Attendance Setup

Administration > Attendance > Setup > Attendance View Setup
The California Attendance Software report is a district-wide report, so all buildings must have an Attendance View with the same View Type code. The Criteria and Calculations do not have to be the same, but the View Type must be.

Regular Buildings Attendance View

• Calculate Totals as: Periods
• Periods: select Scheduled Periods
• In the Absences field, select all Absence Codes that indicate a true absence
• You may enter whatever you want in the Convert to Code field.
• The Value field should be 1 and Percent should be 100. 

Alternative/Positive (Continuation) Attendance Buildings Attendance View 

Use this Attendance View setup to create a Day Totals record for every student regardless if the students have an Absence Code for a given day. 

• Calculate Totals as: Minutes
• Include Passing Time checked and Max Passing Time entered
• Periods: do not select Scheduled Periods, you must enter your district's standard periods in the period field.
• In the Absences field, select all Absence Codes that indicate a true absence—not present codes.
• You need at least one criteria line that has a value of 0 (zero) in the Min and Max fields—this will give us Positive Attendance only. If you also want to calculate absent days, you can add a second criteria line with a value of 1 (one) in the Min field and a value that is the total number of minutes in your school day in the Max field.
• You may enter whatever you want in the Convert to Code field.
• The Value field should be 1 and the Percent field should be 100.

Student Absence Summary (STAS) View Type – Regular Buildings 

For each of your buildings, you need an Attendance View that translates absence codes to the categories tracked in the CALPADS Student Absence Summary file: out-of-school suspensions, in-school suspensions, excused absences, unexcused absences, and incomplete independent study days. Set up Attendance Views as follows for buildings using the standard period-based method of attendance-taking: 

 Attendance View Header 

• For View Type code, use STAS. For Description, use CALPADS Student Absence Summary.
• For Criteria Relationship, choose F – Students qualify for first criteria fulfilled.
• For Calculate totals as, select P – Periods.

Criteria Detail Setup 

• You need five criteria rows set up in the following order: Out-of-School Suspension, In-School Suspension, Excused Absences, Unexcused Absences, and Incomplete Independent Study.
• For each row, use the Absences field to select all the codes that apply for the absence criteria row. For example, in the row for Out-of-School Suspension, select only the Absences codes signifying that type of absence. Keep this rule in mind for all five rows. Do not include either suspension category's codes in the rows for Excused or Unexcused Absences.
• In the Periods field, use the field-level table help to choose your building's standard attendance periods. Do not select Scheduled Periods.
• For each criteria row, set the Min Periods to 1. Leave the Max Periods field blank.
• Use the Convert to Code for each row to identify the Absence code the Day Totals Calculation will assign when a student's daily attendance meets the row's criteria. This is the same code you will use when you run the Student Absence download for each absence category included in the file. In particular, you can see how a row's Absences selections relate to the Convert Code selection.
• For each criteria row, enter Value of 1 and Percent of 100. 

Student Absence Summary (STAS) View Type – Continuation Building 

Your district's Continuation buildings each need an Attendance View specifically for tracking the attendance categories included in the CALPADS Student Absence file. This View is separate from the building's daily attendance View used for ADA reporting. The Student Absence View for Continuation buildings will be a minute-based view. The Criteria Detail section includes a row indicating when to count a student as Present, followed by rows for Out-of-School Suspension, In-School Suspension, Excused Absences, and Unexcused Absences. 

Attendance View Header 

• For View Type code, use STAS. For Description, use CALPADS Student Absence Summary.
• For Criteria Relationship, choose F – Students qualify for first criteria fulfilled.
• For Calculate totals as, select M-Minutes.
• Select Include Passing Time, and enter Max Passing Time as appropriate. 

Criteria Detail Setup 

• You need six criteria rows set up in the following order for these attendance codes: Present, Out-of-School Suspension, In-School Suspension, Excused Absences, Unexcused Absences, and Incomplete Independent Study.
• For the first criteria row:
  • Use the Absences field to choose all codes identifying an absence of any kind. 
  • Enter 0 in both the Min and Max Minutes fields.
  • For Convert Code, select the Absence code you use to indicate Present. The student gets this code whenever the Day Totals Calculation finds an Attendance Day where the student does not have minutes recorded for the criteria row's Absence codes.
• For the remaining rows:
  • Use the Absences field to select all the codes that apply for the absence criteria row. For example, in the row for Out-of-School Suspension, select only the Absences codes signifying that type of absence. This rule applies to the last five criteria rows. Do not include either suspension category's codes in the rows for Excused or Unexcused Absences.
  • In the Minutes fields, enter a Min of 1, and leave Max blank.
  • Use the Convert Code for each row to identify the Absence code the Day Totals Calculation will assign when a student's daily attendance meets the row's criteria. This is the same code you will use when you run the Student Absence download for each absence category included in the file. Refer to the following illustration for an example.
• In the Periods field, use the field-level table help to choose your building's standard attendance periods. Do not select Scheduled Periods.
• For each criteria row, enter Value of 1 and Percent of 100. 

 Summer School Attendance View 

• Calculate Totals as: Minutes
• If courses meet over multiple periods, then you will want to select E in the Criteria Relationship field.
• Typically you will have as many lines of criteria as you do scheduled periods
• Periods: do not select Scheduled Periods, you must enter your district's standard periods in the period field.
• Value in Min and Max fields must be 0 (zero).
• You may enter whatever you want in the Convert to Code field.
• The Value field should be 1. 

Setting up the Attendance View this way will create a Day Totals record for every student, whether or not he/she has an Absence Code for a given day.

Community Day School Building Attendance View 

You MUST run the Day Totals Calculation for the CDS Attendance View at least one time for the entire year before you run any report that shows Membership Days.