Microsoft Word - 2015-1 AUDIT REPORT

Page | 1

Internal Audit Report

Audit of Student Attendance Reporting

January 20, 2015

Wayland E. Mueller, CPA, CIA – Internal Auditor

Internal Audit No. 2015-1

Kraft Administrative Center, 1359 E. St. Louis St., Springfield, MO 65802

www.springfieldpublicschoolsmo.org

Page | 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TRANSMITTAL LETTER .................................................................................................................................. 3

AUDIT PURPOSE................................................................................................................................................ 4

AUDIT SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 4

BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................................. 5

FINDINGS .............................................................................................................................................................. 7

APPENDIX A: BOARD POLICY RELEVANT TO THIS AUDIT.................................................................... 12

APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY OF TERMS ........................................................................................................... 13

APPENDIX C: ATTENDANCE CHECKLIST – BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS ............................................... 14

APPENDIX D: ATTENDANCE CHECKLIST – DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR .......................................... 16

APPENDIX E: ATTENDANCE CHECKLIST – END OF YEAR ..................................................................... 18

We Exist for the Academic Excellence of All Students

Wayland E. Mueller, CPA, CIA – Internal Auditor

KRAFT ADMINISTRATIVE CENTER

1359 E. SAINT LOUIS STREET - SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI 65802-3409 - TELEPHONE 417/523-0679

Page | 3

TRANSMITTAL LETTER

January 20, 2015

Board of Education

School District of Springfield R-XII

Springfield, Missouri

I have completed internal audit number 2015-1, “Audit of Student Attendance Reporting.” The objective of the

audit was to examine the district’s student attendance reporting policies, procedures, and controls for the

purpose of providing the district’s management with recommendations in order to improve the operational

effectiveness and efficiency of these activities. The scope of this audit focused on examining attendance

records from the 2013-2014 regular school year and the June 2014 summer school term. Limited procedures

were also performed on 2012-2013 school year attendance data and current attendance procedures in the 2014-

2015 school year.

I conducted this audit in accordance with the standards applicable to performance audits contained in

Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States of America. Those

standards require that I plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a

reasonable basis for my findings and conclusions based on the audit objective. I believe that the evidence

obtained provides a reasonable basis for my findings and conclusions based on the audit objective.

The findings in this report were reviewed by the district’s management, and their responses are included in this

report. I appreciated management’s cooperation and assistance throughout this audit.

Respectfully submitted,

Wayland E. Mueller, CPA, CIA

Internal Auditor

Page | 4

AUDIT PURPOSE

In accordance with the Internal Audit Work Plan for fiscal year 2015 as approved by the Board of Education on

October 21, 2014, I designed this audit to examine the policies, procedures, and controls over the student

attendance reporting function within the district. The objective of this audit was to examine the district’s

student attendance recording and reporting policies, procedures, and controls for the purpose of providing the

district’s management with recommendations in order to improve the operational effectiveness and efficiency of

these activities.

AUDIT SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY

This audit consisted of an examination of the systems and processes used for recording and subsequently

reporting student attendance hours to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

(DESE). The focus of this audit was on attendance data, reports, and processes for the 2013-2014 regular

school year and the June 2014 summer school session. The findings described later in this report relate to the

audit procedures performed for on data from these periods. Limited reviews were also conducted of attendance

data from the 2012-2013 regular school year and the June 2013 summer school term.

The audit procedures performed included:

 reviewing state requirements, board policies, board meeting minutes, and the results of annual external

audit reports;

 examining the accuracy of the total hours in session reported to the state for the regular school year

(2013-2014) for a sample of school buildings by recalculating the total hours in session for these schools

based on data contained within the district’s student information system;

 recalculating the standard day lengths for each building based on the bell schedules for each building

and comparing these recalculated amounts to the day lengths reported to the state;

 comparing the total hours of attendance possible, by student, for students enrolled the entire regular

school term to the total combined hours of attendance and absence reported to the state for these

students;

 comparing the regular school year attendance hours recorded in the district’s student information

system for a sample of students to the totals reported to the state for these students;

 comparing the total regular school year attendance hours recorded by building in the district’s student

information system to the totals reported to the state for every building;

 comparing the total hours of attendance possible by student, based on the number of hours school was in

session, for all students enrolled in summer school (June 2014) to the total hours of attendance reported

to the state for these students;

 comparing the total summer school attendance hours reported to the state for a sample of students to the

total summer school hours recorded in the district’s student information system for these students;

 conducting interviews of a sample of attendance secretaries and elementary secretaries to assess the

consistency of adherence to the district’s attendance policies and procedures;

As described above, several audit tests were conducted using samples of data. Audit tests that included data

from a sample of students were designed to ensure that the samples included students across grade levels and

buildings. Tests that used data from a sample of buildings were constructed so that the number of buildings in

the samples was sufficient and the combination of elementary and secondary schools selected was appropriate.

In all instances the samples were deliberately chosen to reflect the population as a whole.

Page | 5

AUDIT SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY (continued)

I conducted the audit in accordance with the standards applicable to performance audits contained in

Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. Those standards

require that I plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis

for my findings and conclusions based on the audit objective. I believe that the evidence obtained provides a

reasonable basis for my findings and conclusions based on the audit objective.

The audit is considered a performance audit. As defined by Government Auditing Standards, “performance

audits provide objective analysis to assist management and those charged with governance and oversight in

using the information to improve program performance and operations.”

For this audit, the program being

assessed is the district’s student attendance reporting function.

BACKGROUND

According to Board Policy JEE – Student Accounting, the district is required to keep an “accurate accounting of

student attendance” that is “in accordance with state law and appropriate

regulations of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary

Education.” Properly accounting for student attendance involves accurately

recording attendance data and also accurately reporting attendance data to

the state while complying with various state requirements.

Maintaining an effective and comprehensive system for recording and

reporting student attendance hours is important to the district in three

significant ways. First, average daily attendance (ADA), which is calculated

based on attendance hours, is a major component of the foundation formula

that determines the amount of state aid the district receives each year. Second, the district’s attendance rate is

one of the five Missouri School Improvement (MSIP) 5 Performance Standards used by DESE to compute the

district’s Annual Performance Report (APR) score. Finally, accurate student attendance records help district

leaders to monitor attendance trends for buildings and individual students for the purpose of making decisions

about future school strategies and student interventions.

Recording Attendance Hours

To accomplish the function of recording and storing student data, including attendance records, the district

utilizes a comprehensive web-based student information management system, eSchoolPLUS. Creating and

maintaining accurate student attendance records is a function that involves teachers, school secretaries, and

employees in the district’s Information Technology (IT) Department. The process begins with teachers, who

post attendance in eSchoolPLUS every day school is in session. eSchoolPLUS is an exception reporting system

in which students are counted as present unless teachers or secretaries mark them as absent in the system.

Elementary teachers take attendance once per day within the first ten minutes of the beginning of the school

day. Middle school and high school teachers take attendance during the first ten minutes of each period. Once

a teacher posts attendance in eSchoolPLUS, only the secretaries and authorized individuals in the district IT

Department can make changes to the attendance records. Secretaries at the buildings are responsible for

obtaining information about the reasons for absences, recording late arrivals and early dismissals, and correcting

attendance data posted by the teachers.

“Government Auditing Standards, December 2011 Revision,” U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO),

http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/587281.pdf , p. 17, accessed on November 17, 2014.

The underlined terms

in the report are

defined in the Glossary

of Terms (Appendix B).

Terms defined in the

glossary are underlined

when the term first

ears in the re

ort.

Page | 6

BACKGROUND (continued)

The district uses many different codes to describe the reason for a student’s absence. These codes allow for

district leaders to look for trends and also allow the district to accurately record attendance hours for state-

reporting purposes. Some absence codes, such as codes for field trips and academic competitions, are used to

record when a student is out of the school building, but still under the supervision of a certified teacher. Using

these codes allows the school buildings to accurately monitor the physical whereabouts of students, while still

counting the attendance hours for the purpose of reporting the hours to the state.

Reporting Attendance Hours

The function of reporting student attendance hours to DESE is performed by the IT Department. Twice per

year the IT Department submits a file to DESE containing student attendance data. One file, due August 15

reports the number of hours of summer school attendance for each student. A second file, due June 30

, reports

attendance data for every student attending during the regular school year. The files are called the Student

Enrollment and Attendance (SEA) files. These files are created by extracting individual student records from

eSchoolPLUS, and listing those records in an Excel spreadsheet. The Excel spreadsheet is then uploaded

through DESE’s Missouri Student Information System (MOSIS) as part of the August and June Core Data

System reporting cycles.

After a SEA file is uploaded through MOSIS, DESE provides the district with an “Edits Report”. The “edits”

consist of a list of potential errors in the uploaded data that must be reviewed and in some instances corrected

by the district before DESE will accept the submission. As part of the MOSIS submission process, a member of

the IT Department is responsible for reviewing the Edits Report and correcting data as necessary to ensure

DESE will accept the submission. Timely submission is important because the data is used by DESE for

calculating state aid payments and determining MSIP 5 scores.

In addition to reporting attendance hours, the IT Department is also responsible for providing DESE with

detailed school calendar information for the district’s planned calendar and also the actual calendar. As part of

the August Core Data reporting cycle, a member of the IT Department enters the data needed by DESE to

calculate the number of planned hours each school building will be in session for the upcoming regular school

year. In June, the same individual enters the actual school calendar data into Core Data. The planned and

actual calendars may differ due to unforeseen school closures due to weather conditions, and other changes to

the schedule throughout the year. The accuracy of the actual calendar, as entered into Core Data, is important

because total actual hours in session are used in the calculation of ADA.

Page | 7

FINDINGS

Finding 1 – Completeness of Attendance Hours Reported to DESE

 Criteria – Student attendance information submitted to DESE through MOSIS each year should

contain accurate and complete attendance data for each student, and “must be a true account of

district activities.”

Attendance data is considered complete if all hours present and absent are

contained in the Student Enrollment and Attendance (SEA) files submitted to the state through

MOSIS.

 Condition – Through my audit procedures I noted errors in the attendance data reported to DESE

that caused the reported student attendance hours to be less than the actual hours of attendance. I

reviewed both the data reported to DESE for the 2013-2014 regular school year and the 2014

summer school term.

The district’s June 2014 SEA file lists the regular school year total hours attended and absent for

every student. As part of my review of the June 2014 SEA file, I calculated the total possible

hours of attendance for all students who were enrolled the entire regular school year. The total

possible hours of attendance equals the sum of all hours present plus all hours absent. I then

compared each student’s calculated total possible hours to the total hours each student’s school

was in session. Through this comparison I noticed several instances in which a student’s total

possible hours of attendance, calculated from the SEA File, was less than the total hours the

student’s school was in session.

Since a student’s total possible hours of attendance must equal the total hours school was in

session, the instances where the totals did not match indicated that an error existed in the number

of hours reported to DESE. After extensive work by the district’s IT Department, various errors

within the district’s student information system (eSchoolPLUS) were corrected. After the

corrections were made and a new SEA file was created, an additional 12,015 student attendance

hours were identified. While 12,015 hours is a large number of hours, the total number of regular

school year attendance hours for the district was 24,118,874. Therefore, 99.95% of student

attendance hours were initially reported correctly for the 2013-2014 regular school year.

I also performed a similar analysis with the August SEA file, which contained the 2014 summer

school attendance data. Based on my analysis of this file, 25,503 additional attendance hours were

discovered that had been erroneously excluded from the totals included in the file. These

additional hours represent 10% of the total summer school hours reported.

Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, “Core Data and Missouri Student Information System Reference

Manual,” < http://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/cdmosismanual2014.pdf>, accessed on October 10, 2014.

Page | 8

Finding 1 – Completeness of Attendance Hours Reported to DESE (continued)

 Cause – Accurate calculation of student attendance hours is dependent upon the accuracy of the

settings established in eSchoolPLUS by the district’s IT Department. Due to considerable

variations in bell schedules from one school to another, ensuring all settings in eSchoolPLUS are

accurate is a difficult process. Minor discrepancies in the eSchoolPLUS settings can cause

attendance hours to be calculated incorrectly for individual students. Through the MOSIS data

submission process, DESE provides the district with Edits Reports that list potential errors with

the data contained in the uploaded file. IT reviews these edits and makes necessary corrections

before a new MOSIS file is created and submitted again to DESE. Correcting these errors within

the MOSIS file helps to improve the accuracy of the student attendance data submitted to the state.

However, DESE does not provide an error or warning when a student’s total reported combined

hours of attendance and absence are less than the hours that student’s school was in session.

Current district procedures also do not include a method to detect if the number of attendance

hours reported to DESE is too low.

 Effect – The number of attendance hours the district reports to DESE has a direct impact on the

amount of funding the district receives from the state’s foundation formula and from Proposition

C payments. If the SEA files do not contain all eligible attendance hours, the district’s calculated

ADA will be lower than the true totals, and state funding will be negatively impacted.

Although my review of the SEA File for the 2013-2014 regular school year showed that an

extremely small percentage of student attendance hours were underreported to DESE, the

underreported hours would have caused the district’s ADA to be 11.38 lower if the IT Department

had not corrected the errors discovered. By correcting the June SEA file, the district will receive

approximately $71,000 in additional funding from the state for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Also, due to the review of the summer school SEA file for the session held in June 2014, the

district’s summer school ADA is 24.43 higher than previously reported. As a result, the district’s

state funding will increase by approximately $150,000 for the 2014-2015 fiscal year due to the

higher reported summer school ADA.

The combined increase in state aid as a result of the corrected ADA totals will be about $221,000.

 Recommendation – Ideally, all settings within eSchoolPLUS should be entered perfectly each

school term, which would result in all attendance hours being reported correctly to DESE.

However, since the district has many different bell schedules and other differences from school to

school, preventing all mistakes in the system settings may be unrealistic. Therefore, I recommend

management design additional controls over the process of submitting SEA files to DESE.

Additional review procedures should be performed to detect potential instances of missing hours

of attendance. Management may consider using procedures to detect missing hours that are

similar to the review procedures I performed during this audit.

Page | 9

Finding 1 – Completeness of Attendance Hours Reported to DESE (continued)

 Management’s Response – In response to the audit finding presented above the following process

improvements have been implemented:

1. Attendance Checklist – Before Start of School (see Appendix C) – This checklist process will be

used to verify the calculation of attendance minutes on students and the setup and configuration in

the eSchoolPLUS system. The following list identifies each area and the process involved to verify

the accuracy of the information in the system.

2. Attendance Checklist – During School Year (see Appendix D) – This checklist process identifies

changes that may occur after the school year has started and the modifications needed to the

eSchoolPLUS Student Information System to accommodate for the change in regards to attendance.

Each area and the steps involved are listed, along with the process to verify the accuracy of the

attendance information after the adjustments are made.

3. Attendance Checklist – End of School Year (see Appendix E) – This checklist process will be

used to verify the accuracy of the generated collection and the expected student attendance data used

in the upload of the overall attendance SEA data file submitted to DESE.

4. eSchoolPLUS Attendance Change Request Form – This form will document and track authorized

changes from administration to a student’s attendance record given to the I.T. department for audit

purposes.

5. The checklists above are going to be used for the Summer School program. The new changes in the

coming Summer School program will also help reduce possible inconsistencies and the opportunities

for errors in Summer School student attendance.

As stated in the findings by the auditor above, the levels of intricacy in the settings for each individual

building can easily affect a student’s reported attendance to DESE. The advantage of our student

information system today is that it allows for a high level of unique attributes and settings to help meet

an individual school building’s needs, but with that ability comes a certain level of complexity. We

believe the checklists and testing discussed above will definitely improve our district’s level of accuracy

in reporting our SEA files to DESE.

Page | 10

Finding 2 – Potentially Improper Use of Late and Dismissed Early Codes

 Criteria – According to DESE’s “Attendance Reporting” guidance, a “district may have policies

allowing an excused absence for various purposes…, however, there is no authority to give

attendance credit for state aid purposes for students neither in attendance nor under the direct

supervision of a certificated teacher.”

 Condition – Absences recorded with certain codes in the district’s student information system,

eSchoolPLUS, do not calculate as absences for state-reporting purposes. School-related activities

such as field trips and athletic competitions are two examples of the types of absences that do not

count against a student’s total hours present, and special codes are used to record these types of

absences. Late (L or LE) codes and the dismissed early (DE) code are also examples of codes

within eSchoolPlus that do not calculate as absences when reported to DESE.

The district’s administration has trained building secretaries to use a late code if a student arrives

within fifteen minutes of the start of a class period, and to use the dismissed early code if a student

leaves within the last fifteen minutes. Students arriving more than fifteen minutes late are

recorded with an absence code and their time of arrival is entered into their daily records.

eSchoolPLUS uses the time of arrival to calculate a partial absence for that day. eSchoolPLUS

does not calculate a partial absence if the codes L, LE, or DE are used. However, I found no

guidance from DESE to support the district’s existing practice of counting time absent as present

when L, LE and DE codes are used.

In addition, through my review of individual student attendance records, I noted a lack of

consistency in how the L, LE and DE codes are used. I found many examples of late codes that

were used when students were more than fifteen minutes late and dismissed early codes that were

used when students left school more than fifteen minutes early.

 Cause – Secretaries have been trained to use the L or LE code to record when students arrive

within the first fifteen minutes of the start of school or period. Secretaries have also been trained

to use the DE code if a child is excused from class less than fifteen minutes early. However, the

district has no process in place to monitor how the L, LE, and DE codes are being used from one

building to another.

 Effect – If the district’s current method of using late and dismissed early codes violates DESE

requirements, attendance hours reported to DESE may be slightly overstated. Also, due to the

variability from school to school in how late codes and dismissed early codes are being used, the

ability of management to compare attendance percentages and other attendance data across

buildings is reduced.

Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, “Attendance Reporting,” < http://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/sf-

AAttendanceReporting.pdf >, accessed on November 17, 2014.

Page | 11

Finding 2 – Potentially Improper Use of Late and Dismissed Early Codes (continued)

 Recommendation – Management should reevaluate the practice of using late and dismissed early

codes, to determine if the current practice meets DESE requirements. If possible, management

should obtain written confirmation from DESE that current practices related to the use of late and

dismissed early codes meet DESE standards. If management is able to determine that the current

policy of using late and dismissed early codes is acceptable for DESE reporting purposes,

additional training and monitoring of building secretaries is needed to ensure consistency in the

use of these codes. Since these codes are currently set within eSchoolPLUS so that a student’s

minutes late or dismissed early do not calculate as time absent, consistent use of these codes

across the district is important to allow for making reasonable comparisons of attendance results

from one building to another. If management decides to continue using late codes, management

should consider implementing IT controls that would prevent users from selecting the L or LE

codes if the student’s time of arrival is later than fifteen minutes after the start of the class period.

Management should consider implementing similar IT controls that would prevent users from

selecting the DE code earlier than the last fifteen minutes of a class period.

 Management’s Response – A work team will be formed to revise or develop policy, and address

training issues where appropriate. This work group will include representation from the

Attendance Services Department, IT Department, elementary and secondary attendance

secretaries, and building administration when appropriate. The work team will research the

attendance practices of comparable school districts. Through this research, the work team will

develop and recommend to management a consistent, district-wide approach to the use of L, LE,

and DE attendance codes. The work team’s revised procedures will be designed to meet the

current attendance reporting criteria as set by DESE, or management will seek approval from

DESE for any revised procedures not explicitly meeting existing written DESE guidance.

Page | 12

APPENDIX A: BOARD POLICY RELEVANT TO THIS AUDIT

Board Policy Relevance to this Audit

JEE - Student Accounting -Requires an accurate accounting of student attendance to be kept by the district, and

requires the records to be in accordance with state law and appropriate regulations of the

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Springfield Public Schools, < https://isharesps.org/websitedoc/CommunityRelations/Board/PolicyJ/FileJEE.pdf >, accessed on

October 10, 2014.

Page | 13

APPENDIX B: GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Average Daily Attendance

(ADA)

The quotient or the sum of the quotients obtained by dividing the

total number of hours attended in a term by resident pupils

between the ages of five and twenty-one by the actual number of

hours school was in session in that term.

Core Data System

The DESE data collection system with integrated screens used to

directly enter or update information from school districts. Data in

several Core Data screens are now populated from MOSIS.

Missouri School Improvement

Program (MSIP) 5

“MSIP 5 is the state’s school accountability system for reviewing

and accrediting public school districts in Missouri. MSIP began in

1990 and entered its fifth version in 2013.”

Missouri Student Information

System (MOSIS) Data Collection

Component

The web-based application that allows district to submit, clean,

and certify data being reported to DESE.

Many of the MOSIS

data collections are geared toward collecting record level data in

order to populate some of the current Core Data Collections such

as attendance, speciaal education exiter, and educator. Data

collected by MOSIS is used for multiple purposes based upon state

and federal laws, rules, and information needs. MOSIS data is

used for populating portions of the Core Data System, state and

federal reporting, accountability, and fundiong purposes. MOSIS

collects data at the individual level and derives from the data the

counts for the aggregate collections.

RSMo §163.011

Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, “Core Data and Missouri Student Information System Reference

Manual,” < http://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/cdmosismanual2014.pdf>, Page 7, accessed on October 10, 2014.

Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, http://dese.mo.gov/quality-schools/mo-school-improvement-

program/msip-5, accessed on November 17, 2014

Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, “Core Data and Missouri Student Information System Reference

Manual,” < http://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/cdmosismanual2014.pdf>, Pages 7 and 299, accessed on October 10, 2014.

Page | 14

APPENDIX C: ATTENDANCE CHECKLIST – BEFORE START OF SCHOOL

AttendanceChecklist(BeforeStartofSchool)



InorderfortheeSchoolPLUSsystemtocalculateattendanceminutesonstudents,thesetupandconfigurationofmany

areasisrequired.Thefollowinglistidentifieseachareaandtheprocessinvolvedtoverifytheaccuracyofthe

informationinthesystem.



Setup/Configuration:

Item Process

CycleDays Areportisruntoverifytheinformation

Calendars



TheCalendarreportisrunandsharedwithbuilding

administrationtoverifytheinformationforschools

withnon‐everydayCalendars

MarkingPeriodDates Verifiedforabuildingandthencopiedtoothers

SchedulingPeriods Assignedaccordingtoschedulingrequirements,so

accuracyisensured

Timetables



Verifiedbasedontheschoolstartandendtimesas

wellasemailfromschooladministration

LunchCodes/

LunchRoomAssignments

Codesandtimesareprovideddirectlyfromeach

schooladministrativestaffandreportsarerunto

verifythedataiscomplete

AttendanceCodes Copiedfromprioryearandupdatedwithanychanges

AttendanceConfiguration Thisareadoesnotchangefromyear‐to‐year,sois

copiedfromtheprioryear

AttendancePeriods AssignedaccordingtotheSchedulingPeriods

AttendanceIntervals OnlyYTDisrequired

AttendanceViews



Copiedfromlastyearandastandardpracticeis

followedwhenmakingnewadjustmentsfortheyear

AttendanceNotificationGroups Copiedfromtheprioryear(nochangesneeded)

AttendanceNotificationCriteria Copiedfromtheprioryear(nochangesneeded)



ScheduledTasks:



Item Process

AttendanceDayTotals Verificationthattaskwassetupcorrect,completed

andallparameterswerevalid.

AttendanceIntervalTotals Verificationthattaskwassetupcorrect,completed

andallparameterswerevalid.

AttendanceNotification

Calculations

Verificationthattaskwassetupcorrect,completed

andallparameterswerevalid.

AttendanceErrorScan Verificationthattaskwassetupcorrect,completed

andallparameterswerevalid.

Page | 15

DataAssignments



Item Process

Entryrecords(1

DayofSchoolorbefore) ThisisperformedduringYearEndProcessing

andisverifiedatthattime

ScheduledCourses(DateAdded/Date

Dropped)

Secondaryschoolschedulingsupportteam

andElementaryschedulingworkshops

MasterSchedule(TakeAttendance) Asearchisperformedtocheckforanymissing

assignments

SpecialPrograms(i.e.:Phelps,EC,MC) Studentsintheseprogramsareassigned

accordingtothespecificneedsoftheprogram



Someitemswereidentifiedasinaccuratelastyear,sothefollowingstepswillbeimplementedtoaddressthis:



‐ AllEarlyReleaseDayswillbeverifiedusingaCalendarreportforthespecificdate.Thiswillensureany

anomaliesareidentifiedandcorrected.



‐ Areportidentifyingactivelyenrolled

studentswithlessthanthebuilding’sscheduleddaylengthforeachday

willberunandevaluated.Thiswillensurethatsecondaryschoolstudents’scheduleDateAddediscorrectfor

coursechangesaswellasanysituationswherestudentswitharegularFTEgenerateinaccuratedailyattendance

minutes.



‐ The

processformid‐yearCalendardatechangesinvolvingCycleswillincludeanexplicitsteptoupdateand

reviewAttendanceViews



‐ Thesetup/configurationchangesneededforduringtheyearadjustmentstoCalendarisbeingdocumented

Page | 16

APPENDIX D: ATTENDANCE CHECKLIST – DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR

AttendanceChecklist(DuringtheSchoolYear)



Thefollowinglistidentifieschangesthatmayoccuraftertheschoolyearhasstartedandthemodificationsneededto

thesystemtoaccommodateforthechangeinregardstoattendance.Eachareaandthestepsinvolvedarelisted,along

withtheprocesstoverifytheaccuracyoftheattendanceinformation

aftertheadjustmentsaremade.



Setup/Configuration:



Item Steps VerificationProcess

NewDayType

(i.e.:AssemblyDay)

‐ AddnewCycle(AlternateType)

‐ UpdateTimetable

‐ UpdateCalendar

‐ UpdateAttendanceViews

‐ RunCalendarReport

‐ CheckStudentAttendanceYearView

‐ CheckDayTotals

Switchalternating

days(ADay/BDay)

orcycleday



‐ UpdateCalendarDayType‐ RunCalendarReport

‐ CheckStudentAttendanceYearView

‐ CheckDayTotals

ChangeLunchTimes

orRoomAssignments

‐ UpdateLunchCodesandLunch

RoomAssignments

‐ RunLunchAssignmentsreport

‐ CheckDayTotals

SnowDay‐ UpdateCalendarDayType

‐ Identify&reportDiscipline

recordstoschoolstaff

‐ RunAttendanceErrorScan



‐ RunCalendarReport



GraduatingSeniors

Calendar

‐ Copy‘R–Regular’calendarto

‘G–GraduatingSeniors’

calendar

‐ AssigngraduatingseniorsEntry

recordtothe‘G’Calendar

‐ RunCalendarReport

‐ CheckStudentAttendanceYearView

‐ CheckDayTotals

Updatestudent’s

absencesinaprior

year

‐ ReceiptofApprovalForm

‐ Modifyabsences

‐ RunDayTotalsandInterval

Totalscalculations

‐ CheckStudentAttendanceYearView

‐ CheckDayTotals

‐ CheckStudentSummary

Page | 17

DataAssignments



Item Steps/Process

Elementarystudentattendingpart‐time‐ AddteacherandroomtothePart‐timeforElementary

Studentsbuilding

‐ AddacoursetotheCourseCatalogandMasterSchedule

atthePart‐timeforElementaryStudents building

matchingthedaysandtimesofthestudent’sattendance

‐ Reschedulethestudent

‐

CheckDayTotals

MasterSchedule(TakeAttendance)‐ Checkforanymissingassignments



Page | 18

APPENDIX E: ATTENDANCE CHECKLIST – END OF YEAR



AttendanceChecklist(EndofYear)



ToensuretheaccuracyofthestudentattendanceinformationtobesubmittedtoDESE,averificationofthegenerate d

collectionandtheexpectedstudentattendancedatawillbeperformed.Belowarethecorrespondingsteps:



1. CopytheLiveEnvironmentinordertocapturetheSISdatabaseattheendof

theyear

2. PerformtheYearEndProcessinginordertopreparetheattendancedataforextraction

3. RuntheAttendance/EnrollmentcollectiontobuildtheDESEuploadfile

4. RuntheStudentAttendanceDatareportforallstudentsandtransfertheresultsintoMSAccess

5. LinkwiththeDESEupload

fileandcheckforanyinconsistencies

6. Verifythedataintheextractionmatchestheexpectedattendancevaluesforthestudents



Inordertobesurethattheexpectedattendanceinformationiscorrect,someadditionalstepswillbeperformed:



‐ VerifycalendarskeyedinDESEareaccurateandmatch

totalshoursanddaysoutofschoolwitheSchoolPLUS 



‐ Verifystudentsenrolledallyearhavetotalpossiblehours(Present+Absent)andarenotoverorunderforeach

schoolthathasadifferentcalendar



‐ Runareportidentifyingstudentswithlessthanthebuilding’sscheduleddaylength

foreachdayandevaluate

theresults.ThiswillensurethattheDateAddedonstudents’scheduleiscorrectinregardstocoursechanges,

aswellasidentifyanysituationswherestudentswitharegularFTEhaveinaccur atedailyattendanceminutes



‐ Spotcheckstudentsfromeachlevel(Elementary,Middle

andHigh)toverifyaccuracy

