Attendance

Record attendance for your classroom

Summary: The Attendance page lets you record each child as present, absent, or tardy for the day, note absence reasons, and keep a live count of how many children are physically in your room. Select your classroom in the upper-right corner, open Attendance in the left menu, and click each child's status to record it. You can mark absences with a reason (even a day ahead), adjust tardy arrival times, record the whole class at once in bulk, and use the real-time count to track children who step out and come back.

Who can do this

Attendance is a per-classroom feature, like recording lessons. Any Teacher assigned to a classroom can record attendance for that classroom from inside it — you do not need the Account Admin area. Account Owners and Administrators can record attendance for any classroom, since they have access to all of them.

Step-by-step

1. Select your classroom. Choose your classroom from the switcher in the upper-right corner.
2. Open the Attendance page. Click Attendance in the left-side navigation menu. You will see a list of all the children in your classroom.
3. Record each child's status. Click the status for each child — Present, Absent, or Tardy.
4. Add an absence reason if needed. When you mark a child absent, click the settings wheel to choose a reason (for example, vacation). See "Marking an absence" below.
5. Adjust tardy times if needed. When you mark a child tardy, the arrival time is set automatically. You can edit it. See "Marking a child tardy" below.

Children not scheduled for today

If any children in your class attend on a partial-week schedule, they will appear in a separate Not scheduled for this day section on days they are not expected. This means you do not have to mark them absent on days they were never scheduled to attend. If one of them does come in unexpectedly, simply mark them Present and they are added to that day's attendance.

Marking an absence

When you mark a child Absent, click the settings wheel to choose a reason for the absence, such as vacation. You can also add a note if you want a little more detail on the record. If you already know a child will be out tomorrow as well, you can mark them absent for today and tomorrow at the same time — when you open attendance the next day, that child will already be marked absent.

Marking a child tardy

When you mark a child Tardy, the arrival time updates automatically to the moment you click. If that is not quite right — say you did not mark it the instant they walked in — you can go back and edit the time to whatever you need. You can also set the arrival or departure time to the current local time by clicking the small clock icon.

Recording attendance in bulk

Instead of clicking each child one at a time, you can record everyone as Present in one step, then change only the few children who are absent or tardy to the right status. Whether you record one by one or in bulk is entirely a matter of your own workflow and preference.

The real-time count

The real-time count shows how many children are physically in your classroom at this moment. It is separate from present/absent status. If a child leaves the room temporarily — for example, Amber goes to the office — you mark her Out and the count drops by one. She is not absent; she is still at school, just out of the room. When she returns you mark her back in and the count goes back up. It is a quick on-screen reference for who is in the room right now.

A few things worth knowing

• Partial-week children only need an attendance status on the days they are scheduled — the rest of the time they sit in the "Not scheduled for this day" section.
• You can mark a future absence in advance, so a planned vacation is already recorded when that day arrives.
• The "Out" / "back in" real-time count is about who is physically in the room, not about absences — a child marked out is still counted present for the day.

Related articles

• Customizing a child's schedule
• Reports
• Set automation for activity reports

Watch the video

Here is a short video covering this topic for additional reference.