Managing school attendance in the current technological and educational environment is a longstanding (and ongoing) pillar of the education system, owing to the numerous benefits it brings to both students and members of the educational community.

Having a robust attendance record allows for optimal monitoring of students’ academic progress, as it becomes an early indicator of absenteeism patterns. This helps in making decisions and implementing measures to reduce absenteeism and improve attendance regularity. Additionally, attendance tracking fosters responsibility and good habits in students, positively impacting their academic and personal success.

However, one might ask: How do we manage school attendance in the current technological and educational environment? It’s a changing environment, constantly evolving with technologies that aim to streamline school administrative tasks. Stay tuned to this post if you want to discover the answer to this question (and a few more)!

Challenges faced by traditional school attendance management

Traditionally, school attendance management has been carried out manually and conventionally, using non-automated methods and systems. This traditional approach to school attendance management faces challenges that highlight the need to shift towards more automated attendance management, leveraging new technologies.

So, what are these challenges faced by traditional school attendance management? Let’s detail them below:

• Manual tracking prone to errors: In the traditional method, attendance is manually recorded using paper lists where the attendance or absence status of students is marked. Doing it this way makes us more prone to errors when entering data.
• Time-consuming: Manual attendance recording in class consumes a lot of time, as it is not an automated task. It also takes a lot of time to compile joint data for overall attendance assessment, whether by student or by group.
• Lack of immediate communication and notification: Information about student lateness or absence in the traditional record system does not automatically reach families. It requires support from the administration or caretaking staff to call or write to families. This also consumes time and resources and hinders the reduction of absenteeism, as the communication process between schools and families slows down.
• Privacy and data security issues: By manually recording school attendance on paper or unprotected systems, data is more vulnerable to exposure or loss.
• Lack of precise data and data analysis: Another challenge they face is the lack of real-time information on the entered data, which allows for the early identification of absenteeism patterns and decision-making based on results to reduce absenteeism.

Benefits of implementing digital tools for school attendance management

After seeing the challenges faced by traditional methods of school attendance management, the need to find other ways to manage attendance that address these challenges becomes apparent. This is where digital tools come into play, and below we explain the benefits of implementing digital tools for attendance management:

• Automation: Using digital tools for school attendance management allows for automating a process that was previously manual, speeding it up and therefore gaining efficiency and saving time.
• Reduction of errors and precision: Another advantage is the precision when entering data, thus helping to reduce errors resulting from manual recording.
• Administrative efficiency: Thanks to the use of digital tools, administrative efficiency is increased, as it does not require as much support from the administration or caretaking staff to notify families of student absences and lateness.
• Improvement in communication and notifications: Through the use of digital attendance management tools, automatic notifications can be configured to inform families of absences and lateness, achieving a direct and constant flow of information in real-time, allowing for rapid action in cases of absenteeism.
• Real-time data analysis and report visualisation: Digital school attendance recording allows for automatic data analysis in real-time, either for individual students or at a group level. Automatic reports can also be generated and visualised, allowing for more effective monitoring of student attendance and absences to take necessary action.

Digital tools for school attendance management

Below are two digital tools that will greatly assist you in managing school attendance, as they are developed with the needs of teachers, educational institutions, and families in mind when it comes to recording and communicating attendance.

1. Additio App

Additio App is a school management, assessment, and communication platform present in more than 70 countries, with over 500,000 teachers and over 3,000 educational institutions relying on its solutions. The platform allows for the digital and automatic registration of everything related to attendance.

Here’s what it offers you:

• Automatically and quickly record attendance: With just one click, you can record the attendance of all students in your class, and only change the attendance status of students who have been absent or late.
• Leave comments: If you need to add any comments to a student’s attendance or absence, you can easily do so, and families will also receive them.

• Automatically notify families: No more wasting time with calls and emails that never reach families. Now, with Additio App, families can receive notifications when their children are absent or late. This keeps them updated on their children’s progress.
• Allow families to justify absences: If families need to attach justifications or justify an absence or lateness, it can be easily done with Additio App.

• Generate visual reports: With the information recorded about attendance and absences, you can create and visualise 100% customizable reports to your liking, both for individual students and groups, to detect absenteeism trends and take preventive measures. Additionally, you can send these reports to families to keep them informed and monitor their children’s attendance.

• Customise attendance types: Additio App allows you to fully customise attendance types, creating new icons for any type of situation you need to record. Additionally, you can choose what is communicated to families to stay informed.

2. Edusign

Edusign is a platform that allows you to reduce by 5 the time dedicated to managing attendance in training organisations. All data is centralised and secure in one place, reducing administrative tasks and facilitating the student experience. Currently, more than 2,500 training organisations trust Edusign to revolutionise their training.

• Have your students sign in person or remotely: Regardless of the training context, simply record your students’ attendance.
• Choose the signing method that suits you best! You can choose the signing method you prefer, whether it’s a QR code, a link, an email, or an NFC. All options are quick, secure, and prevent fraud, as they are constantly updated to ensure reliability.
• Build a bond with your students: Analyse your statistics, create reports by student, training, or group to track attendance as accurately as possible. Customise your alerts and communications with students.
• Justified absences without headaches! Your students can submit their absence justifications directly on the platform, which can then be easily consulted by teachers and administrators.

Opt for a digital tool and improve school attendance recording in your educational institution

The tools presented in the previous section will greatly help you improve attendance recording, reducing errors, and improving communication with families and students. If you dare to try them, you won’t regret it 😉