Create Absenteeism Level Type Letter

Last Modified on 10/22/2022 9:40 am CDT

Classic View: Attendance > Attendance Letters

Search Terms: Attendance Letters

Attendance letters using the Absenteeism Level Letter Type uses the Attendance Aggregation Preference summary view options to determine whether a student is considered chronically absent. Choose this letter type to list a student's percentage of being absent. It does not rely on weights or intervals.

This letter type can be used to send letters when students are approaching or have reached the district's definition of being chronically absent. See the following articles for more information on Chronic Absenteeism:

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Refer to the Attendance Letter Workflow when creating a letter.

Step
1. Create an Attendance Letter.
Letter Criteria Screen
2. Name the attendance letter.
3.

Select the letter type, and determine if student can requalify for the letter.

Learn about the different letter types.

Learn about Letter Requalification.
4. Select the type of attendance (status/excuse or attendance codes).
5. Enter the status/excuse values or the attendance codes that trigger a letter.
6.

Enter a Weight value for each of the entered values or codes.

Learn about Weight values.
7.

Enter the number of events the student must have to receive a letter.

Learn about qualification criteria.
8.

Select the appropriate interval for the letter.

Learn about intervals.
9.

Select which Teachers and Sections to include in the letter.
11. If available, select which Sections to exclude from the letter (non-attendance taking courses, etc.).
Letter Format Screen
12. Write the letter in the designated Default Language.
13.

Write the same letter in additional languages that can be sent to parent/guardians who prefer to receive communications in that language.


Learn how to add preferred languages and create letters in another language.
Generate and Print Letters
14. Select the letter to generate from the Saved Letters list.
15.

If desired, select a previously-saved Ad hoc Filter that includes the students who should be receiving the letter.

Determine which operation to use when generating letters with an ad hoc filter.
16. Preview and Print letters.
17. Review the list of students that met the criteria of the letter, and remove their selection as needed.
18. Preview the letters prior to sending.
19. Print the letters.

Other Letter Types are available for selection. See the following table for a description of each letter type

Letter Types Description When to Use
Period Marks

This option looks only at the existence of an attendance event in a period for the student and provides a total number of periods in which a student has an attendance event. Attendance taken in the selected courses are not be used by the trigger calculation.

Choose this letter type to list the total number of periods in which there is an attendance event.


Use the By Course/Term Interval to include the total number of periods in which there is an attendance event for a specific course (requires courses to be selected in the editor). 


This is best for Block Schedules and for Modified Block Schedules.
Course Marks

This option looks at the existence of an attendance event in a course/section for the student. This option can be used for skinnied courses and for courses scheduled over multiple period schedules.

Choose this letter type to list the total number of a particular course is missed.


Use the By Term interval to include the total number of courses in which there is an attendance event for that term.
Whole/Half Day Absences

This option uses student attendance minutes that meet the entered weight to generate a letter. Whole Day and Half Day minute values are entered on the Calendar tab.


If a student is absent for the entire day, a count of 1 is included in the letter; if a student is absent for less than the entire day, a count of .5 is included in the letter.

Choose this letter type to list attendance events by the whole or half day.


Early Release events may alter the the totals for this letter.


This type is best for elementary schedules that use an AM/PM period setup.
Exact Day Absences

This option uses student attendance minutes that meet the entered weight to generate a letter, using the entered Student Day minute values on the Calendar tab.


If a student is absent for the entire day, a count of 1 is included in the letter.

Choose this letter type to list attendance events for the day.


This type is best for schools that only report attendance for a specific period, or only have one period in their schedule.
Single Day Count

This option looks for any student attendance record matching the selected status/excuse combination either by Year or by Term. If a student has one or more periods with an attendance entry, the day counts towards the total number of qualifying events for a letter.

Choose this letter type to list attendance events for the selected day.


This letter type includes attendance events with an excuse of unknown.
Absenteeism Level

This option uses the Attendance Aggregation Preference summary view options to determined whether a student is considered chronically absent.


When selected, an Absenteeism Mode field also needs to be selected. Choose from one of the four aggregation types - Federal, Exact, Exact Minute and Approximate. For more information on these modes, see the Attendance Aggregation Preferences article.

Choose this letter type to list a student's percentage of being absent. It does not rely on weights or intervals.

Enter Letter Criteria

Selecting letter criteria is referenced in Steps 2-11 of the Attendance Letter Workflow.

  1. Select the New button. A criteria entry screen appears.
  2. Enter a Name for the letter.
  3. Select Absenteeism Level from the Type dropdown list.
  4. Select an Absenteeism Mode from the dropdown list. These modes are defined on the Attendance Aggregation Preferences article.
  5. Choose the Criteria of either Percent Absent or Days Absent.
    • When using the Percent Absent criteria, determine the percent range the letter is to cover. The values entered here are inclusive, meaning a percent range or 7.5% to 10% includes students who are absent exactly 7.5% through 10%.
      • Enter a Minimum Percent Absent value (8.5, 10, etc., up to 100). Do not enter the percent symbol.
      • Enter a Maximum Percent Absent value (8.5, 0, etc., up to 100). Do not enter the percent symbol. 
    • When using the Days Absent criteria, determine the range of total days the letter is to cover. The values entered here are inclusive, meaning a day range of 7 to 10 includes students who are absent exactly 7 days through 10 days.
      • Enter a Minimum Days Absent value (whole numbers and decimal values up to 365).
      • Enter a Maximum Days Absent value (whole numbers and decimal values up to 365).
  6. Enter a value for the Minimum Scheduled Days (YTD) field (whole numbers up to 365). This is the total number of days a student has been scheduled into attendance taking courses that count towards a student's chronically absenteeism percentage.
  7. If the letter should be run for a particular group of Teachers or Sections, select the relevant groups. If a teacher is selected, the list of sections displayed will include those for which the selected teacher is the primary teacher.
  8. Indicate where the letter should be Organized to.
  9. Click the Save button to save the letter. Click the Save and Continue button to enter the body of the letter. Both of these options do save the entered criteria.
  10. Continue to the Write the Body of the Letter procedures below.

Absenteeism Level Letter Criteria

Absenteeism Level Letter Format

Generate and Print Letters

Generating and Printing Letters is references in Steps 14-19 of the Attendance Letter Workflow. 

Information in this report uses data stored in the AttendanceDayAggregation table. This means that attendance data for the current date is accurate as of the previous night's attendance calculation, or the last time the Attendance Aggregation Refresh was run. If needed, the Attendance Aggregation Refresh tool can be run to force an attendance recalculation to pull in the current day's data.

Without an Ad hoc Filter

  1. Select the letter to generate from the Saved Letters list.
  2. Click the Print and Preview Letters button. A list of students who met the criteria of the letter are listed.
  3. Review the list of students that met the criteria of the letter, and remove their selection as needed.
  4. Click the Preview button to review the letter format prior to printing.
  5. If satisfied with the format, click the Print Letters button, and select how to sort the letters and choose to record a PLP Contact record.

With an Ad hoc Filter

  1. Select the letter to generate from the Saved Letters list.
  2. Select the desired Ad hoc Filter.
  3. Click the Print and Preview Letters button. A list of students who met the criteria of the letter and the criteria of the Ad hoc Filter are listed. See the Attendance Letters and Ad hoc Filters section for more information.
  4. Review the list of students that met the criteria of the letter, and remove their selection as needed.
  5. Click the Preview button to review the letter format prior to printing.
  6. If satisfied with the format, click the Print Letters button, and select how to sort the letters and choose to record a PLP Contact record.

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