> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bizaxl.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Marking Attendance

> How to take daily class attendance for an entire student group in one step using the Student Attendance Tool.

The Student Attendance Tool is designed for speed. An instructor can mark attendance for an entire class of 60 students in under a minute - select the group, mark the absent ones, submit. Every present student is recorded automatically.

***

## Who Does This

| Task                             | Who Does It                                                     |
| -------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Taking daily attendance          | Instructor                                                      |
| Making corrections to attendance | Academic Administrator                                          |
| Locking historical attendance    | Academic Administrator (via Attendance Freeze Date in Settings) |

***

## How to Take Attendance

1. Open the **Education workspace**
2. Click the **Student Attendance Tool** shortcut at the top of the workspace
3. Select the **Student Group** (your class)
4. Select the **Course** (the subject for this session)
5. Select the **Schedule Date** (today's date for most sessions)
6. The tool loads the complete student list for that group
7. All students default to **Present** - tick the checkbox next to any student who is **Absent**
8. Click **Submit**

The system creates one Student Attendance record for each student. Present students are marked Present; ticked students are marked Absent.

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/bizaxloptimizationsllp/images/placeholder-student-attendance-tool.png" alt="Student Attendance Tool showing a list of students with checkboxes, all defaulting to Present, with a few students ticked as Absent, and a Submit button at the bottom" />
</Frame>

***

## What Gets Created

When you click Submit, the system creates one Student Attendance record per student in the group. Each record stores:

* The student's name
* The date and session
* The status (Present or Absent)
* The student group and course

You do not need to do anything with these individual records - they are created in the background and appear in reports automatically.

***

## Making a Correction After Submission

If you made a mistake (marked someone absent who was present, or vice versa):

1. Go to **Education workspace → Attendance card → Student Attendance**
2. Filter by the student's name and the date of the error
3. Open the attendance record
4. Click **Cancel** to revert it to draft
5. Edit the status (Present / Absent / On Leave)
6. Click **Submit** again

Note: If the Attendance Freeze Date in Education Settings is set to a date after the session you are correcting, the record will be locked and cannot be edited. Contact your system administrator to adjust the freeze date.

***

## Taking Attendance Directly on a Student Attendance Record

For individual corrections or edge cases, you can create attendance records manually:

1. Go to **Education workspace → Attendance card → Student Attendance**
2. Click **New**
3. Select the **Student**, **Date**, **Status**, **Student Group**, and **Course Schedule**
4. Click **Submit**

This is for one student at a time - use the Student Attendance Tool for whole classes.

***

## Field Guide - Student Attendance

| Field               | Required | Purpose                                     |
| ------------------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| **Student**         | Yes      | The student this attendance record is for   |
| **Date**            | Yes      | The date of the session                     |
| **Status**          | Yes      | Present / Absent / On Leave                 |
| **Student Group**   | No       | Which class group this session is for       |
| **Course Schedule** | No       | Links to the specific timetable session     |
| **Course**          | No       | Which subject this attendance record is for |

***

## Attendance Freeze Date

The Attendance Freeze Date prevents retroactive changes to past records. Once this date is passed, attendance records before the freeze date cannot be edited.

**To check or change the freeze date:**

1. Go to **Education workspace → Settings card → Education Settings**
2. Find the **Attendance Freeze Date** field
3. Update if needed and Save

Only a system administrator or academic administrator with the right permissions can change this setting.

***

## Viewing Attendance Records

**For a specific student:**

1. Go to Education workspace → Attendance card → Student Attendance
2. Filter by Student = the student's name
3. Filter by Date From / Date To if needed

**For a whole class on a specific day:**

1. Go to Student Attendance
2. Filter by Student Group and Date

**Using reports:**

* **Absent Student Report** - for a date range, who was absent
* **Monthly Attendance Sheet** - month-by-month grid per student
* **Batch-Wise Attendance** - group-level attendance rates

All reports are in the **Education workspace → Attendance Reports card**.

***

## Best Practices

**Take attendance the same day, ideally at the start of class.** Attendance taken immediately is more accurate than trying to recall who was present several days later.

**Use the Student Attendance Tool, not individual records.** Creating individual Student Attendance records one by one is very slow. The tool submits all records for the entire group in a single action.

**Do not skip sessions.** If attendance is not taken for a session, students appear to have no record for that day - they are neither present nor absent. This creates gaps in reporting and can affect regulatory compliance.

**Set the Attendance Freeze Date at the start of each term.** This protects the integrity of historical records and prevents instructors from quietly editing attendance from weeks past.

***

## Troubleshooting

**Students are not appearing in the attendance tool:** Check that the students are in the selected Student Group. Use the Student Group record to verify the Students table has the right people listed.

**Cannot submit attendance - getting a validation error:** Make sure all required fields are filled in. Check that the Schedule Date is not past the Attendance Freeze Date.

**Attendance was already taken for this session:** If you try to take attendance again for the same group and date, the system may warn you about duplicate records. Check the existing attendance records before creating new ones.

**Changes to attendance are not saving:** The record may be past the Attendance Freeze Date and is therefore locked. Contact the system administrator to adjust the freeze date if a legitimate correction is needed.

***

## Related Pages

* [Leave Applications](/education/attendance/leave-applications) - how absent students can get their attendance updated to "On Leave"
* [Student Groups](/education/student-management/student-groups) - the classes that the attendance tool works with
* [Reports & Dashboards](/education/reports-dashboards) - attendance reports that use the data created here