Class Attendance Rolls

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Class attendance rolls allow schools to take attendance based on the school timetable like classes, athletic, and advisory meetings.
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Class Attendance Roll Checks are a paid Orah feature, if you would like to see how Orah Attendance could help your school keep track of your students, please contact us.

Take Class Attendance with Orah

Orah makes knowing where your students are so. much. easier.

Orah Roll Checks has 3 roll types for different use cases within a school.  The 'Class Attendance' roll type is specifically designed for taking attendance based on the school timetable like classes, athletic, and advisory meetings.

A Class Attendance roll type can be created by going to Roll Settings > New Roll Type. Your school admin only needs to set this up once, then you will find your scheduled Class Attendance roll for each enabled class in your 'My Schedule' view (this view can be accessed in the Orah webapp, on the Orah staff mobile app or instantly via the Orah Roll Checks Chrome plugin).

What's the difference between a Class Attendance Roll Check and a Daily Roll Check?

  • Class Attendance roll types can only be used from the 'My Schedule' page as they are designed specifically for marking a roll off a timetable, whereas Daily Roll Checks are intended for
  • Class Attendance roll types have the ability to lock certain roll codes to staff with access to roll settings
  • An active pass must be ended before marking a student as present

Class Attendance roll types can only be used on the 'My Schedule' page. The My Schedule page will display the a staff member's timetable based on an integration with the SIS. We recommend that only Class Attendance roll types are used for taking attendance based on timetables.

Starting an Orah Roll Check from 'My Schedule'

Does Orah Roll Checks work with my student information system?

Orah enables schools to manage their own Student Life Profiles for each of their students. While some schools use Orah as their system of record for Attendance, oftentimes schools want to ensure that key data, like Attendance records, are synced daily with their primary system of record (SIS/MIS).

Orah Roll Checks currently integrates natively with some of the world's leading student information systems, including VeracrossBlackbaud, TASS and iSAMS, and many more via Wonde. See if yours is listed by visiting the Orah Integrations page.

You can decide how you want to use Orah in conjunction with your existing system of record.

Orah schools choose to sync Orah Attendance in the following ways:

  • Two-way sync: Orah will sync your attendance records with your system of record, and necessary changes to student profiles in your system of record can be synced back to Orah (two-way syncs apply to certain integrations only, please contact us to confirm what the status of your preferred system is).
  • One-way sync: You can send necessary data to Orah, or Orah can send necessary data back to your SIS/MIS.

The following sections will get into some of the nitty gritty of how the Orah Class Attendance features work.

If you would prefer to be shown how it works, contact us and get a demo.

Or, watch this quick demo that explains how it works.

Managing Roll Codes with Orah

Class Attendance roll types have the ability to lock roll codes. This means that only staff members with access to roll settings permission will be able to assign these roll codes to students when marking a roll or editing roll records.

For example, Teachers may only be able to assign the basic roll codes such as present, absent, and late whereas Attendance Managers may edit the records later and assign more detailed roll codes such as medical leave, explained absence, etc.

Roll Code names are customizable, so you can use the terminology that works for your school.

Class Attendance roll types also have a special permission for allowing staff members to end a pass during the roll. For example if a student has an excused absence but shows up to class, the teacher can end the pass and mark the student as present. However, if the roll does not allow staff to end passes during the roll, the Teacher will not be able to end the pass but can instead leave a note for the Attendance Manager to rectify later.

Note: When a student has a pass during class attendance they will be recorded as 'On Pass - Excused'. A pass must be ended before changing the roll code of a student.

Example of Roll Type that allows passes to be ended during a roll check.
Example of Roll Type that does not allow passes to be ended during a roll check.

Attendance Records Overview

We have added a new page for viewing all attendance records in one place. This page can be found under the Attendance tab.

A link to 'Roll Settings' is also accessible from here so you can give staff to manage roll types without full Admin Console access.

Group Roll Records capture attendance for a group of students such as classes or regular daily rolls.

On this table you can filter records by Not Started, In Progress, and Completed on a day by day basis.

Note that 'Not Started' rolls will only apply to rolls that are scheduled in advance like classes or automatic rolls.

Tip: Filtering rolls by 'Not Started' or 'In Progress' can help Attendance Managers or Deans follow up on staff that have not marked attendance on time.

Student Records Overview

Student records capture attendance for an individual student.

You can filter by Roll Code, Code Type, and Pass/Excuse Type, or search for a specific student. This gives you a daily overview of who was present, absent, late, and excused.

Here's an example of a student who was excused from class because they had a Pass/Excuse during the class period.

And here's an example of a student who was marked present:

Tip: You can filter based on Passes/Excuse to get a list of students who are expected to miss class for the day.

Orah Roll Checks Browser Extension

Staff members can now mark attendance from a browser extension instead of within the Orah web or mobile app. Once the extension is installed, staff can open Orah Roll Checks in a side panel to mark attendance without having to leave their current tab. This means teachers, don't have to switch apps to mark attendance!

There is a link to the installation page on the 'My Schedule' view within the Orah web app – so your school staff will be prompted to install it. Or, you can simply search 'Orah Roll Checks' on the Chrome Store or Apple App Store on your laptop.

Tip: Don't forget to pin the extension for easy access.

Workflow Roll Triggers

It is now possible to trigger workflows based on attendance records.

In the example below, a workflow will be triggered once a student has been marked with a Late code type during Class Attendance 3 times in the last month.

Once the workflow is triggered, you can define the next steps with the workflow builder. This may include sending alerts to specific staff members, completing a form, or requiring a staff approval.

Roll Code Types

By default, roll code types can be categorised as Present, Late, Explained Absence and Absent. You can add additional roll codes as needed, though it is recommended you keep this to as few as needed.

Attendance Dashboard

Use Orah's attendance dashboards to know where your students are, in real time.

On the attendance dashboard, we've added a widget for 'Most Tardy/Late Students' as well as a widget so show students with the 'Most Excused Absences'.

Note: The attendance dashboard syncs data from your SIS so is only available for certain integrations. Let us know if you're interested setting up the attendance dashboard.

Allow parents & caregivers to report their child as absent without an Orah account

Parents or guardians no longer need to create an Orah account to report their child as absent, request an excuse or a pass.

You can share a single public URL with all parents via your parent portal, your website or via Orah Connect – and they can simply enter their email and enter a verification code to verify it's them, and then complete the form they would like to request.

No more emails, google forms or voice messages from parents to excuse students.

This article covers how to set up the public request link in more detail: https://success.orah.com/en/articles/8286384-generating-public-request-link-for-leaves-passes

See how schools like Berkhamsted School use Orah to know where their students are

Read Berkhamsted School's story: Founded in 1541 by Henry VIII, Berkhamsted School's shift to Orah represents a significant milestone in the adoption of digital solutions within the educational sector. Previously reliant on tick sheets and signing out books that were inefficient and prone to error, they adopted Orah to help them digitize their attendance, safeguard their students and know where they are when they're in their care.

You can read more customer stories here.

Orah's Attendance system could transform your school

To get started, we recommend booking a demo call with one of our friendly team.

In this first meeting, you can expect to talk to one of our school solutions experts who will seek to understand your school's mission, vision and goals before giving you their honest recommendations.