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Overview
Master and class attendance may be taken from the Teacher Portal. All attendance management is conducted from the attendance tab in each class section. From the homepage, teachers can view which classes they have or have not taken attendance for that day. All classes’ current attendance statuses are visible beneath the class name. Each “● Attendance →” link will be color-coded according to whether attendance has been taken for the class:
- Red – attendance has not been taken for the class.
- Green – attendance has been taken for the class.
- Grey – attendance is not required for the class.
Teachers can access the attendance page of any of their classes by clicking on the attendance link.
Attendance Tab
The Attendance tab on a class section in the Teacher Portal displays a list of all students enrolled in that class and their current attendance status for that day. Depending on the configuration for the class, teachers may take either master or class attendance from the Attendance tab. The updateable fields are slightly different for each type of attendance, but the process is the same (see Taking Attendance section below for more details). If attendance has not been taken for the class, students’ statuses will be “present” unless attendance has been entered by the front office. Any notes that the front office has made to explain the absence will be in the “Other Notes” field. Teachers can review the list and see if any of their students are absent, late, leaving early, etc. from their class.
Note: Schools may set up a group event for sports events, field trips, etc. that will automatically update students’ attendance statuses. The group event must be configured at least one day in advance in order for students’ attendance statuses to update automatically. On a group event record use the “Leave Class” and “Return to Campus” fields on the General tab to enter dismissal and return times for students’ attendance statuses. When these fields are populated, the times propagate to students’ attendance records. See the Event Attendance documentation for more information on how to set up attendance for group events.
Taking Attendance
Master Attendance
Master attendance (also called “daily attendance” in the Teacher Portal) is most often conducted from a homeroom/advisory class, or another class from which the school has indicated master attendance should be taken, such as first period or block. When a master attendance status is set, the status propagates to each student’s class attendance records based on a combination of the status plus a late, dismissal, and/or return time (as applicable).
To take master attendance, teachers should set the attendance status for the student and enter any times applicable to the status (i.e. late, dismissed, and return). Any notes about the student’s attendance status, such as reason for arriving late, may be entered in the “Notes” field. Master attendance notes will be available in the “Other Notes” field when teachers take attendance for their classes that take class attendance. When finished entering attendance statuses and notes (as applicable), click the “Save Master Attendance” button. The status of the master attendance will change from “Not Taken” to “Taken.”
Note: If — in the process of taking attendance — the teacher does not need to change any individual student attendance statuses, the teacher should still click “Save Master Attendance” to flip the status of the class to “Taken.”
This way, the front office will know the teacher has taken master attendance.
To learn more about setting and determining which class takes master attendance on a given day, please review this documentation.
Class Attendance
Provided that class attendance has been configured for your school or a particular school level, teachers may take attendance for any of their class(es) at any point of the day. Attendance for each student is taken using the “Status” dropdown on the class attendance tab. Any notes about the student’s class attendance status may be entered in the “Notes” field. When finished entering attendance statuses and notes (as applicable), click the “Save Class Attendance” button. The status of the class attendance will change from “Not Taken” to “Taken.” When a teacher views their homepage, the attendance link under the class will now be green for “attendance taken.”
An attendance status for any student can be changed throughout the day as needed. Teachers may return to the attendance tab in the class section, update the student’s status, and save the class attendance statuses again.
Locking Attendance
Some schools may not want teachers to be able to update attendance in the Teacher Portal after it has been taken by the front office. Master and class attendance can be locked in Axiom, preventing them from being updated by teachers in the Teacher Portal. Note that locked attendance records can still be updated in Axiom, but not in the Teacher Portal.
In the Teacher Portal
When attendance is locked in Axiom, the particular attendance record in the Teacher Portal will be visible but not updateable, and will be indicated with a small “lock” icon.
Changing Attendance for Prior Days
Teachers may also modify attendance for prior school days. From the Attendance tab of the class, click on today’s date in the upper left of the screen. Select the desired date from the calendar that appears. All students’ attendance statuses from that date will appear. Teachers can update attendance statuses as needed and then click “Save Class Attendance.” Attendance from the Teacher Portal can only be edited 60 days into the past. If a teacher needs to change a student’s attendance status beyond 60 days they should contact the front office.
Attendance from the Mobile Portal
Teachers may also take attendance in the mobile version of the Teacher Portal. Attendance from the mobile version operates similar to the standard version in that class attendance is taken per student for each class the teacher instructs. From the mobile homepage, teachers may tap the “Attendance” button to view a list of all their classes. Each class will be marked “Taken” or “Not Taken” so teachers can quickly see which classes they still need to take attendance for. To take attendance, tap on the desired class to view all students’ current attendance statuses. Update each student’s status by tapping on their name and choosing from the list of attendance statuses or select the “All Present” button to update each student’s attendance status to present.