Attendance and absence requests

MarkTrack shows you exactly how your child's attendance was recorded, class by class and day by day — and lets you tell the school in advance when they're going to be out, instead of phoning the office. This page covers both.

Where to see attendance

There are two views, and they answer different questions.

1. The Attendance page — one child, one week, all classes

Click Attendance in the left-hand menu. Pick a child from the Viewing: row at the top, and you get a grid: one row per class, one column per day of the week, with arrows to move between weeks.

The My Children's Attendance page showing a Viewing row with each child's name, a week range with arrows, a Request Absence button, and a grid with one row per class and one column per weekday, each cell showing Present, Tardy or a dash, plus a legend beneath. — The weekly attendance grid, with the colour legend underneath.

The legend at the bottom explains every mark you can see:

Present — in class.
Absent — not in class, and not excused.
Tardy — arrived late.
Excused — absent, but the school accepted the reason.
Excused Tardy — late, but excused.
No class / Not recorded — shown as a dash. There was no class that day, or the teacher hasn't taken the register yet.

A dash isn't a problem

Attendance is taken per class, not per day, and teachers often submit later in the day. A dash usually just means "not taken yet". If it's still blank a few days later, ask the teacher.

2. The child's Attendance tab — the running log

Open My Children → your child → the Attendance tab for a simple reverse-chronological list of every record: the date, and whether it was Present, Tardy or an Excused Absence. Their overall attendance percentage and total absences are in the stat tiles above.

Requesting an absence

If you already know your child will miss school — an appointment, travel, a family event — send an absence request. It goes to the school office, who approve or decline it. An approved request marks the day excused on your child's record.

Step 1 — Open the form

There's a Request Absence button in two places:

On the Attendance page, next to the week selector.
On your child's Attendance tab, as + Request Absence.

Either opens the same form, already pointed at the right child ("for [child's name]").

Step 2 — Choose the kind of absence

Under What kind of absence? pick one. The rest of the form only appears once you have:

Full Day — out for a single whole day. You give one date.
Multiple Days — out for a run of days. You give a start and an end date.
Late Arrival — coming in late. You give the date and the expected arrival time.
Early Departure — leaving early. You give the date and the departure time.

The Request Absence dialog headed for the child's name, with four request type buttons reading Full Day, Multiple Days, Late Arrival and Early Departure, a Reason dropdown, a Notes optional box, two acknowledgement checkboxes and Cancel and Submit Request buttons. — The absence request form. Pick a type first — the date fields appear afterwards.

Step 3 — Pick a reason

Choose the closest match from the Reason dropdown:

Illness/Medical
Medical appointment
Family emergency
Bereavement
Travel
Immigration/legal appointment
Weather
Overslept
Personal
Other

Step 4 — Add notes

Notes (optional) is free text. Use it for anything the office needs to know — a return time, a flight number, "she'll be back for the afternoon". Short and specific gets approved faster.

Step 5 — Tick both acknowledgements

Two checkboxes are mandatory, and they say something important:

Submitting the form does not automatically excuse the absence — every request is reviewed.
Your child is still responsible for missed work — classes, homework, quizzes and exams. It's on them to talk to their teachers and catch up.

Your school writes this wording itself, so yours may differ slightly. Read it.

Step 6 — Submit

Click Submit Request. It goes to the office straight away with a status of Pending.

Two limits to know

You can't request a date in the past, and a single request can't span more than 30 days. For a past absence, or a longer leave, contact the office directly.

There's nowhere to attach a doctor's note

The form doesn't take file uploads. If your school wants documentation, email it to the office and mention it in the Notes box.

Tracking your requests

Each child has an Absence Requests list showing everything you've submitted for them, newest first, with the dates, the type, the reason, your notes, and when it was submitted and reviewed.

A child's Absence Requests list showing three entries: one rejected full-day personal request, one approved two-day travel request, and one pending medical appointment request that still has a Cancel Request button. — The full lifecycle: Rejected, Approved and Pending. Only the pending one can still be cancelled.

A request is always in one of four states:

Pending — waiting on the office. You can still cancel it.
Approved — accepted. The days are marked excused on your child's attendance.
Rejected — declined. The absence is recorded normally, not excused.
Cancelled — you withdrew it before it was reviewed.

Cancelling a request

Plans changed? Open the child's Absence Requests list and click Cancel Request on the pending entry.

Cancel only appears while a request is Pending. Once the office has approved or rejected it, the button is gone — contact them directly to undo it.

What happens after approval

The office reviews the request and records a decision.
If approved, MarkTrack writes Excused attendance for the dates you asked for.
Your child's attendance percentage reflects that — an excused absence isn't treated like an unexplained one.
The decision and its date show on the request in your list.

Troubleshooting

My request is still Pending

Nobody has reviewed it yet. MarkTrack doesn't approve requests automatically and there's no fixed turnaround — if the date is close, phone the office.

It was approved but the day still shows as Absent

Give it a moment and refresh; the excused records are written when the request is approved. If a class was already marked before approval, the teacher may need to update it — mention it to the office.

I can't pick the date I want

Past dates are blocked, and requests are capped at 30 days. Both are deliberate — talk to the office for anything outside those limits.

I don't see a Request Absence button

Your school hasn't turned absence requests on. Report absences the way they've asked you to — usually a phone call or an email.

Attendance looks wrong

Only teachers and administrators can change an attendance record — parents can't edit them. Contact the class teacher with the date and the class.