Security  
Aeries Configuration  
1st Start Time  
2nd Start Time  
ParentSquare Configuration  
Troubleshooting  

Overview

Once a District has Aeries Communications powered by ParentSquare enabled and configured, the District can choose to send Attendance Notifications to Parents with a variety of options. This can be configured differently for each school, and can accommodate Daily or Period absence codes. Configuration for Attendance Notifications can be accessed from the Navigation tree in Aeries under School Info > Aeries Communications.

NOTE: Attendance Notifications are sent to all Contacts with a Notification Preference of General and Emergency (CON.NP = 1). Individual contact records can be configured to not receive attendance notifications using the Attendance Notification field (CON.AN).

 

There are Auto-Notice Templates created at the District level within ParentSquare that match the Aeries templates available to select. You can edit these templates at the District Level in ParentSquare and share with associated schools. You can also customize the templates at an individual school in ParentSquare. Please do not duplicate or remove any attendance templates available in ParentSquare.

 

NOTE: Absence Codes must be defined at the District Level and must contain codes used at all schools. It is recommended that all schools in your District have standardized absence codes. These can be updated on the Update Absence Code screen.

 

Security  ↑

Admin only

Aeries Configuration  ↑

Navigate to the Attendance Notifications page. Click on '+' to add a New Notification

These are the configuration options for each Notification Type. For all of the Notification Types below, an absence is only be counted if the absence code is in the list of selected Codes for that message template.

• All Day Absence – notification of an all-day absence for today based on the Absence Code selected
  • 1st Start Time - Enter the time for sending notifications
  • 2nd Start Time - For Flex scheduling schools only, enter the second start time for sending notifications. Example: PM classes
• Period Absence – notifications of Period Absences for today. Additional settings for this message type include:
  • Number of absences – Message is not be triggered until the student reaches this minimum number for the day.
  • 1st Start Time - Enter the time for sending notifications
  • 2nd Start Time - For Flex scheduling schools only, enter the second start time for sending notifications with schools using All Day attendance. If this time is used, calls will continue to go out for all period absences. Example: PM classes in a Daily Attendance school
  • Days of the Week - Enter days of the week when the notification should be sent. 
  • Repeat Type
    • No Repeat - A one time notification per day. 2nd Start Time will not be read if this type is set.
    • End of Day Summary- a one time Summary of Period Absences per day
      • Daily Summary Start time - if 1st Start Time is blank, this is used to send the Daily Summary
    • Every Period - can be set to send a designated number of 'Minutes After Start of Period'. 2nd Start Time will be used with this setting and will call every period with an absence.
• Count of All Day Absences – notification of total count of absences this school year. A minimum number of absences can be specified. A notification is sent when a student first reaches the minimum number of absences, and a subsequent notification is sent each day the student accrues an additional all day absence.
  • Number of absences – Message is not triggered until the student reaches this minimum number for the day.
  • 1st Start Time - Enter the time for sending notifications
  • 2nd Start Time - For Flex scheduling schools only, enter the 2nd Start Time for sending notifications. Example: PM classes in a Daily Attendance school 
  • Days of the Week - Enter days of the week when the notification should be sent. 
• Count of Period Absences – notification of total count of Period Absences this school year. A minimum number of absences can be specified. A notification is sent when a student first reaches the minimum number of absences, and a subsequent notification is sent each day the student accrues an additional period absence.
  • Number of absences – Message is not triggered until the student reaches this minimum number for the day.
  • 1st Start Time - Enter the time for sending notifications.
  • 2nd Start Time - For Flex scheduling schools only, enter the 2nd Start Time for sending notifications. Example: PM classes in a Daily Attendance school
  • Days of the Week - Enter days of the week when the notification should be sent.
• All Day Tardy - notification of an all-day Tardy for today based on the Absence Code selected
• Period Tardy - notifications of Period Tardies for today. Additional settings for this message type include:
  • Number of absences – Message is not triggered until the student reaches this minimum number for the day.
  • 1st Start Time - Enter the time for sending notifications.
  • 2nd Start Time - For Flex scheduling schools only, enter the 2nd Start Time for sending notifications. Example: PM classes in a Daily Attendance school
  • Days of the Week - Enter days of the week when the notification should be sent.
  • Repeat Type
    • No Repeat - A one time notification per day
    • End of Day Summary- a one time Summary of Period Absences per day
      • Daily Summary Start time - if 1st Start Time is blank, this is used to send the Daily Summary
    • Every Period - can be set to send a designated number of 'Minutes After Start of Period'

Message templates can be disabled at any point after they are created. Any comments about the Notification can be entered for internal use.

1st Start Time  ↑

Enter the time when the first calls should begin to take place. For Daily Attendance schools, this can be used for All Day absences and/or Tardy calls. This can include AM kindergarten classes scheduled around the same time. For example, if teachers take attendance for homeroom at 8:45am, the calls can begin at 9:15am. Any subsequent absence codes that are marked are then included in calls throughout the day after 9:15am.

Schools using Period Attendance, if a morning time is entered in the 1st Start Time field, an attendance notice will be sent after each period where an attendance code is marked for the student. Typically if calls should go out to parents once a day, an evening time is entered (6:00pm) so that the notice captures each period where the student was marked absent or tardy. 

2nd Start Time  ↑

For schools set up as Flex Scheduling, a second field labeled 2nd Start Time will be visible for use. The 2nd Start Time can be used to enable a second call time for schools using All Day absences. For example, if a school has AM and PM kindergarten classes, the second start time can be used to trigger calls after a teacher takes attendance for the students enrolled in the PM class on a single day. The 2nd Start Time can be left blank if calls are only needed to start at one particular time (1st Start Time). 

Example:

Allan Abbott is enrolled in the PM class that starts at 1:30 pm. Teacher marks Allan absent and after 1:45 pm, a call is sent to the parent notifying of Allan's absence. Since this student was not part of the 1st Start Time, the absence call will be sent after the 2nd Start Time set for 1:45 pm.

For All-Day absences that were not included during the 1st Start Time, they will be included during the 2nd Start Time. 

Choose the Attendance Codes that apply to this Notification. For instructions on configuring your Absence Codes, see the Setup Absence Codes article. The Absence Codes need to be set up at the District Level to appear here.

Choose the Schools that use this Notification Template. 

ParentSquare Configuration  ↑

Using a ParentSquare District Admin account, customize the Attendance template messages within Add-ons > Auto Notices. If templates need to be customized by each site, share the appropriate templates to the associated sites and customize within School > Add-ons > Auto Notices. 

Attendance can be configured at the District. Click on the Pencil to Share the template with Schools for attendance management reporting and verbiage customization at the site level.

Clicking on the Template opens it up to allow Editing. There are 3 tabs available. 

Merge Fields  - These are the fields you can add to your Message   

• [grade_description] – "Fourth Grade", "Fifth Grade", etc
• [student_name] – "FirstName LastName"
• [student_id] – STU.ID
• [school_name] – LOC.NM
• [school_phone] – LOC.AC-LOC.TL
• [att_date] – The date of the attendance occurrence
• [att_count] – The count of attendance codes selected
• [att_periods] – "period 2", "periods 1 and 2", "periods 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6," "periods AM, P1, P2, and PM"

Template Messages - This is the message body the Parents receive. It can be edited by clicking on the Edit button. You can change the wording and the merge fields. There is a 250 character limit to the Text Message.

You can also edit the Template Title;

The View Options link displays more message options (shown below)

• Enable File Uploads option is only applicable for Aeries District Attendance Letter templates (Not Attendance Notifications).
• The Allow Responses checkbox is specific to Attendance Notifications, giving recipients the ability to click Reply within the SMS or Email which takes them to the ParentSquare page seen below. They can enter a response to the attendance notification by clicking the Send Note to School link.
  (Note: parents cannot simply reply to the SMS or email, they must click within the message.)

• Define Recipient Filters displays as an option but should not be utilized since the filtering has already been configured in Aeries. Please do NOT add additional filters.

Notices Sent - Lists the the daily Notifications sent out. Clicking on 'View Report' lists the Students and the Dashboard  shows Delivery Details.

Auto Notice Daily Summary Report emails can be configured within Add-Ons > Auto Notices as seen below:

For more information regarding Auto Notice reporting, please see: How to View a Delivery Report for Auto Notices

NOTE: You must be logged into ParentSquare to view this article.

Troubleshooting  ↑

On the 3rd Party Systems Connections page there is an option to enable Verbose Logging for troubleshooting purposes. This writes to LOG the information about Attendance Notification call errors.  Additionally, all requests are logged to the WRL table

The Log entry for Attendance Notifications are seen with the CD of 'ParentSquare' or 'ParentSquare DEBUG'