Fayette County Public Schools Kentucky Department of Education

1. Fayette County Public SchoolsKentucky Department of Education 2012 - 2013 Attendance Review

2. Overview Each year the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) conducts a district attendance review (a.k.a. “audit”). As part of the process each year they select approximately one-fourth of the district’s schools to receive an individual, comprehensive review of their attendance processes. The FCPS review for the 2012-13 school year is scheduled for December 14th – 21st, 2012. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

3. Scope of the Review The KDE attendance review of school districts helps them determine if schools are implementing the following requirements: • Providing the required amount of instructional time to students • Properly using and recording data from sign-in/sign-out log • Assigning students proper transportation codes • Completing required Home/Hospital guidelines • Properly tracking attendance for all students When sampling a school’s attendance records, the reviewer uses a ‘random selection’ technique. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

4. FCPS Details • Schools need to work now to ensure accuracy! The review is based on: • Information entered by each school in Infinite Campus • Only records for the first two attendance months • Jill Mosow, Attendance Analyst, will work closely with each school to facilitate, gather and compile the necessary requirements. • When the auditors come to your building – YOU WILL BE READY! Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

5. School Level Review • Attendance taken once each day in Elementary and each period in High School 1a • Schedule Gaps 1b • Entry/Exit Logs completed correctly and entered accurately in Infinite Campus 2/3 • Master or Bell Schedule/Calendar Information 4/4a • Virtual and/or Performance Based Courses 5/6 • Register Reports & ADM/ADA Reports 7 • Transportation Codes 8 • Withdrawal Code Documentation 9 • Suspensions 10 Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

6. School Level Review • Absences where students are counted as being present to school: Educational Enhancement Opportunity (EHO); Armed Forces Day (AFD) and Armed Forces Rest & Recuperation Day (AFR) 11/12/13 • Partial Day Enrolled Students 14 • Underage and Overage Students 15 • Vocational Students 16 Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

7. Recording Pupil Attendance – 1a • The auditor will run the “Teachers not taking attendance” report for several days. See page 49 of the Attendance Manual. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

8. Schedule Gaps – 1b Students without complete schedules keeps attendance from calculating correctly, thereby preventing school districts from receiving entitled funding. Schedule Gaps can be found: • By running an Infinite Campus “Schedule Gap Report” • Review of students’ Infinite Campus schedules • Review of students’ Infinite Campus “Attendance Tab” – enrolled days vs. scheduled days (unless the student is a partial day student they should be equal) Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

9. Schedule Gaps – 1b Run the Schedule Gap Report and verify there are no students displayed. See page 52 of the Attendance Manual. Specified dates having schedule gaps Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

10. Schedule Gaps – 1b Start Dates for courses do not equal enrollment date of student Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

11. Schedule Gaps – 1B “Enrolled Days” does not equal “Scheduled Days”. Student is not a Partial Day student. These numbers should match. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

12. Entry/Exit Logs – 2 Examine the entry/exit log and determine if the following information is included… • Date • Student Name • Time of arrival or departure • Student grade/homeroom • Parent/guardian signature for elementary student sign-outs. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

13. Entry/Exit Logs – 3 Determine if the entry/exit log is properly used and maintained. The auditor will check many things: • Are parents filling out the log correctly? • Are there scribbles, white out, marker, etc on the logs? • Are the logs kept for two full school years? The auditor will randomly pull four days of logs from the first two months of school and verify the data was entered correctly in IC. Ensure that times recorded on the Entry/Exit logs are identical to the time recorded in IC. The Entry/Exit log is the source document! Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

14. Master Schedule – 4 / 4a • Schools must ensure they provide the state’s minimal instructional day (365 minutes for FCPS) as well as the minimal number of instructional days (177 for FCPS). • By law, copies of schools’ current Master Schedules: • Must be on file with Pupil Personnel • Must show both instructional and non-instructional time. • Times shown on a school’s Master Schedule must mirror times entered in Infinite Campus. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

15. Master Schedule – 4 / 4a • The auditor will look for your Master Schedule. Best Practice – Place it by the checkin/out log. If not by the checkin/out log it must be visible where all visitors can see it. • The auditor will compare the posted Master Schedule with the Board approved schedule. Make sure the Master Schedule submitted to the DPP office is what is posted for visitors to review. • For more info, see the Attendance Manual, Page 9, #4 Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

16. Master Schedule – 4 / 4a Examples of non-instructional activities: • Graduation practices • Honors ceremonies for activities not related to core content • Daily announcements not related to core content • Recess, where students are allowed to have free play. PE or Structured Physical Activity (SPA) is counted as part of the instructional day. • Nap time • Resting • Preparing to dismiss • Dismissing buses before the end of the school day Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

17. Virtual High School - 5 If your school has Virtual High School students, the auditor will review the Infinite Campus to be sure they are set up correctly. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

18. Performance-Based Courses Performance Based Courses are funded based on when the student passes the course, not how much time the student spends in the course. This does not include Band, Drama, Art, PE, etc. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

19. Teacher’s Record of Daily Attendance - 7 • The auditor will ask to see your monthly attendance reports for months 1 and 2. Please have these organized and ready. • Make sure each report has a Principal or Principal’s Designee signature on it. Even if the report does not have a signature line, the end of each grade level must be signed. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

20. Transportation Codes – 8a • Students coded with a T5 transportation code in Infinite Campus must have “special transportation” designated on the Related Services page of their IEP. • IEP Related Services page to cover the first two Pupil Months must be provided for the audit. • The Related Services page must state the student needs special transportation, and the student must also use the transportation provided! Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

21. Transportation Codes – 8a Run a list of T5s for months 1 and 2: • Follow the steps in the Attendance Manual to print the report. Page 53, Elem; Page 56 Sec. • For “School Month”, select months 1 and 2. • Have your Special Ed Facilitator verify every student on the list before the audit. The student must be eligible per the Related Services page in the IEP. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

22. Transportation Codes – 8b • The fall Transportation Verification will be used for the review as documentation that Tcodes were assigned correctly based on: • The student’s address • The distance from the bus stop to school • The auditor will take a sample (maximum of 20 students) from the month 1 and 2 ADM/ADA Detail reports. Each student chosen must have sufficient documentation on file to support the code entered in IC. • Run a list of all students enrolled for months 1 and 2, verify you have documentation on file for the transportation code in IC. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

23. Withdrawal Codes - 9 • Run a list of all withdrawals and have available for the auditor. • Go to Index > Student Information > Reports > Enrollment Status • Select the following: • Grade – All Students • Start Status – All • End Status – All codes except for W01 • The auditor will look specifically at the following codes to verify you have a request for records to match and vice versa: • W07 – Communicable medical condition • W08 – Death • W12 – Under jurisdiction of the courts with a petition • W17 – Kindergarten student in the primary program withdrawn within the first two pupil months due to immaturity or school/parent mutual agreement • W20 – Withdrawn to home-school • W21 – Transferred to a non-public school • W22 – Transferred to another public school district or moved outside of the US • W23 and W25 – Sixteen or older and has dropped out of school Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

24. Withdrawal Codes - 9 Documentation for withdrawal codes can include: • Requests for records • Written and signed statement from the parent/guardian that student is moving out of the US • Infinite Campus “Records Transfer” tab screen shots showing other KY school district enrollment. See the Attendance Manual, Page 20, “Printing a Records Transfer Request” • Completed and signed dropout questionnaire Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

25. Suspensions - 10 • Suspension data in behavior must match suspension data in attendance. The Suspension Attendance Linkage report must be free of errors! Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

26. Educational Enhancement Opportunity - 11 • EHO – Students may be granted up to ten days to pursue an educational enhancement opportunity as approved by the Director of Pupil Personnel. • Documentation of DPP approval will be reviewed by the auditors. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

27. Armed Forces Day - 12 • AFD – Students having a parent/guardian who is an active member of the military may be granted one day for deployment and an additional day for the return from deployment. • Documentation will be reviewed by auditors. • Documentation must include a signed statement from a parent/guardian regarding the student’s absence from school due to a deployment or return. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

28. Armed Forces Rest & Recuperation Day - 13 • AFR – Students having a parent/guardian who is an active member of the military stationed out of the country and granted a Rest and Recuperation Leave may be granted up to ten days for visitation. • Documentation will be reviewed by the auditors. • Documentation must include a signed statement from a parent/guardian indicating the student’s absence was due to visitation for Rest and Recuperation Leave for a parent/guardian. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

29. Partial Day - 14 Students enrolled and allowed to attend only part of the day are: • Half Day Kindergarteners • Have board or superintendent approval • Have IEPs indicating due to special needs they cannot attend a full day of classes Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

30. Overage/Underage Exceptions - 15 • Students not five years old for kindergarten or six years old for first grade by October 1st are considered “underage” by Kentucky law. If a school does enroll a student not within the age guidelines, the district gets no Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funding for him/her. • Once a student reaches the age of 21 he/she is by Kentucky law classified as being “overage” and ADA funding terminates. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

31. Underage Under certain conditions the district can by law receive funding for underage students if: • The student transfers to the district from a public school within a state having later cut-off dates for K/1. • A kindergarten student found by a committee to be best placed academically with 1st grade age students with the primary program. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

32. Underage, con’t • Students who meet these conditions are granted a “waiver” by the state • Documentation is required to be on-file at the school showing that the guidelines have been fulfilled: 1) records from the previous out-of-state public school showing K/1 enrollment; or, 2) Committee meeting minutes for a five-year old’s placement in a 1st grade age homeroom. • See page 24 of the Attendance Manual on marking a student for an “Underage Waiver” Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

33. Overage • As per Kentucky law, students are allowed to enroll in school as long as they are not twenty-one on the day of initial enrollment • During the school year, once a student reaches the age of twenty-one, all ADA funding stops. • The auditors will check our Growth Factor to ensure Infinite Campus is not calculating attendance for overage students. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

34. Attendance at State Vocational Facility - 16 • All attendance from vocational schools (Eastside, Southside, Locust Trace) must be sent back to the “Home” school for official tracking. • Auditors will look for procedures in place to get the data back to the “Home” school. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

35. Past Audit Discrepancy Examples • Schedule gaps on IC Schedule Gap Report • Students arriving late on buses not required to sign in on the Entry/Exit log • Entry/Exit logs not properly kept with students’ full name, time in/out and parent signature for elementary students. • Entry/Exit log information does not match the school’s attendance data in IC • Incorrect Tcodes in IC • Invalid or incomplete documentation for Tcodes • Students coded as T5 do not have the need for special transportation designated in their IEP. The Related Services page of the IEP does not designate a need for Special Transportation. • Students coded as T5 between lapses of IEPs not changed to a regular bus code during the period of the expired IEP. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review

36. Past Audit Discrepancy Examples • Documentation not on file that parents/guardians have been notified in writing of their child’s suspension or dates of suspension. • No IEPs documenting shortened day for partial day students. • No documentation for EHO, AFD or AFR absences. • Bell schedule does not list the non-instructional activities – lunch and travel time to lunch. Fayette County Public Schools Attendance Review