Absence requests: from family submission to admin decision

Families can request a full-day or multi-day absence, or report a late arrival (tardy) or an early departure. Administrators review them in Attendance Command Center → Requests. Approval affects attendance differently for each request type.

Step 1 — A parent or student submits a request

1. A parent opens My Children, selects the child, then opens Absence Requests and clicks Request Absence. You can also open the child’s details, select the Attendance tab, and click Request Absence.
2. A family that only needs to report a late arrival clicks Late Arrival next to Request Absence. It opens the same form with Late Arrival already chosen, today’s date and a 10:00 AM arrival time to adjust.
3. Under What do you need to report?, choose Full Day, Multiple Days, Late Arrival, or Early Departure.
4. Enter the date or date range. Late arrivals and early departures also ask for a time.
5. Select a Reason category and add optional Notes.
6. Read and accept both acknowledgments, then submit. The request starts as Pending.

Students with their own login can request for themselves, including students who also have a linked parent. Child accounts without a login use the parent flow. Requests must start today or later and may cover at most 30 days.

Step 2 — Open the school's requests queue

1. As an administrator, select the correct school.
2. Open Attendance, then Command Center.
3. Select Requests. The Attendance page's Actions → Attendance Requests shortcut also opens this queue.
4. Choose Pending to focus on requests that need a decision. Filter by type, dates, or student name and click Apply.

Clear resets the extra filters. Export CSV downloads the matching requests. Check the selected school and academic year if an expected request is missing.

Step 3 — Review one request

1. Click the student's name or request row to open its details drawer.
2. Review the type, dates and time, reason and notes, acknowledgments, and the student's recent requests.
3. Add optional notes in the box above the decision you want to make.
4. Click Approve or Reject. Confirm rejection when prompted.

The decision is saved with the reviewer and time. The family can see the updated status and review notes, and their notification names the request type (for example “Aisha Khan’s late arrival on Oct 13, 2026 was approved.”). Read the result message: requests outside an academic year or with no applicable class meetings may not create attendance marks.

What approval changes

Teachers and administrators see the time of an approved late arrival or early departure (“Arriving 10:00 AM”, “Leaving 1:00 PM”) on the attendance grid’s cell popover, in the teacher’s banner for today, and in the Command Center. The CSV export has a Time column for these requests.

Approval applies to the request's school and scheduled meeting dates. Daily-attendance schools use the School Day record; per-class schools use the student's applicable classes. Concluded academic years remain locked. Rejection does not create excused attendance.

Step 4 — Decide several requests together

1. Filter to Pending and review the requests.
2. Tick the checkboxes for the requests you want to decide.
3. Click Approve Selected or Reject Selected.
4. Read the result for approved, rejected, or skipped requests. Resolve skipped items individually.

These actions apply to selected pending requests, not every request in the school. Open an individual request when you need to add review notes.

Statuses and cancellation

• Pending — awaiting review.
• Approved — accepted; attendance changes depend on the type above.
• Rejected — declined; review the school's notes.
• Cancelled — withdrawn by the requester while it was pending.

After approval, families should contact the school if plans change. Cancelling a pending request does not undo an approved attendance change.

Notifications and school policies

Administrators can configure recipients, pending-request reminders, and the two acknowledgment texts in Settings → Attendance. See Attendance alerts and notifications. Families can follow the parent attendance guide for their side of the process.