Poly Goes Digital with Attendance

As students return for the 2014-2015 school year, LBUSD will launch a new system for taking attendance. Most students at Poly are familiar with the traditional system for taking attendance. Since elementary school days, teachers have called out names, waited for responses, and then, using a pencil, appropriately filled in the corresponding bubble on their role sheet.

However, this year, teachers will record attendance with the use of a computer instead of a piece of paper. The digital forms will be sent directly to the attendance office.

Prior to implementation of this new system, students or teacher’s aides would frequently be asked to physically deliver the attendance sheets to the office. Th staff in the attendance office would then manually enter the information into a computer system. Eliminating the need for staff members to retrieve attendance sheets from each classroom means this digital, streamlined process for attendance will save time for both staff members and students.

The new attendance system is one of several examples of how Poly has begun to use technology to improve daily activities around the school. However, this is one that will benefit both students and teachers.

Another change that will come from the new system is the way in which parents are notified of of their student’s absences. Parents will now be emailed via School Loop when their student is marked absent from class. Removing paper completely from the process makes for valuable environmental efficiencies.

Students that are marked absent from class will still be expected to fill out a readmit from the attendance office in order to excuse their absence. As in previous years, parents must provide a written note for their student to recieve a readmit. The readmits are then sorted in the attendance office. But, with LBUSD’s new form of attendance, students and parents will be more aware of when the students needs to provide a readmit.

The 2014-2015 school year is the first to use this new yet valuable system. These improvements will benefit not just Poly, but schools throughout Long Beach Unified.