Overview:
This checklist of Aeries procedures is designed to assist California schools who need to close down In-Person instruction and shift everyone to Independent Study mid-year. This checklist should be used when students are remaining attached to their In-Person school and just shifting the attendance program to Independent Study. They are generally staying with their existing teachers/sections. Differences between Elementary and Secondary will be noted where necessary. These procedures will help ensure districts are in compliance with the requirements of AB130.
NOTE: If your district is already using a Virtual school for a subset of Independent Study students, no changes should be made to those students, just the ones that had been on In-Person attendance.
Areas To Be Addressed:
Attendance Program - Independent Study Absence and Code Configurations
Create new Attendance Special Program code (STU.SP and ATT.PR) in Update Code table if it does not already exist. Having the students in this special program will separate out those days of attendance from in-person attendance for P1/P2. Make sure to communicate with your Fiscal office so they are aware of this special code.
i.e. I - Independent Study. Needed to shift from recording ADA via In-person instruction (Negative Attendance) to recording it via Independent Study (I/S Complete/Incomplete)
Use the newly released Mass Update Attendance Enrollment process to switch every student from regular attendance to Independent Study. See documentation for examples switching from in-person to Independent Study.
Note, this process can NOT be used to remove students completely from enrollment in a school, just to switch them from one type of attendance program to another.
Every student should have their regular enrollment ended on one day and I/S started the next day.
If/when students switch back from Independent Study to In-Person instruction, this process will need to be run again, removing the Special Program code for Independent Study.
Absence Codes - Independent Study Absence and Code Configurations
Need two attendance codes to put into each day of I/S (if they do not already exist)
First mark every anticipated school day with a code that means I/S Incomplete
As students complete work, teachers will change appropriate number of days to I/S Complete to record ADA for those days.
No absences are recorded while in Independent Study, just I/S Incomplete or I/S Complete
Absence Notes - Attendance Note documentation
Optional - can be used to track engagement with online meetings, etc.
Independent Study Contracts
Contract must be signed by parents within 30 days of starting I/S
Independent Study Agreements page can be used for adding agreements (optional)
Independent Study Management page can be used for managing agreements and work product evaluations (optional)
Teacher Portal Attendance - Portal Options Attendance documentation
Teachers need the ability to post absence codes for I/S Incomplete and I/S Complete.
Teachers need the ability to forward/backward post these absence codes.
Set up Attendance Note Codes to track engagement (optional)
Attendance Rulesets - Secondary Only Attendance Ruleset documentation
This process is not necessary in cases where ALL sections are moving to I/S. All that is necessary would be to change the existing portal options above to allow teachers access to the proper I/S absence codes and the ability to forward/backward post. However, for districts that desire to lock down more options, this can be utilized.