Custom statuses, self-marking, and attendance takers

MarkTrack's attendance is built to bend to how your school actually runs. This guide covers every option, in order: custom statuses, student self-marking, student attendance takers, the who-took provenance and overrides, the whole-school daily report, and the parent-alert rules that keep it all safe. Everything below is set per school and takes effect immediately.

Where these settings live

All of it is under Settings → Attendance, organized per school, plus a few controls on the attendance grid itself. You need admin access to change settings; teachers can use the features once enabled.

1. Custom attendance statuses

Every school starts with four base statuses — Present, Absent, Tardy, and Excused Absence. You can add your own on top of these: "Online", "Recording Only", "Tardy — Excused", or anything your school uses.

The Attendance settings tab showing per-school custom statuses with a teal Online status, each mapped to a 'counts as' category, plus the student self-marking and attendance-taker toggles. — Settings → Attendance, per school.

Add a status

Go to Settings → Attendance and find the school you want.
In the Add a status row, type a label (e.g. "Online").
Pick the "counts as" category — this is the base status the new one behaves as for rates, alerts, and reports. "Online" typically counts as Present; "Recording Only" might count as Present or Absent depending on your policy.
Pick a color, and decide whether it's student-selectable (whether students may choose it when self-marking).
Click Add Status.

The "counts as" choice locks once used

The base category controls attendance rates, absence alerts, and reports. Once a status has been used on real attendance records, its "counts as" can't be changed — that would silently rewrite history. To reclassify, archive the old status and add a new one.

Archive vs delete

A status that has never been used can be deleted. A status that has been used can only be archived — it disappears from the marking options going forward, but the records that used it keep their label and color. The default four can be archived but not deleted.

2. Student self-marking

Turn on "Students mark their own attendance" for a school and students get a "Mark your attendance" card on their dashboard. It's trust-based and today-only: students record how they attended each of today's scheduled classes, choosing from the statuses you marked student-selectable.

A student's Mark Your Attendance modal showing today's date, each class as a card with status buttons, and a note that a teacher can correct anything they mark. — The student's self-marking view — today only.

What students can and can't do

Today only. Students can't backdate; the date is always today in your school's timezone.
Their own classes only, and only classes that meet today.
Only student-selectable statuses. If you didn't mark "Absent" student-selectable, they can't self-mark absent.
A teacher always wins. The moment a teacher or admin marks a student, the student's self-mark locks and can't be changed by the student.

Daily-attendance schools

If a school uses whole-day (daily) attendance instead of per-class, the student's card collapses to a single "School Day" entry — they mark once for the day.

3. Student attendance takers

Sometimes you want a responsible student to run the register — the teacher is out, or you simply delegate it. Turn on "Student attendance takers" for the school, then appoint a student per class.

Appoint a taker

Open the class's attendance grid (Attendance → pick the class).
Click Actions → Attendance Takers.
Choose a student from the class roster.
Optionally set a date window (From / Until). Leave both blank for a standing appointment.
Click Appoint Taker.

The Attendance Takers modal for a class, listing the active taker with a Revoke button and a form to appoint another student with an optional From/Until date window. — Appoint standing or windowed takers; revoke anytime.

Who can appoint: admins can appoint on any class in their schools; teachers can appoint only on classes they teach. To remove a taker, open the same modal and click Revoke — it takes effect on their very next action.

What the taker sees

The appointed student gets a "Take attendance" card on their dashboard that opens a purpose-built register — today's roster with the same status buttons, and nothing else.

A student attendance taker's Take Attendance modal for a class, showing classmates with status buttons, teacher-marked students locked, and the taker's own row flagged 'you'. — The taker's register — teacher marks are locked to them.

Their one class only, today only.
Can't override staff. A row a teacher marked is locked to the taker.
No notes, no history, no exports — just marking.
Daily-mode "School Day" classes can't be delegated (that roster is the whole school).

4. Who marked each student (provenance)

Whenever someone other than a teacher marks a student, the grid shows a small dot on the cell:

Teal — the student self-marked.
Blue — a class helper (attendance taker) marked it.
Hollow ring — staff corrected a non-staff mark.

Plain teacher/admin marks show no dot — the grid stays clean. Tap a dot for the full detail: who marked it, in what role, and the exact time.

The attendance grid with a who-took popover open, showing 'Marked by class helper' with the student's name and the exact time. — Tap the dot for who, what role, and when.

Overrides: staff can change any mark at any time. When a teacher replaces a student's self-mark or a taker's mark, the cell shows the hollow ring and the record keeps a "corrected by staff" note. Students see their own history with a "Marked by me" filter and a note when staff corrected them.

Privacy

Only your staff see who marked a student. Parents and students see a neutral label ("Class helper" / "Self-marked"), never another student's name — on web and in the mobile apps.

5. The whole-school daily report

To see the entire school's day on one page, open the attendance grid and click Daily report (also under Actions → "Daily report — all classes").

The whole-school Daily Attendance report: top-line stats for present rate, classes taken, absent and tardy counts, and a per-class grid showing who took each class with an amber Not taken yet flag on unmarked classes. — Every class for the day, on one page.

The report shows, for the chosen day:

Top-line stats — present rate, how many classes are taken vs total, and absent/tardy counts.
A row per class — who took it (teacher, or a student with a "taker" tag), the present/absent/tardy/excused counts, how many aren't marked, and the rate. Classes still missing show an amber Not taken yet flag.
Needs follow-up today — everyone absent or tardy across the whole school, with their class.

Use the date arrows or the date picker to view any day. The report follows the school switcher in the top bar, and only shows classes from your active academic year (past-year classes drop off). It's print-friendly for a paper register.

6. Parent-alert rules

Attendance alerts to parents live further down the same Attendance settings tab, under Email Alerts and SMS Alerts. The key rule that makes self-marking and takers safe:

Alerts fire only for staff marks

A student self-marking absent, or an attendance taker marking a classmate absent, does not alert parents. The alert waits until a teacher or admin confirms the absence. This is automatic — no configuration needed.

What you can configure:

Enable alerts, and which statuses trigger them (Absent, Tardy, Excused).
Channel — email digest, SMS after class, or both.
SMS grace window — how many minutes after class to wait before texting; if the mark is corrected to present/tardy in that window, the text is cancelled.
Daily digest time for email alerts.

SMS sends only to students who have a parent with a phone number on file.

Set your timezone (and why it controls attendance) — "today" and past-date locking.
Blog: attendance tracking that bends to how your school runs — the feature tour.