How do you handle attendance? Check-in and outs? How to get notifications a student skipped class?

Sondra Berry

We have all of Blackbaud's K-12 products, (Core, Enrollment, Academics, etc.), and our high school teachers take attendance each period (there are 8 periods a day). However, to handle check-ins and check-outs, we use an Excel spreadsheet. The problem is that if a student is in their A-period class, skips B Period, and returns for C Period, we have no way of knowing they left during B Period without checking attendance manually for each period. Students are also supposed to tell security they are leaving campus, but security has no way to check the spreadsheet to make sure they checked out.

Is there a way to run an attendance report that will show a student marked present for one class but absent in another?

If not, is there a way in Blackbaud to better automate the check-in and check-out process so that when someone leaves, everyone who has access to attendance can see they have left (such as security)?

If Blackbaud isn't the solution, who is your 3rd party solution for attendance and how does it handle the check-in and check-out process? Does it have the capability of determining who missed one or more classes but was originally marked present? THANK YOU!

Katherine Nolte

@Sondra Berry I'm interested in this topic as well. We only take attendance 1x/day. We mark Tardy or Absent. We do not have a way to mark if a student leaves early. Or is tardy & leaves early. Currently we have a form at the Lower & Middel School front desks. I'd love to know how to add additional data in the event of an emergency and we need to quickly figure out who is on & off campus.

Amy Sanga

@Sondra Berry We actually take attendance in HR for daily record and each period as well. We use SchoolPass for this. SchoolPass also manages the late arrivals and early dismissals (parents can enter these). This comes with other uniques issues as well. It does sync into Blackbaud.

Kathy Hannon

@Amy Sanga we use SchoolPass also - it does sync with Blackbaud but we only use the syncing of parent/student bio information, not the attendance although they do offer attendance module that syncs with Blackbaud.

Karen Faucheux

@Sondra Berry
We also use School Pass. It has helped us streamline some of the manual entries. However, it does come with some caveats. We do not use parent or teacher integration. The teacher integration has some benefits but we didn't want to add another database the teachers have to use. Because of that decision, we cannot get real-time data. The system syncs to Blackbaud about an hour after the student checks in or out. School Pass does not push over when a student checks in and out and back in. It doesn't complete the last step. Overall, using it is worthwhile, but I'm hoping they release the immediate sync to us without the teacher integration or we will look for a new product when our contract is up. Just keep in mind these systems still require one or more people to review and ensure data is syncing correctly and making updates where needed.

Sondra Berry

@Karen Faucheux thank you for this additional information. It is VERY helpful!

Kirstin McDonald

@Sondra Berry Here at The Center, we also take attendance 1x per day (PreK-Elementary). We also use SchoolPass, which is great for parents to notify the school of absences, late arrivals and early dismissals. Teachers get email notifications when parents enter this data. I do wish the sync would happen more often, as teachers will mark a student absent and the system does not auto-update when a parent checks in a child who arrives late.

Julie Katz

@Kathy Hannon We new are new to using SchoolPass for attendance. I am curious why you are not using the sync?

Kathy Hannon

@Julie Katz - we sync with biographical only. SchoolPass attendance assumes your absent until you check-in. BB attendance assumes your present unless you are marked absent. With the attendance sync between then 2 systems being almost a full period (30-50 min), SchoolPass was over-writing our attendance, especially when the faculty was marking Tardies. Our Attendance person spent the majority of her time correcting the SchoolPass synced attendance. Hope this makes sense

Sondra Berry

@Kathy Hannon thank you for the additional information about the differences between SchoolPass and Blackbaud. I appreciate it!