Attendance Schedules

Creating Attendance Schedules

In Spark, attendance schedules can be created for your entire school, specific classrooms or pods, or individual students and groups. You can create as many attendance schedules as needed. An attendance schedule must be created before attendance can be recorded.

Attendance schedules can be created from either:

• Attendance → Schedule (Attendance Schedule Calendar)
• Attendance → Take Attendance

To create a new attendance schedule:

1. Enter a name for the schedule.
2. Select the appropriate session, program, or academic year the schedule belongs to.
3. Choose the participants for the schedule. Attendance schedules can be assigned to:
   • An entire school program
   • A specific classroom or pod
   • Individual or custom groups of students
   • Staff and guardians
4. Configure any additional schedule details, such as dates, recurrence, or attendance settings.
5. Click Create Attendance to save the schedule.

Once the schedule has been created, attendance can be recorded for the selected participants.

Modifying Attendance Schedules

Attendance schedules can be updated at any time. To edit a schedule, open it from any Attendance page, make the necessary changes, and click Save in the section you modified.

Special Cases

Special cases allow you to customize attendance requirements for specific participants within a schedule. They ensure attendance records and reports remain accurate when a participant's attendance pattern differs from the standard schedule.

Special cases can be configured in the Participants section of an attendance schedule and include:

• Joining Later – For participants who begin attending after the schedule has started.
• Leaving Early – For participants who leave the program before the schedule ends.
• Participating Temporarily – For participants who are only involved in the program for a limited period of time.
• Temporary Break – For participants who will be absent from the program for a defined period and then return.
• Weekdays Only – For participants who attend only on specific days of the week.
• Custom Special Cases – For unique attendance situations that do not fit the standard options.

Attendance Exemptions

Attendance exemptions remove a participant from attendance requirements for specific dates or periods of time. Exemptions are useful when attendance should not be expected or recorded for a participant during a particular timeframe.

Exemptions can be added from:

• The Attendance Exemptions section of an attendance schedule
• When recording attendance

Any exempted dates are automatically excluded from attendance calculations and reports.

School Event Attendance

School events can also require attendance if needed. Event attendance can be created on the Event Calendar or Daily Scheduler.

To require attendance for an event, make sure the following is set up:

• The Attendance is required box is checked
• Participants are selected for the event (students, guardians, or staff)

Special cases and exemptions can be created for event attendance, as well.