Entering Attendance by Seating Chart in Teacher Access

The Daily Attendance area in Teacher Access enables you to record attendance for the current day for students using a seating chart layout, which is a visual representation of your classroom. You can record attendance unless the attendance office has already entered attendance for a student for the class and date. For example, if a student's parent has called the office to report their child is sick for the day, you cannot override that attendance entry made by office staff.

For each class, students are assumed to be present unless marked otherwise by you or the office. Even if all students are present today for the class, you must still save the attendance for the day to indicate that attendance has been taken. When viewing the Attendance Class List, you can select the option to Mark All Students Present at the bottom of each class tile if this option has been enabled administratively. This makes taking attendance easier if all students are present.

If you are teaching two classes in two separate rooms during one period, you will not be able to use the seating chart to take attendance because there are two rooms listed for the period. For example, a drama teacher might oversee the building of a set and the practicing of lines in two separate rooms during one period. In situations like this, you must use the Student List instead of the seating chart.

Scroll past the video to access the step-by-step instructions.

Before you begin

  • A seating chart must exist.

Audio Transcript

You can enter daily attendance in Teacher Access through a seating chart layout. This is a visual representation that shows where your students sit for a class you teach. Let’s begin by navigating to the Daily Attendance feature within the Attendance module. All the classes we teach display. We’ll notice that our Group By option is set to Class and we’ll leave it as is since the course we are taking attendance for was configured with the Seating Chart Grouping option set to By Class when the seating chart was first created. If we were taking attendance for a course that had the Seating Chart Grouping option set to Period when we first created the seating chart, we’d need to update this selection to Period in order to take attendance with the seating chart option. Let’s select the course we want to enter attendance for. Based on how attendance was taken last, we’ll see this screen display as a list or chart. Because we want to take attendance via seating chart, we’ll select that option for the Attendance Mode field. Here, we’ll see all our students display with their associated seats in the classroom. Based on the Attendance Control option in the Daily Attendance Settings screen, we’ll see the attendance options for each student display as either drop-down lists or radio buttons. For this example, our attendance option is set as drop-down lists. By default, all the students are marked as Present but can be updated as needed. Rebecca Anderson did not come to class today, so let’s update her attendance to Absent. Julie Adams came to class late, so we’ll note that she was tardy. All the other students were present today, so we’ll leave them as is and click Save and Back. We return to the Attendance Class List and can see that attendance has been taken for our class, which cannot be updated. Now that you know how to enter daily attendance through a seating chart in Teacher Access, you can be sure that you can keep track of attendance for each class you teach.

Procedure

You can enter daily attendance in Teacher Access through a seating chart layout. This is a visual representation that shows where your students sit for a class you teach. Let’s begin by navigating to the Daily Attendance feature within the Attendance module. All the classes we teach display. We’ll notice that our Group By option is set to Class and we’ll leave it as is since the course we are taking attendance for was configured with the Seating Chart Grouping option set to By Class when the seating chart was first created. If we were taking attendance for a course that had the Seating Chart Grouping option set to Period when we first created the seating chart, we’d need to update this selection to Period in order to take attendance with the seating chart option. Let’s select the course we want to enter attendance for. Based on how attendance was taken last, we’ll see this screen display as a list or chart. Because we want to take attendance via seating chart, we’ll select that option for the Attendance Mode field. Here, we’ll see all our students display with their associated seats in the classroom. Based on the Attendance Control option in the Daily Attendance Settings screen, we’ll see the attendance options for each student display as either drop-down lists or radio buttons. For this example, our attendance option is set as drop-down lists. By default, all the students are marked as Present but can be updated as needed. Rebecca Anderson did not come to class today, so let’s update her attendance to Absent. Julie Adams came to class late, so we’ll note that she was tardy. All the other students were present today, so we’ll leave them as is and click Save and Back. We return to the Attendance Class List and can see that attendance has been taken for our class, which cannot be updated. Now that you know how to enter daily attendance through a seating chart in Teacher Access, you can be sure that you can keep track of attendance for each class you teach.





  1. Select Menu > Teacher Access > Attendance.
  2. Select Daily Attendance under Features.
    You see the Attendance Class List, which displays a Tile for each class or period you teach.
  3. Verify you are in the correct Entity by checking the information at the top left of the screen.
  4. Select the appropriate radio button near the top right of the screen to specify which class tiles to display.

    The Current Classes option displays the classes you teach for the current term. For example, if today is the beginning of semester 2, all classes scheduled for semester 2 display, while classes from semester 1 do not display.

    The All Classes option displays every class you are teaching this year.

  5. Select the appropriate radio button for the Group By field.

    If you select Class, each section displays on a separate tile. For example, you may wish to choose this option if you take attendance by class roster, even if you teach multiple class sections during the same period.

    If you select Period, each period displays on a separate tile. All the classes you teach during the period display in a list under the period heading. When you select the tile, all of the students who you are scheduled to teach during that period display on the roster. This option makes taking attendance easier for all classes in that period. For example, if you teach several sections of choir during the same display period, you may want to group the classes into periods so you can take attendance for all students at once.

    If you wish to mark that all students are in attendance, continue to the next step.

    If you wish to enter attendance for one or more students, skip to step 7.

  6. Check the box for Mark All Students Present located at the bottom of each class tile if all students in the class are in attendance.

    The ability to mark students present on the tile is determined by an administrative configuration in the Attendance module.

    Depending on the Entity Group Year Configuration of the Attendance module, a pop-up message may display that prompts you to confirm perfect attendance. You can click Yes, Confirm to complete the Daily Attendance process or click No, Cancel if you do not wish to record that all students are in attendance.

  7. If all students are not present for the class, select the tile containing the class you wish to record attendance for.
    You see the Daily Attendance screen, which defaults to the Attendance Mode you used when you last took attendance. If you select Student List, students appear in alphabetical order by last name. The display includes Student Name, Grade, and Student Number. If you have previously modified any of the columns or display options, those settings will be honored. If you select Seating Chart, you see a bird's-eye view of the room with students assigned to the appropriate desks.
  8. Choose Seating Chart from the Attendance Mode drop-down list near the top left of the screen.

    If you entered attendance for the class but change the Attendance Mode before saving, each entry resets and you must update the attendance again as necessary.

    You can uncheck the box for Display Indicators to hide the student indicators on each desk in the seating chart. For example, if you display the seating chart on a screen that students can see, you may wish to uncheck the box so that students do not view confidential indicators about their peers.

  9. To update a student's attendance to something other than Present, choose the appropriate attendance option for each student.

    Students are marked as Present by default. The attendance options for each student display in a drop-down list or as radio buttons, depending on the Attendance Control option you selected on the Daily Attendance Settings screen. Even if you are entering perfect attendance, you must save. This indicates to you and the office that you have taken attendance for this class.

    If you are using the seating chart to take attendance for a specific Section, only the student desks that belong to the selected section can be modified. All students in that period but in another section will have read-only attendance.

    The image below displays the Daily Attendance screen, which displays the seating chart for ELA. The Attendance Control for the seating chart is set to Drop Down in this example, so drop-down menus display for each student's seat where you can indicate attendance for that student.





    The image below displays the Daily Attendance screen, which displays the seating chart for Math 1. The Attendance Control for the seating chart is set to Radio Buttons in this example, so radio buttons display for each student's seat where you can indicate attendance for that student. You can click Legend near the top right of the screen to view Attendance Type information.



  10. Choose one of the options near the top left of the screen to save your work.
    OptionDescription
    Save & BackSaves any attendance you recorded, marks the class as attendance taken, and you return to the Attendance Class List.

    If you are marking that all students are in attendance, depending on the Entity Group Year Configuration of the Attendance module, a pop-up message may display that prompts you to confirm perfect attendance. You can click Yes, Confirm to complete the Daily Attendance or click No, Cancel if you do not wish to record that all students are in attendance.

    SaveSaves any attendance you recorded, marks the class as attendance taken, and you remain on the Daily Attendance screen.

    If you are marking all students are in attendance, depending on the Entity Group Year Configuration of the Attendance module, a pop-up message may display that prompts you to confirm perfect attendance. You can click Yes, Confirm to complete the Daily Attendance or click No, Cancel if you do not wish to record that all students are in attendance.