Attendance in openSIS helps institutions track student presence, absence, tardiness, attendance patterns, and attendance-related compliance data. Attendance records may be used for daily school operations, teacher workflows, reports, parent visibility, student records, and institutional tracking.
This article explains the key attendance terms used in openSIS, including attendance categories, attendance codes, daily attendance, period attendance, instructional minutes, absence-related statuses, attendance overrides, and recalculation functions.
Attendance is the process of recording whether a student is present, absent, tardy, late, excused, unexcused, half day, or marked with another attendance status.
Attendance helps the institution track student participation and maintain accurate school records.
An Attendance Record is the saved attendance entry for a student on a specific date, class period, course section, or school day.
Attendance records may be reviewed from reports, student profiles, teacher views, and parent or student portals depending on access settings.
An Attendance Category is a named grouping that organizes related Attendance Codes into a logical set used during attendance entry.
Example:
A Student Attendance category may include codes such as Present, Absent, Tardy, Excused Absence, and Unexcused Absence.
Each Course Section may be assigned an Attendance Category, which determines which attendance codes are available when teachers or administrators record attendance for that class.
An Attendance Code is a predefined status used to mark attendance.
Examples:
Present, Absent, Tardy, Late, Half Day, Excused Absence, Unexcused Absence.
Attendance codes help keep attendance marking consistent across the institution.
A State Code is a classification attached to each Attendance Code that determines how the code is counted in attendance calculations and reports.
Common State Code values include:
State Codes allow institutions to standardize reporting even when multiple attendance codes represent similar outcomes.
Example:
Both Tardy and Late may carry a State Code of Present because the student attended, even though they arrived late.
Allow Entry By is a setting within an Attendance Code that controls which users can assign that code during attendance entry.
Common options may include:
This helps institutions control which attendance statuses teachers can use and which statuses require administrative oversight.
Example:
An institution may allow teachers to mark Present or Tardy, but restrict Unexcused Absence to office staff only.
A Default Attendance Code is the attendance code automatically pre-selected when the attendance entry screen opens.
This is commonly set to Present so teachers only need to update students who are absent, tardy, late, or marked with another status.
Only one code within an Attendance Category should usually be set as the default.
Present means the student attended school or class as expected.
A present status indicates that the student was available for the selected school day, period, or course section.
Absent means the student was not present for the school day, period, or course section.
Absence records may be used in reports, parent notifications, student records, and attendance summaries.
An Excused Absence means the student’s absence has been formally accepted according to the institution’s attendance policy.
Examples:
Medical appointment, approved leave, family emergency, or authorized school activity.
Excused absences may still be counted as absent for reporting purposes but are separated from unexcused absences for policy and recordkeeping.
An Unexcused Absence means the student was absent without an approved reason or required documentation.
Unexcused absence entries may require administrative follow-up depending on school rules. Institutions may restrict this code to office staff to ensure proper review.
Tardy means the student arrived late to school or class.
Tardy records help the institution track late arrivals and attendance behavior.
Late is an attendance status that indicates a student arrived after the expected start time.
Some institutions may use both Tardy and Late with different meanings based on their attendance policy. For example, Tardy may represent a minor delay, while Late may represent a longer delay.
Tardy / Late attendance statuses indicate that the student arrived after the scheduled start time for school or class.
These statuses usually carry a State Code of Present because the student did attend, even though they arrived late.
Half Day is an attendance status assigned when a student attended only part of the school day.
This may apply when a student arrives very late, leaves early, or attends only part of the instructional day.
Half Day may carry its own State Code so it can be tracked separately from full attendance and full absence.
Daily Attendance means attendance recorded for the full school day.
This method is used when the institution tracks whether a student attended the school day as a whole instead of tracking attendance for each individual class period.
Period Attendance means attendance recorded for a specific class period.
This method is useful for institutions where students move between classes and attendance must be tracked for each course section or period.
Teacher Attendance refers to attendance taken by teachers for their assigned classes or course sections.
Teachers may mark attendance from the Teacher Portal based on their assigned schedule and access permissions.
Admin Attendance refers to attendance entered, reviewed, corrected, or managed from the administrative side of openSIS.
Administrators may review, update, override, or report on attendance records depending on permission settings.
An Attendance Date is the specific date for which attendance is recorded.
Attendance dates are usually linked to the school calendar and active school days.
A School Day is a date marked as an instructional day in the school calendar.
Attendance is usually expected only on school days.
A Non-School Day is a date that is not counted as an instructional day.
Attendance may not be expected on non-school days, holidays, weekends, or closed calendar dates.
A Holiday is a date marked as non-instructional in the school calendar.
Schools may use holidays for public holidays, institutional breaks, or closure days.
Full Day Minutes represent the total instructional minutes required for a full school day.
This value may be used when attendance is calculated based on minutes.
Half Day Minutes represent the minimum instructional minutes required to count a day as a half day.
This helps determine whether a student should be considered present for a full day, present for a half day, or absent based on attendance rules.
Attendance Minutes refer to the number of instructional minutes connected to a student’s attendance status.
Attendance minutes may be used when schools calculate attendance based on time spent in school or class.
Course Section Attendance is attendance recorded for students assigned to a specific course section.
This is commonly used with period attendance.
An Attendance Period is the class period or time block for which attendance is recorded.
In period attendance, each attendance entry is connected to a specific period.
Attendance Override is the ability for an authorized administrator to change an attendance record that was already submitted.
This may be needed when attendance information changes after teacher entry.
Example:
A teacher marks a student absent, but the office later receives approved documentation. An administrator may override the attendance record to reflect the correct final status.
Attendance overrides help ensure the final record is accurate while preserving accountability in the attendance workflow.
Recalculate Daily Attendance is an administrative function that recomputes a student’s daily attendance summary based on the school’s period setup and instructional minutes.
This may be used when attendance minutes, period setup, or attendance entries need to be corrected.
Found under:
Attendance → Administration
An Attendance Report is a report that shows attendance data for students, dates, periods, courses, or selected filters.
Attendance reports help administrators, teachers, and institutions review attendance patterns and identify concerns.
A Daily Absence Report shows students who were absent on a selected date or within a selected date range.
This report helps the institution review absence activity at the daily level.
A Period Absence Report shows absence information by class period.
This is useful when attendance is tracked separately for each period or course section.
An Attendance Summary provides a combined view of attendance information.
It may include totals for present, absent, tardy, late, excused, unexcused, half day, or other attendance codes depending on the selected report or view.
Attendance Percentage shows attendance performance as a percentage.
It may be calculated based on attended days, missed days, periods, or instructional minutes depending on the institution’s attendance setup.
An Attendance Notification is an alert or message sent to inform users about attendance-related updates.
Notifications may be sent to administrators, parents, or students depending on the school’s communication settings.
Attendance Settings are configuration options that control how attendance is recorded, calculated, and displayed in openSIS.
These settings may include Attendance Categories, Attendance Codes, State Codes, Allow Entry By rules, default attendance codes, calendar setup, full day minutes, half day minutes, and attendance method.
An Enrollment Code is a standardized code used to categorize and track student enrollment events.
Although it is primarily part of student enrollment, enrollment status can affect attendance eligibility because students generally need valid enrollment information before attendance is expected.
Examples:
New Admission, Withdrawal, Transfer In, Transfer Out, Promotion, Rolled Over.
Attendance terms are connected to daily school operations, teacher workflows, parent visibility, student records, and institutional reporting. When attendance categories, attendance codes, state codes, calendars, periods, and instructional minutes are configured correctly, openSIS can maintain cleaner and more reliable attendance records.
Understanding these terms helps users mark, review, correct, calculate, and interpret attendance data accurately.