Absences by Schoolyear report - Report logic and identifying discrepancies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Identifying issues with data in Absences by schoolyear report
• Absences by schoolyear report logic
  • ABSENCES
  • PARTIALS
• Calculations for partials
• Attendance calculation settings

This article outlines the logic used to calculate the 'Absences', 'Partials', and 'Attendance' for the 'Absences by Schoolyear' report. In addition, it provides information on the configuration settings available for the report.

Identifying issues with data in Absences by schoolyear report

The best method for cross-referencing this report is the 'Absences (Linear view)' report. This shows the underlying attendance, the same view in the Attendance pane on the SIP when you click the 'Time-based' button. I've linked the report for the three students below.

Absences by schoolyear report logic

Students will be flagged by the report if they have any absences in the selected date-range. This includes absences which do not meet the requirements to be counted as an absent or partial.

• Any students with attendance entered with an Attendance type where On Campus = false, will be flagged by the report, even if their attendance is 100%
• Attendance types with 'Considered present' = 'Uncounted' will be excluded from the report
• This report uses the same calculations as the 'Attendance days' column in the Federal STATS report. This calculation, is the number of minutes present divided by both the number of minutes present and minutes absent combined.
• The report takes into account the 'Federal STATS report granularity' setting, so the final percentage will 'snap up' to whatever granularity has been set.

ABSENCES

• Unexp: Two partial days (unexplained) absences on the same day
• Exp: Two partial days (explained) absences on the same day
• Total: 'Unexp' (Unexplained absences) + 'Exp' (Explained absences) = Total days absent

PARTIALS

• Total: 'Unexp' partial days (Unexplained absences) + 'Exp' partial days (Explained absences) = Total partial days absent
• Unexp: One partial day (unexplained) absence and one present on the same day
• Exp: One partial day (explained) absence and one present on the same day

Calculations for partials

To determine 'Partials', the report first

1. Counts up the total number of minutes of present or absent attendance for a student for a day
2. Splits that in half to create two equal half days
3. Checks the attendance entered for the half day is longer in minutes than the Attendance Threshold setting. If it is it will calculate whether each half day is considered absent or present.

Attendance calculation settings

The following configuration options are available for the Absences by Schoolyear report. If required the Attendance Threshold and percentage present can be changed by the SEQTA Service desk. Email authorisation from the SEC is required.

• Attendance Threshold: If it has not been customised it will default to 1 minute.
• Percent Present Threshold: If it has not been customised it will default to 30%.
• Federal Stats report granularity - This setting can be changed through the Application settings page. The available options are precise, quarter, half, and day (the default is precise).