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Knowledgebase: Setups
Powerschool - Adding Attendance Codes
Posted by Gilbert Suarez on 09 October 2019 03:26 PM

Powerschool Admin - Attendance Codes

Updated 10/09/19

 

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Summary of Page

This page is intended to explain how to add a new Attenandance code into Powerschool.  The attendance codes are what students are assigned to count toward their total days absent and total days present.  It is very important that when creating an attendance code you set it to Absent or Present status.  In this KB we will cover all the necessary setting changes that need to be configured in order to add an attendance code.  There is also a standard list of Attendance codes that ALL schools receive.  These codes are NOT to be modified or deleted.  

 

The standard list of attendance codes are: 

  • <blank> which stands for "Present"
  • TU which stands for "Unexcused Tardy"
  • AU which stands for " Absent Unexcused"
  • AE which stands for "Absent Excused"
  • TE which stands for "Tardy Excused"
  • AH which stands for "Half Day AM"
  • AP which stands for "Half Day PM"
  • AT which stands for "Truant Absence"
  • SA which stands for "School Activity"
  • SU which stands for "Suspension"
  • POD which stands for Portion of Day
  • eP-- eLearning Present
  • eA-- eLearning Absent  

 

 

All schools should have the above mentioned codes setup as the standard list of attendance codes to be used and reported on.  You can view this list of attendance codes by going to: 

 

  1. Log into Powerschool Admin portal
  2. Click on School under Setup
  3. Click on Attendance codes under Attendance
  4. On screen should be the mentioned codes above.

NOTE: There is a column and setting that allows for teachers to assign a particular code.  As per OCS policy teachers are only allowed to record: Present, Unexcused Tardy (TU), and Absent Unexcused (AU).  All other codes are to be assigned by and administered by the School Office staff.  

 

Adding An Attendance Code

To add in an attendance code you are going to need some information about the code to properly categorize the code and confiure it properly.  It is important that you collect the following information prior to creating so that the setup of the code is complete and can be used immediately after creation and configuration.  You are going to want to have: 

  • Abbreviation of Code
  • Description of Code
  • Presense Status (Absent or Present)
  • Category of Code (Tardy, Excused absence, unexcused absence)
  • Points (Counts towards Average Daily Attendance)
  • Teacher can assign (check with OCS first)

Once you have some of this information handy we can then begin to create the said code by navigating to the following location: 

  1. Log into Powerschool Admin portal
  2. Click on School under Setup
  3. Click on Attendance codes under Attendance
  4. Click on the "NEW" button at the top of the page
  5. Fill in all the mentioned information above.  Please note: 
    • Code can only be 3 or less characters
    • Description should be detailed on how this code is to be used
    • Presence Status must be set
    • Code Category must be set
    • Points must be set to "1" for absent and "0" for Present
    • Teacher can assign set to "No" unless approved
    • Check This attendance code is considered in ADA calculations
    • Check This attendance code counts towards membership
    • Display order can be set to the next number in your list of codes. 
  6. Click Submit

Now that you have created the code on your attendance code list, the next thing to do is to set the Attendance Conversion for this newly created code.  This is a VERY IMPORTANT step and should NOT be skipped when adding an Attenance code.  Failure to set Attendance Conversion will result in wrong counts of Present or Absent on reports or code will be ignored.  

 

To setup the Attendance Conversion you are going to want to: 

  1. Log into Powerschool Admin portal
  2. Click on School under Setup
  3. Click on Attendance Conversions under Attendance
  4. Click on the link under the Code column labeled.  
  5. Once the page loads you are going to want to enter a Day Attendance Value for the New Attendance code created
    1. If the code is to be a "Present" code use a "1"
    2. If the code is to be a "Absent" code use a "0"
    3. Be sure that NO code is left empty under the Day Attendance Value
  6. Click Submit

Now the Code is created and configured properly to be used in attendance tracking.  If there are any questions/concerns feel free to reach out to our support desk technician by emailing at helpdesk@sbtcsupport.org

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