Information from the California Department of Education is still pending and this is our preliminary interpretation of how this will work. There will be changes.


The school calendar has two new day types: Distance Learning and Mixed Learning in addition to the traditional day types of Regular Day, Holiday, Staff Day, Vacation, etc. Day types can be changed in SchoolWise from the File Menu - District Setup - School Calendar Setup as seen below:


Most likely your calendar is set to Mixed Learning by default but Unless students are physically attending school on site, Distance Learning is the preferred day type because the interface is much simpler for the teachers to navigate.



If you need to change many day types in bulk please click on the Bulk Change Day Type button in the top right hand corner and choose the date you wish to start from. It will auto fill all the school days from the point until the last day of school as seen below:




Once all of your day types have been set push the Save button. 

You can change the day types in the future if/when students come back to campus.


Distance learning has shifted the bulk of attendance recording (including assigning reasons) to teachers since they have contact with the students and know what the assignments are. Teachers access attendance in the same way as before by logging into their SchoolWise Online Portal and clicking on the Attend clipboard for their homeroom (Day) ADA class as shown below:

 

This opens up the teacher attendance form.

 


Teacher Attendance Web Interface

The attendance form interface is based on how the school calendar was established in SchoolWise Desktop (see above). Details below:



Distance Learning


Engaged or Unengaged are the two attendance choices for Distance Learning. The attendance choice selection is indicated on screen by Engaged or Unengaged. 


1. By default Not Set Yet means the  teacher hasn't taken attendance yet.

2. Engaged - means the student is considered Present for the day, participating in the lessons.

3. Unengaged means the student did not participate in the day's lessons.  There are excused and unexcused reasons for Unengaged



New Distance Learning Attendance Features


This is very different from how it was before.  Previously teachers only marked students Absent or Tardy and then the office managers were responsible for assigning reasons which they received from parents.  With distance learning students are no longer Absent or Present; they are Engaged or Unengaged.


Please note: In distance learning every student must be marked Engaged or Unengaged every day.  Failure to do this could result in audit exceptions.



Walk Through For Distance Learning Attendance Recording

 

1. If a student is on task and is to receive credit for the day click Engaged.



 

2. Click in the main Reason/Activity drop down menu. Choose a reason why the student is Engaged and optionally you can use the minutes and notes fields for additional details. Keep in mind the notes field is for short notes, not paragraphs.  Minutes and notes are optional.

 

  

4. If a student is UnEngaged the list of reasons changes:

 




Please note:  This is for attendance purposes only and is not a complete record of the daily instruction.   The details of SB 98 indicate that a much more detailed record of assignments must be maintained.


Additional Information on Reasons


The default reasons for Engaged and Unengaged are shown in the drop down menus above.  Additional reasons can be established as follows:

 

 

 

 

Notice that the short reasons must be prefaced with DU- (Distance Unengaged) or DE- (Distance Engaged).  Your school can add or delete reasons.  Reasons for Unengaged can be excused or unexcused.  Unexcused reasons are taken into consideration for truancy.   Presently the following reasons are unexcused:

 

 

Please contact SchoolWise support if you need additional reasons.

 


Mixed Learning


Mixed Learning occurs when some students are on campus and some students are distance learning. In that case attendance is a mixture of Present, Absent, Tardy, Engaged or Unengaged depending on if the student is on campus or at home. Below is an example of the four possible attendance choices when using the Mixed Learning Calendar Day Type.  The attendance choice selection is indicated on screen in a Bold White font. In the chart below read the notes for a description of each attendance choice example:


 

Regular Day


Below is an example of the possible attendance choices when the calendar is set to Regular Day when students can only be physically on campus (post Covid). The attendance choice selection is indicated on screen by Abs (Absent) or Pres (Present). In the chart below read the notes for a description of each attendance choice example:


 

Locking Attendance Records


After teachers complete their attendance for the day they need to indicate that fact by toggling the Attendance Not Taken button to Attendance Taken.  Clicking the button reverses its status.





This flags the attendance system in the office as to the status of teacher attendance.



School office personnel can click on the Taken button and toggle it four ways:


When it is set to Complete or Needs Review in the office it locks the teachers' attendance form. 


It can be unlocked by having office personnel set the status back to Not Taken


When to lock attendance needs to be a school policy.  You should consider such questions as: 

  • When should it be locked?  Auditors will insist on locking at some point.
  • How long do students have to complete assignments?
  • When are uncompleted assignments considered Unengaged/Unexcused?
  • Since three Unengaged/Unexcused days in one week constitute truancy when is the cut off for determining Engaged,  Unengaged/Excused or Unengaged/Unexcused?



Recording Attendance in the Office


The office PC can still record attendance as in the past:





Some school do not have the teacher web interface and will need to record attendance this way.  The office can edit attendance and is ultimately responsible for locking and unlocking the attendance forms for the teachers.


This is our best interpretation of Distance Attendance recording as of Friday, August 21, 2020.  CDE has just announced that the Principal Apportionment Policy Office will present a one-hour webinar to provide guidance on instructional time and attendance accounting changes in fiscal year 2020–21 pursuant to Senate Bill 98 on Monday, August 24, 2020.