For: District Admins, School Admins
Platform: Web
The Attendance Dashboard helps you identify students who reach specific attendance thresholds and easily send targeted messages to their families.
✋ What You Need First
✅ Your school must use TalkingPoints Connector (TPC) and have purchased the Attendance Improvement Plus package
✅ You must have permission to view school-wide attendance
Sending attendance messages and downloading lists require further permissions
🖥️ Web-only access (not available on mobile)
🧱 What You Can Do with the Dashboard
With the Attendance Dashboard, you can:
📈 View attendance data pulled from your SIS
🎯 Filter by absence type, count, or date range
💬 Message families of students
🧠 Spot patterns and support timely interventions
📥 Download CSV reports of attendance data
🃏 Pre-Defined Attendance View Cards
At the top of the Attendance Dashboard tab, you’ll see five pre-defined attendance cards. These show specific attendance thresholds you can track. Clicking a card will update the table below to show you all of the students who are at that threshold, and then you can easily message their families, or download a list.
Each card includes:
A name (ex: “Unexcused absences today”)
A metric (percent of all students in this group)
A student count (number of students currently in the group)
🔹 Pre-defined card details:
📌 All absences today – All students marked absent today
📌 Unexcused absences today – Students absent with “Unexcused” status
📌 Unexcused absences without a reason today – Students marked unexcused with no reason reported
3 absences in last 7 days – Students with 3 absences in the past 7 calendar days
0% absence rate (perfect attendance) – Students with zero absences since July 1
🖱 Clicking a card will filter the table below to show only students in that group.
📌 These cards cannot be edited or removed.
🛠️ Custom Attendance View Cards
If there are specific thresholds your school tracks, you can create your own custom attendance views, including:
Absence rate
Absence type (all, excused, unexcused)
Date range
🔄 Details about custom cards:
Schools can add up to 9 custom cards
ℹ️ Custom cards are shared across all personnel who have permission to view the Attendance page
Custom cards can be edited or deleted
📋 Student Attendance Table
The Student Attendance table displays your active roster as of today. Students who have left the school won’t appear.
By default, it shows all students. Clicking an attendance view card will filter the list.
Table columns:
Column | Description |
Student | Full name |
Total Absences | # of days absent this school year |
Total Unexcused | # of unexcused absences this school year |
Today’s Status | Excused, Unexcused, or — (no absence data reported) |
Reason | Absence reason from SIS (or — if N/A or no reason has been provided) |
Absence Rate | % of days missed (based on school calendar) |
Last Absence | Most recent date the student was marked absent |
🗂️ Sortable columns:
Student (A→Z, Z→A)
Total Absences (High→Low, Low→High)
Total Unexcused (High→Low, Low→High)
Reason (A→Z, Z→A)
Last Absence (Most recent→Oldest, and reverse)
🧭 The table is paginated, so you can flip through pages to find additional students.
✅ Use checkboxes on the left to select or deselect students. Once 1+ students are selected, you can send a message or download list (if you have permission).
💬 Send a Targeted Message
If you have messaging permissions, the Send a Message button will always be visible.
To send:
Click on a card to filter the list
Students in that view are auto-selected (edit if needed)
Click Send a Message
Write your message
If applicable, select who you would like the message to come from, then send
📌 If no students are selected, you'll see an error
🧾 Note: When sending a targeted message, you cannot update the recipient list from the compose modal. If you'd like to add or remove recipients, you need to do so from the student list on the Attendance Dashboard.
📁 Download a List
If you have permission to download student lists, the Download List button is always visible.
To download:
Select a group (via card or checkbox)
Click Download List
Get a CSV file with student and attendance data
⚠️ Trying to download with no students selected? You’ll see a reminder to select students first.