Calling System Attendance Rules are school-specific. They can be created at the district or building level, but they need to be created (or edited) at the building level to apply the attendance rule to a student Group.
- Menu Level: Interoperability > Partners > Calling System
- Module Level: Interoperability > Partners
Before you Begin
The Attendance Auto Downloader must be installed before setting up the Calling System Attendance Rules if the import of attendance data should be automatic. For more information, see Install and Start the Auto Downloader.
Where to Start
- Select Interoperability.
- Select Partners.
- Select Calling System.
New Attendance Rule
- Select the Attendance tab.
- Select New.
- Enter the Name of the rule. Each rule must have a unique name.
- Select the School to which the rule applies.
- Define the remaining parameters for exporting student attendance data. Parameters are listed below:
| Parameter | Description/Directions |
| Student Group (expandable text) | Select the student group to which the attendance rule applies. |
| Field(s) (expandable text) | From the Available Fields list, double-Select the fields that should display on the student attendance data export. Fields can also be selected or deselected using the corresponding arrow (>> or <<) or All buttons. Highlight a Selected Field and use the Up or Down Arrow icons to reorder the Selected Field(s) list. |
| Attendance (expandable text) | Check the attendance type (Daily and/or Period) for which this rule should apply. Once an attendance type has been selected, users will be prompted to enter the number of occurrences that should trigger the student attendance data export, and select the applicable periods (Period Attendance only). |
| Status (expandable text) |
Select the attendance status (Absent and/or Tardy) to which this rule applies. |
| Option (expandable text) |
Users must indicate if they wish to Include or Exclude the parameters set in the Type and Reasons fields from the export. |
| Type (expandable text) | Select Excused, Unexcused, and/or Daily Present to include or exclude these attendance reason types from the export, based on the Option setting (above). |
| Virtual Learning Options (expandable text) | Select Include All Students to make the attendance rule include all students, regardless of whether or not they are learning virtually. Select Exclude Virtual Learning Students to make the attendance rule filter out students who are assigned virtual learning for the day. Select Include Virtual Learning Students Only to make the attendance rule filter out students who were supposed to be in school that day. |
| Exclude Verified (expandable text) | This checkbox allows users to exclude all student attendance statuses flagged as Verified, so guardians are not called |
| Reason(s) (expandable text) | Select the Reasons icon to open the Attendance Reason window. Users can select attendance reasons to include or exclude from the export based on the Option setting (above). |
| Pad Zero(s) (expandable text) | Select the number of characters that should populate the Student ID column. This allows the system to pad any IDs that do not have that number of characters. |
| Display Header Row (expandable text | Select the checkbox to display the header row on the export. If the Display Header Row option has been selected, the user can scroll up to Selected Fields and rename fields by highlighting a field and entering a new value in the Field Header text box. |
| Attendance For (expandable text) | Select the period of time used to determine student attendance record eligibility for the export. If Weekly, Monthly, Marking Period, or Other is selected, users will be prompted to enter additional parameter information. |
- When finished, select Save.
To schedule this rule to run, visit New Attendance Rule Schedule.
Existing Attendance Rule
- Select the Attendance tab
- Select Search to find existing Attendance Rules.
- Select the appropriate icon to Delete or Edit existing rules.
Summer School Use
Students who are enrolled in summer school classes are included in the Calling System extract when an Attendance Rule is set up in the Summer School building, and the Summer School session is active (i.e., not closed out). The behavior is different for Summer School than for the normal academic year.
In order to run the extract, change the building dropdown to the summer school building, access Interoperability > Partners > Calling System, and select Search. The extract will include a row for the student's main building as well as the summer school they are attending. Users must either remove the main building records manually in Excel or request the third party vendor to ignore the other buildings.
Contacts
On the Contact tab, select the search criteria desired and then select Search to manually run the extract.
- To pull a file for specific last names, first names, or ID numbers, use the Search field and corresponding dropdown.
- Use the checkbox to indicate if the extract should Include non-Custodial Parents
- Use Attendance Phone to specify whether the Mobile Phone or Home Phone should be in the extract
- Indicate the Type of records in the extract by selecting Students or Staff
- Select the Export to CSV or Export to Excel buttons to export the data from the system
Calling System only extracts the Household Language if the Language Translation Needed field is set to Yes. Otherwise, it will pull English.
The SMS Phone column will populate with the first guardian, first phone found that is also flagged as Home Cell, Work Cell, or Cell Phone. The SMS Phone 2 column will populate with the second guardian, first phone found that is also flagged as Home Cell, Work Cell, or Cell Phone.