This process requires access by an Admin, Manager, or Staff member with Extra Staff User Access Options to create Pre-Explained Absences. If you cannot complete any of the steps below, please check with your Admin.
What is a Pre-Explained Absence?
A Pre-Explained Absence notifies the school that a student will likely be absent for a future period. This absence can be date—and time-based and displayed for a specific time period or Session.
For example, if you are made aware of a student's absence ahead of time, you can add this information in Clipboard as a Pre-Explained Absence. As a result, the student will be pre-shown as 'potentially absent' on the Sessions or Fixtures at the time that they have specified.
There are three ways pre-explained absences can be added:
Added manually: They will appear as 'Added in Clipboard' for their source. If Staff/Managers/Admin Users manually add Pre-Explained Absences, they will appear as 'Added by User Name' along with the time and date it was added.
Through an integration, attendance data from your school will be synced, and these absences will be displayed as 'Synced from school'.
Directly from parents and guardians: these absences will appear as 'Added by (parents' or guardians' name)'.
Hover over the yellow icon next to the student on the Roll and the Teams page to view the message 'Potentially Absent', the date and the reason for the absence.
To add a Pre-Explained Absence via Attendance or Schedule:
Go to Attendance or Schedule.
Click Actions (top right).
From the drop-down menu, select Add Pre-Explained Absences.
Fill out the absence information spreadsheet, including the student's name, date, start time, end time and an explanation. Optionally, you can add a start and end date to the absence to cover multiple days.
Save.
Top Tip: You can add more than one Pre-Explained Absence at a time!
To add a Pre-Explained Absence via a Team:
Select Teams
Select View
Select Column View
Select the Activity in the filter
Select the Student required and 'add pre-explained absence'
Fill out the fields (in the image below) and click save
To add a Pre-explained Absence as a parent or student:
Please read our article Parents and Students Logging Upcoming Absences.
Pre-Explained Absences in Column View allow you to quickly see which students will be potentially absent within a Team for a specific date and time.
Can't remember whether you've already added the Pre-explained Absence?
Learn how to view Pre-Explained Absences here.
FAQ
The API can GET records for Attendance, but I would like to use the API to POST/PUT Pre-explained Absences. Is this possible?
You can post absences via our API using the pre-explained absences endpoint:
API Endpoint: POST /pre-explained-absences
Documentation: https://api-docs.clipboard.app/?id=post-pre-explained-absences
This endpoint allows you to add pre-explained absences to student records
Can I edit or delete the absences?
Clipboard App Users can currently delete a Pre-Explained Absence. If an entry needs to be edited, it is best to delete and re-enter the absence.