Access All Attendance Features in One Place

Friday, May 17, 2024 (11am ET) & July 17, 2024 (1pm ET)

ChildPlus Attendance has been visually enhanced and turned into a comprehensive module in one location. Parent signatures, detailed attendance notes and attendance scanning are a few of the features housed in this new quick-to-access area. Additional elements like multiple sign-in and out, quicker access to emergency contacts, tracking virtual days and more are available. In this webinar we will tour all the attendance features and point out some we really love. Reports are also reviewed to present the related updates.

In this webinar we will:

• Explore the new Attendance module

• Show the newest components and areas

• Identify updates in the relevant reports

You will leave with the knowledge to:

• Share with others in your agency what you discovered about the Attendance module

• Examine and navigate this module

• Begin the experience to become proficient

https://university.childplus.com/learn/live-group-webinars/?utm_campaign=2024%20Live%20Group%20Webinars&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=lgw&utm_content=5.2.24%20May%20Newsletter%20Promo

8/26/2024- Polk County Start Date

8/28/2024- Menomonie 3's and Turtle Lake Start Date

8/29/2024- Menomonie 4's and Rice Lake Start Date

9/3/2024- Barron, Chippewa Falls 3's, New Richmond, and Stanley-Boyd Start Date

9/4/2024- Cadott & Chippewa Falls 4K Start Date

• Attendance Codes: Change from one drop-down code marked Health to two drop-down codes? 

  • Health- sick (if both sick and have appt; code as sick)

  • Health- appointment

    • Why? 

      • Health is the most widely-used absence reason

      • Breaking it down will give us additional information to help support families 

        • Making, scheduling and keeping appts 

        • Support during illness 

• Attendance records from the previous month will be automatically locked in CP online on day 30 of each month

7/10/2024

Absence Code Compilation for HS PIR for Chronically Absent Children

Health Related 187

Transportation 66

Family 103

Vacation 21

Mental Health 2

Unexcused 4

Disability Services 3

7/15/2024 Center Director Meeting

• Clarification of when to use other and family discussed and additional guidance added to the guidance document.

• Clarification on who should sign the child in (parent or child). Emphasis will be placed on that a parent/guardian would need to sign the child in.

• Would like to explore bus routes as an option for entering attendance.

• Notes can be entered to show why a child was absent for previous days. Status should not be updated after service date ends.

7/30/2024 Coordinator Training

A question came up in the Coord Meeting today for the Attendance training about whether children needed to be signed out in ChildPlus to receive Special Services (OT, Speech, PT, etc.) outside of the classroom. 

I had thought that when children are not in Head Start care (with their Specials) that they had to be checked out to them; however, the current practice is to move their pictures to show them in the specials care and not check them out as they are still in the building. I can easily update the guidance and video if they would not need to sign in and out of ChildPlus. 

Component Training Feedback/Requests

• Clarification to include that when children leave our care (including for itinerant services) that they need to be signed out of ChildPlus and back in when they return to our care 

  • Itinerant staff names and their service (example, Brandi Warner Speech) can be added to ChildPlus by CAs as release to contacts 

  • When children leave our care for itinerant services they just need to be signed out when they leave our care and back in when they return. If they move to receive another service while already signed out, that does not need to be entered as they are not in our care at that time. 

• Children need to be signed in and out of care in the classrooms and at the bus (not at the front desk to keep the process consistent at all centers)

• Update from ChildPlus that in the next update the requirement to sign in when leaving the parent check in screen to the Data entry screen can be made optional in the security (update date is unknown at this point)

• Feature request submitted to ChildPlus based upon suggestion to request the ability to sign in/out multiple children with one signature for families with multiple enrollees and for children coming off bus and leaving with itinerant staff

• Feature request submitted to ChildPlus to request the option to view the class lists alphabetically by first name for each user.

• Suggestion to create an attendance user name and log in so that only attendance data can be accessed with that log in and that one log in can be used by all classroom staff. 

8/14/2024

Teacher suggestion for classroom access log in to CP Online Attendance from Amy Cortner:

Is it possible to assign a classroom username and password in ChildPlus to take care of attendance recording?

My worry is the way that we are doing it now, and in the future, the teacher must be the one responsible for the code. That means we are not allowed to take the classroom phone on home visits or into Parent Teacher Conferences because they will need to verify the code multiple times.

Also, when using my name to sign in it gives everyone access to my personal files, such as goals, reviews, and continuing education information. I am not comfortable giving that information to my TAs. It also could be used to access confidential information for our families TAs might not need to know, as well as DRDP reports and screenings that could be accidently clicked into and changed.  I hope that makes sense. 

9/4/2024

Guidance needed to show how to add/remove participant meals after the participant has been checked out. Guidance was created, added to the digital notebook and shared.

10/4/2024

Guidance on how to handle technology issues created and procedure established.

Is it possible to assign a classroom username and password in ChildPlus to take care of attendance recording?

My worry is the way that we are doing it now, and in the future, the teacher must be the one responsible for the code. That means we are not allowed to take the classroom phone on home visits or into Parent Teacher Conferences because they will need to verify the code multiple times.

Also, when using my name to sign in it gives everyone access to my personal files, such as goals, reviews, and continuing education information. I am not comfortable giving that information to my TAs. It also could be used to access confidential information for our families TAs might not need to know, as well as DRDP reports and screenings that could be accidently clicked into and changed.  I hope that makes sense. 

2/10/2025 Data review due to low ADA- discrepancies on the consistency of data entry coding noted. Friday snow make-up days skewed the data. Sick children and unexcused absences were the two largest absence reasons noted.

2/28/2025 Guidance Updates

After Kathy N. completed a thorough review of the entries for "Other" a determination was made to add examples of what might fall into each category and to add an additional category for absences due to enrollee not meeting program requirements.

An additional code may be added in the fall to break out weather-related transportation issues from transportation issues related to no vehicle/gas.

1. If there is staff turnover at your site with any person who had access to the classroom attendance logins; the passwords need to be updated after each staff change. The ability to update that password is also located under the little person icon. 

2.  Over the summer the classroom usernames will be updated to remove treacher names to a system that the center director chooses. This could be colors, numbering the classrooms, or whatever system is decided upon and a guide will be added to the google drive. This was my mistake as I know how name changes can cause confusion and this is the best form and fashion that I can think of to remedy the issue. If you can think of a different system please let me know!