In circumstances where where an unplanned, temporary, school closure takes place, there are a couple of steps to take to ensure attendance accounting is properly managed. A temporary school closure can happen as a result of a disaster (real or anticipated) like an earthquake, fire, flood, snow, terrorist threat, or other similar events.
To properly handle emergency school closures in AERIES, proceed with the following steps:
1. Check for Attendance records entered for the date that are no longer applicable. Attendance Enrollment records and Absence codes cannot exist for a day the school was closed. Attendance Enrollment should change as applicable. Absence Codes should be removed.
- For example, from the District level run:
- LIST ATT IF DT = 11/22/2024
- LIST CAT IF DT = 11/22/2024 (Flex Schools Only)
All attendance records pertaining to this date should be moved or removed. You may either process each individual student with an absence on this day and delete the attendance, or go into the Aeries SQL database and delete the records from there.
2. For schools with a Master Schedule, check for Course Attendance Start and End Dates that are no longer applicable. A student cannot Start or Stop a class on a day the school was closed. Start Dates should be changed to one day later and Stop Dates should be changed to one day prior.
- For example, from the District level run:
- LIST CAR IF DS = 11/22/2024
LIST CAR IF DE = 11/22/2024
3. Evaluate any Independent Study or Suspensions data that occurs during the closure and update as applicable.
All records found should be evaluated and resolved before proceeding with any changes to the school's Calendar.
Note: Verify if the school closure date is a Term (TRM table) date on the Terms or School Options page. If the school closure date is a Term start or end date, the term date must be changed prior to changing the calendar. Changing the Term date will adjust the dates in grade books and the Course Attendance (CAR table). Please refer to the Terms article for more information.
After the Attendance and Course Attendance (CAR) records are corrected, the Attendance Calendar may be changed to indicate that the affected day is a “Non-School Day”.
Navigate to the Calendar form in Aeries and add the symbol “@” to the appropriate day in the calendar.
There is no need to mark all students absent on that school day. These procedures are the preferred method to handle these emergency closure days. If you have a track calendar and all tracks were not affected you will add an asterisk (*) to that date in the appropriate track(s) only.
NOTE: If school was open on a particular day, but enrollment was very low because of a recent emergency, you must still collect attendance and absences need to be cleared as usual. You may be able to request a waiver for days of reduced attendance or closure. Information to request a waiver can be found in the California Department of Education website. For information on School Closure Considerations, please visit: https://support.aeries.com/a/solutions/articles/14000153298
In the event an emergency causes school to close physically through the end of the year, earlier than the official last day of school, an option has been added to District Settings to specify the Last Day of Regular School Attendance. The STAS extract will then use the specified ending date, instead of the scheduled last day of school when calculating Expected Days of Attendance. This process should be used when the emergency causes the school(s) no NOT REOPEN before the planned last day of school.