New SIS Attendance State Certification

Approval of Attendance Accounting Systems Guidelines for Documentation Submission

The following guidelines are intended solely as a tool to provide districts with information on which specific documentation should be submitted to the Department of Education (CDE) for review and approval of attendance accounting systems. Approval of any attendance accounting system is the quality of the audit trail it provides.

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

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Each school district is required to have their own forms and procedures approved by CDE.

The forms and procedures should contain the necessary elements to clearly illustrate and document the attendance information as it is reported starting from the classroom to the data submitted to the CDE.

A. REQUEST: The request for approval of the attendance accounting system should include the following information:

 A cover letter requesting approval of the attendance accounting system.

 The district‟s current attendance accounting software (Aeries, Synergy, PowerSchool, etc)

 The type of approval  paper, on-line or electronic signature system.

 The school district‟s CSD code and school(s) requesting approval.

 Identify the specific program(s) - regular school, high school, summer school, home and hospital, and/or continuation (by program).

 Contact person and phone number.

B. PROCEDURES AND FORMS: The following guidelines outline recommendations for documenting the attendance accounting process:

 The procedures must provide a detailed step-by-step description of the attendance accounting starting from the classroom to how pupil attendance is recorded to submission to the CDE (following one class/teacher through the entire process.)

 Reference and include all source documents.

 The source document (scantron sheet, weekly attendance register, etc) must include the signature and date of the district employee responsible for taking student attendance. A statement certifying accuracy and completeness to the best of the person‟s knowledge must also be included on the form.

 If the district will be using an on-line feature where teachers enter attendance directly into a computer, CDE will only approve on-line systems that include a certification (hard-copy signed and dated) on at least a weekly basis.

 Include a legend containing all the attendance codes used in the accounting system.

 The attendance accounting system components - Gain and Loss Report should include the following entries at a minimum:

 Total enrollment

 Days taught (excluding weekend classes)

 Total possible days (enrollment times days taught)

 Days not enrolled (days not enrolled for students enrolled less than one month)

 Days of absences

 Days of actual attendance

 ADA (days of apportionment (actual attendance) divided by days taught)

 Signature and date of employee verifying student‟s presence or absence

 Procedure to verify that all teachers have entered their attendance in each period.

Approval of Attendance Accounting Systems Guidelines for Documentation Submission March 16, 2015

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

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 Procedure to require all teachers to enter the initial attendance by the end of the calendar day of the school day.

 Procedures to verify the attendance of a student is marked “present” in only one class period during a school day. Include copy of verification document.

 Procedures on how absences are reconciled and information is provided to the classroom teacher.

 Include and reference all forms used in the attendance accounting system such as the attendance class roster, weekly attendance report by class/individual student, and monthly attendance reports (20 day).

C. ALTERNATIVE PROGRAM(S): All requests for alternative program(s) should include a copy of the following data:

Separate requests should be made for all alternative programs, including continuation and home and hospital programs. All requests submitted to CDE should include detailed procedures and an example of the documents that follows one class/grade through the entire process.

If the district offers independent study (IS), include detailed information of the attendance accounting forms and procedures used for recording short and/or long term attendance including 1) a description of the coding and 2) an example of a separate attendance register. Please note, the approval process does not include the review of the master agreement nor the board policy which is outside the scope of the attendance accounting system approvals.

In general, an approvable IS attendance system must include two or three unique symbols. A unique symbol should initially be used to indicate when a student is placed on IS and should be „coded‟ in the system for each day of IS. This symbol should then be changed to a second unique symbol that totals as a „day of attendance‟ after the assignment is completed and approved. If the work is not completed, the original symbol can be left unchanged or a third unique symbol can be used to indicate no credit was earned. A student is not “unexcused” since the district excused the student from compulsory school attendance once the district placed the student in IS.

Submit your request to:

California Department of Education

School Fiscal Services Division, Attention Stel Cordano

1430 N Street, Suite 3800

Sacramento, CA 95814

Information on the approval process for electronic signatures can be found through the following link: http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/sf/aa/electronicattendltr.asp . Provide a copy of the approval letter.

For further questions and information: contact Stel Cordano, Consultant at 916-327-0378 or by email at scordano@cde.ca.gov.