attendance Conversions, (NONE)/Defined, Period-To-Day Attendance Conversion

Note: A critical part of setting up the period-to-day conversion is ensuring a bridge period is selected in each bell schedule defined.

Day Attendance Value

Enter the day attendance value for the period-to-day attendance conversion for the FTE.

For South Carolina schools, zero periods present are given a 0 (zero) value in the Day Attendance Value, indicating that the student will be counted absent for the day. If the student is present for one or more periods, a value of 1 must be used for the Day Attendance Value, indicating that the student will be counted present for the day.

[Attendance_Conversion_Items] Conversion_Mode_Code=periodday

[Attendance_Conversion_Items] Attendance_Value

N/A

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Setting Up Code-To-Day Attendance Conversions

Attendance Conversions, (NONE)/Defined, Code-To-Day Attendance Conversion

Code

The code for the code-to-day attendance conversion for the FTE.

Present must be the first code listed.

[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.

N/A

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Day Attendance Value

Enter the day attendance value for the code-to-day attendance conversion for the FTE.

For South Carolina schools, this conversion defines the Day Attendance Value for each attendance code.

For each attendance code defined under Attendance Codes as present, you must assign a 1 to indicate the student will be counted present.

For each attendance code defined under Attendance Codes as absent, you must assign a 0 (zero) to indicate the student will be counted absent.

[Attendance_Conversion_Items] Conversion_Mode_Code=codeday

[Attendance_Conversion_Items] Attendance_Value

N/A

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Entering Full-Time Equivalencies

Full-Time Equivalencies (FTE), Edit/New FTE Code

Note: Full-time equivalency codes allow you to group students for purposes of calculating Average Daily Attendance (ADA) values. The FTE value directly influences the attendance and membership results for all students.

Name

Enter the FTE name.

All South Carolina schools should use one FTE code. A suggested name is “Default”.

[FTE]Name

N/A

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Default Attendance Mode

Choose the default attendance mode for the FTE from the pop-up menu.

For Meeting Only schools, the Default Attendance Mode must be Meeting.

For Meeting and Daily schools, the Default Attendance Mode must be Daily.

[FTE]Dflt_Att_Mode_Code

N/A

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Default Attendance Conversion

Choose the default attendance conversion for the FTE from the pop-up menu.

For Meeting Only schools, the Default Attendance Conversion must be Period to Day.

For Meeting and Daily schools, the Default Attendance Conversion must be Code to Day.

[FTE]Dflt_Conversion_Mode_Code

N/A

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Default for these grades

All grades should be checked.

N/A

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Setting Attendance Preferences

Preferences, Attendance Preferences

Attendance Recording Methods

Select the Meeting checkbox to enable meeting attendance.

Select the Daily checkbox to enable daily attendance.

For South Carolina, both Meeting and Daily should be selected. If a school is set up only for Daily Attendance, then teachers cannot take attendance and attendance will not show up in the Parent Portal. If a school is set up only for Meeting Attendance, then they will have difficulty determining truants.

[Prefs]Value

[Prefs]Name=ATT_RecordModeMeeting

[Prefs]Value

[Prefs]Name=ATT_RecordModeDaily

N/A

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Default Attendance Page

Choose the appropriate attendance page from the pop-up menu to indicate the preferred default attendance page which displays when student attendance pages are selected.

N/A

N/A

Meeting and Daily Attendance Bridge

Select the appropriate option for the Meeting and Daily Attendance Bridge.

When using both Meeting and Daily attendance modes, the bridge period allows you to synchronize attendance records. PowerSchool uses the bridge period attendance to populate the daily attendance.

A bridge period is defined in each bell schedule.

Select One-Way if your school takes attendance multiple times per day i.e. the teacher takes attendance in each period. The attendance code recorded in the bridge period will be used to set the daily attendance code.

Select Two-Way if your school takes attendance only once each day. The attendance code recorded in the bridge period will be used to set the daily attendance code. When the office staff updates a student’s daily attendance code, the attendance code in the bridge period will also be updated.

Note: Two-Way is required to keep the corresponding Meeting attendance record synchronized when there is a change made to a Daily attendance record.

For South Carolina, Select Two-Way is the required value.

N/A

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Count meeting attendance recorded at another school for students enrolled at this school

If a student is enrolled in a class at another school, and there is attendance associated with that class, select this option to include this attendance when calculating ADA for PowerSchool reports.

Note: If a student is enrolled in another school during the bridge period, the attendance will not roll back to the home school. In that case, the daily attendance must be manually entered for that student at his home school.

N/A

N/A

Count these codes for period conversion

Choose Presents from the count of these codes for the period conversion pop-up menu.

[Prefs]Value

[Prefs]Name=ATT_CalcCntPresentsAbsences

N/A

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Round or truncate

Choose whether to round or truncate calculations that exceed the designated decimal places.

For South Carolina, Round is the required value.

N/A

Setting Up Bell Schedule

Bell Schedules, Edit/New Bell Schedule

Note: The bell schedule is the schedule of the periods that are in session on a given day; it is directly associated with attendance. The school may have multiple bell schedules for such days as regular day, early release day, and half-day. Only one bell schedule may be assigned to a given day at a school. At least one period must have the Counts as ADA setting checked. Any time the length of a period changes in a day you may want to use a corresponding bell schedule (not required). The bell schedule must be created after the attendance conversions are set up as each bell schedule is associated with an attendance conversion.

Some Considerations:

• Schools with different groups of students on different schedules must select the bell schedule used by the majority of the students.

• Schools that only take attendance one time per day may want to consider a bell schedule that includes only the one period when attendance is taken and this period is the bridge period. Teachers will see all periods in PowerTeacher, but the periods that are not included in the bell schedule will not allow the teacher to take attendance in these periods.

• If you use the same period designation every day of the schedule rotation, one bell schedule can accommodate all rotation days. The same period will be the bridge period for all days in the rotation.

• If your rotation days have different periods, a bell schedule for each rotation day is needed. Each bell schedule may have a different bridge period.

• Bell schedules for shorter school days are not needed unless the bridge period is not going to meet on the short days.

• All students must be scheduled into a class during the bridge period at their home school. If a student is not scheduled into a class during the bridge period, you will have to manually enter the student’s daily attendance code. This includes students that are at CATE centers and alternative schools.

Name

Enter the bell schedule name.

[Bell_Schedule]Name

N/A

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Attendance Conversion Method

Choose the attendance conversion method for the bell schedule from the pop-up menu.

[Bell_Schedule]Attendance_Conversion_ID

N/A

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Edit Bell Schedules

Select this link to add the periods for the particular bell schedule.

Choose the period from the pop-up menu. Enter the start and end times for the period for that bell schedule. The times at the top of the screen are the actual start and end times for that period. The Default Time In is the time school begins for that bell schedule. The Default Time Out is the time school ends for that bell schedule. For early release or half days, use the actual start and end times as the Default Time In and Default Time Out for those short days.

All periods in which attendance is taken and reported must have Counts as ADA checked.

When using both Meeting and Daily attendance modes, the bridge period allows you to synchronize attendance records. You define a bridge period in the bell schedule. If multiple bell schedules are used, a bridge period must be selected for each bell schedule.

To set a bridge period, click the number of the period to be used as the bridge in each bell schedule defined. For the bridge period only, check the Use of Daily Attendance box in each bell schedule.

Note: The bridge period should not be changed during the school year.

N/A

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Configuring Calendars

Calendar Setup

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

N/A

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Day

Choose the appropriate cycle day from the pop-up menu.

[Calendar_Day]Cycle_Day_ID

N/A

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SC02 Cumulative Class List

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Schedule

Choose the appropriate bell schedule from the pop-up menu.

[Calendar_Day]Bell_Schedule_ID

N/A

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Tracks

Check the appropriate tracks.

Tracks may be left checked even if tracks are not used.

[Calendar_Day]A, B, C, D, E, F

N/A

N/A

In Sess

Check the checkbox to count the calendar day in attendance calculation.

This is required for all valid school days.

[Calendar_Day]InSession

N/A

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Memb Value

Enter the membership value for the calendar day to use when calculating membership.

Note: The value must be 1 for each valid school day.

[Calendar_Day]MembershipValue

1

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Type

Choose the appropriate calendar membership type from the pop-up menu.

[Calendar_Day]Type

N/A

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Note

Enter a note to describe the calendar day.

[Calendar_Day]Note

N/A

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Entering Class Rank Methods

Class Rank, Class Rank Methods

All secondary schools that provide information for scholarship eligibility for the Palmetto Fellows Program and the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, must define a Class Rank Method for the SC UGP GPA and the SC 4.0 GPA. See District Setup > GPA Calculations > Calculation Methods. These class ranks are also used on the SC Transcript object reports.

In accordance with the regulations for South Carolina Commission on Higher Education and Uniform Grady Policy, a date of December 15 of each year has been established to store and capture data as the official snapshot date for electronic transcripts from which to determine class rank for purposes of scholarship eligibility. A date of June 15 of each year has been established to store and capture data as the official snapshot date for electronic transcripts from which to determine the class rank of graduates who complete requirements during the regular school year.

December 15 serves as the reporting period of class rank of students who have completed or retaken courses during summer months or of student who have transferred from other schools. It serves as the reporting period of enrollment numbers and student pool of candidates who have entered schools since the June 15 of the previous year. It serves as a biannual reporting period for the calculation of GPA.

June 15 serves as the reporting period of class rank. It serves as a biannual reporting period for the calculation of GPA.

Adding Cycle Day Information

Days, Cycle Days, Edit Cycle Day

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.

Define your days to reflect your schools’ unique scheduling style for student class attendance.

Examples of unique schedule days:

• Students attend the same classes every day = 1-day schedule.

• Students attend one set of classes on a “Gold” day and another set of classes on a “Blue” day = 2-day schedule.

• Students with a M-W-F and a T-Th schedule = 2-day schedule.

Students attend a different set of classes each day of the week = 5 day schedule.

[Cycle_Day]Letter

1

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Day Abbreviation

Enter the day abbreviation.

[Cycle_Day]Abbreviation

1

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Day Name

Enter the day name.

[Cycle_Day]Day_Name

N/A

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Entering Period Information

Periods, Edit Period

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.

You must enter the maximum number of periods used by any grade or student across the school. For elementary schools, define a period for each subject area that receives a grade on the report card (include a period for homeroom if teachers take attendance).

[Period]Period_Number

N/A

Required Setup.

Period Abbreviation

Enter the period abbreviation.

[Period]Abbreviation

N/A

Required Setup.

Period Name

Enter the period name.

[Period]Name

N/A

Required Setup.

Setting Up Sections

Sections

Sections, [select course], [select section], Edit Section

Course Number

Enter the course number for the section.

[Sections]Course_Number

N/A

N/A

Term

Choose the term for the section from the pop-up menu.

[Sections]TermID

N/A

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Schedule

Select the meeting schedule for the section.

[Sections]Expression

[Section_Meeting]SectionID = [Sections]ID

N/A

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Teacher

Choose the teacher for the section from the pop-up menu.

The [Sections]Teacher field always holds the information for the current Lead Teacher. The [SectionTeacher] table holds the historical information for the lead teachers as well as additional staff information.

[Sections]Teacher

N/A

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Highly Qualified Status

Grade Scale

Choose the grade scale for the section from the pop-up menu.

[Sections]GradeScaleID

N/A

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Section Number

Enter the section number.

[Sections]Section_Number

N/A

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Highly Qualified Status

Maximum Enrollment

Enter the maximum number of students that can be enrolled in the section.

[Sections]MaxEnrollment

N/A

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District Where Taught

Enter the District ID if the section is taught at a different district. Otherwise, leave blank.

[Sections]WhereTaughtDistrict

N/A

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School Where Taught

Enter the School ID if the section is taught at a different school. Otherwise, leave blank.

[Sections]WhereTaught

N/A

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Exclude from Attendance

Select the checkbox if the section should not be counted towards ADM/ADA for students.

[Sections]Exclude_ADA

N/A

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Instruction Type

Choose the type of instruction for this section from the pop-up menu.

[S_SC_SEC_X]InstrType

1

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Single Gender

Select the checkbox if this section is restricted to a single gender.

[S_SC_SEC_X]GenderRestricted

1

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Homeroom

Select this flag for sections that qualify as homerooms.

[S_SC_SEC_X]Homeroom

Boolean

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VSP Teacher Name

Enter the last name, first name and middle initials for the Virtual School Program instructor for this section if appropriate.

[S_SC_SEC_X]VSP_LastName

[S_SC_SEC_X]VSP_FirstName

[S_SC_SEC_X]VSP_MI

20

20

1

N/A

VSP Certificate No.

Enter the certification number for the Virtual School Program instructor for this section if appropriate.

[S_SC_SEC_X]VSP_CERTNO

6

N/A

VSP SSN

Enter the Social Security number for the Virtual School Program instructor for this section if appropriate.

[S_SC_SEC_X]VSP_SSN

9

N/A

Defining Years & Terms

Years & Terms, New

Years & Terms, Edit Terms

Note: Years and terms must be defined using the date format MM/DD/YYYY for any terms in which grades are awarded or classes scheduled. No dates can overlap across terms. 

Name

Enter the name of the term.

[Terms]Name

N/A

EFA/EIA Initialization

SC01 EFA/EIA Data Verification

SC02 Cumulative Class Report

SC03 Cumulative Class List

SC04 Daily Activities Log

SC05 Daily Activities Summary

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SC08 Master Classification List

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Abbreviation

Enter an abbreviation for the term.

[Terms]Abbreviation

N/A

EFA/EIA Initialization

SC01 EFA/EIA Data Verification

SC02 Cumulative Class Report

SC03 Cumulative Class List

SC04 Daily Activities Log

SC05 Daily Activities Summary

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First Day of Term

Enter the first day of the term.

[Terms]FirstDay

N/A

EFA/EIA Initialization

SC01 EFA/EIA Data Verification

SC02 Cumulative Class Report

SC03 Cumulative Class List

SC04 Daily Activities Log

SC05 Daily Activities Summary

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SC08 Master Classification List

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Last Day of Term

Enter the last day of the term.

[Terms]LastDay

N/A

EFA/EIA Initialization

SC01 EFA/EIA Data Verification

SC02 Cumulative Class Report

SC03 Cumulative Class List

SC04 Daily Activities Log

SC05 Daily Activities Summary

SC06 Membership and Attendance

SC08 Master Classification List

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What portion of the school year does this term represent

Choose the portion of the school year that this term represents from the pop-up menu.

[Terms]Portion

N/A

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