TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Getting Started with Parent Notes
• Updating Student Attendance
• Updating Students based on the Default Attendance
• Updating Selected Students
• Marking a Student as Processed
• Viewing Processed Notes
• Parent Notes In Genesis
• Setting up Parents Module for Parents Notes

Overview

The Parent Attendance Notes feature allows parents to submit Attendance Notes for their students within the Parents Module.  

They have the ability to submit a note to the attendance office telling your staff that a student will be late or absent, and a reason for the note.  

Genesis displays the notes submitted by the parents on the Attendance>Notes>Notes screen. This screen allows staff to update the students daily attendance directly while viewing the parents note.

Some key features include the mass updating of student's attendance, and allowing a default attendance code for the notes so that data entry is as easy as a click of the mouse.

You can set up the types of attendance to accept via Attendance>Notes>Setup.

Getting Started with Parent Notes

The purpose of the Attendance>Notes screen is to allow users to view and update a student's attendance based on the information in the note.

In order to make this work as quickly and efficiently as possible, the district has the ability to default an attendance code for a Tardy or Absence note.  

This can be setup by clicking on the "Setup Default Attendance" button.  

This pops up a dialog box asking for a "Default Absent Code" and a "Default Tardy Code".  

Just select the attendance code you would like to associate with that type of note and then hit the "Save Default Attendance Codes" button. Now users will have the ability to quickly and easily update students attendance in mass.

The screen itself will show the users all unprocessed Parent Notes.  An unprocessed note is one where the student' attendance has not been updated based on the note.  

Once the attendance has been updated, the note is considered processed and will no longer appear on the screen by default.

For each unprocessed note,  two rows appear for the note.  The first row shows information about the student, the type of parent note (Absent or Tardy), the date for the note, the actual note text as well as the student's current attendance for the day.  

The second row is the attendance data that you would like to post to the student's attendance for the day of the note.

Updating Student Attendance

The student attendance can be updated in multiple way on this screen.  You can update them individually, or in mass.  The first step to updating the attendance is to look at the "Update Attendance To" field below each note.  

This field is blank by default and if it is left blank, then the student will not marked as processed.  This way staff can look at each note individually and only update the students they are working on.  The attendance is saved for the updated students when the user clicks on "Save all Updated Attendance" button.  

Any note that had the "Update Attendance To" filled in will be marked as processed and will no longer appear on the screen.  When filling out the attendance, the user may also enter a comment for the daily attendance and also mark the student as "Do Not Call" (DNC) for your auto dialers.  

The Do Not Call check box is checked by default so parents who submit a note will not get called by the school after entering there note.

Updating Students based on the Default Attendance

If you have filled set up the default attendances codes for both the tardy and absence notes, the data entry for the students can be made much more efficient.  A Default link will appear next to the "Update Attendance To" dropdown.  If the link is clicked, the default attendance code will populate the drop down based on the type of note.  Another time saver when default attendance is setup is the "Update All to Default Attendance Code" button.  When you click this button, the "Update Attendance To" field for every note on the screen will be updated to the correct code based on the note type.

Updating Selected Students

Users also have the ability to check off specific students and update their attendance.  In order to do this, simply check the check box on the left hand side of the screen for the students you would like to update.  Once checked off, hit the button "Update Attendance for Checked Students".  This will pop up a dialog box asking for several pieces of data.  The first thing to enter is the attendance code for the checked students.  The second thing to consider is whether the students should be marked as DNC.  This is checked by default.  The last piece is a comment that can be tagged to the Attendance Daily for the student that day.  This field is optional.  Once you are done, hit the "Update Attendance" button and then only the selected students will be updated.  This will mark all the notes as processed and will no longer appear on the screen.

Marking a Student as Processed

Sometimes a student will have the correct attendance or you are waiting for more information before posting new attendance for that student.  However, you would like to mark that student as processed so the note will no longer appear on the screen.  You can accomplish this by hitting the Save icon on the right side of the screen.  When you hit the Save button, you will have two questions to answer.  The first question is "Would you like to update this Note to processed?" and the second is "Would you like to update this students attendance to DNC?".  By checking off the first question, the note will be marked as processed and if the second question is checked, the student will be on your Do Not Call list.  Hit the "Update Student" button to save.

Viewing Processed Notes

In order to view you're processed notes, simply switch the Status field in the search form to Processed.  This will open date fields to allow you to search for notes during a specific time span.  

When viewing your processed notes, users can no longer update the student's attendance from the Attendance>Notes screen.

Parent Notes In Genesis

Besides the Notes tab in Attendance, the parent's note will appear elsewhere in Genesis allowing teachers and staff of its existence.

You can see the note next to today's attendance in the student information bar.  

On a students Attendance tab.  

Also on HR and Daily attendance screens.

Setting up Parents Module for Parents Notes

For a step by step guide to setting up your Parents Module to allow parents to notify the attendance office, please click here.

We have a webinar posted here.