Attendance Validations

If the import tool does not recognize a student contained in one of the records, validate the student. The validation tool displays the records that need your attention. There are two option when validating student records: match to an existing student record or create a new student record. Each row is highlighted in green, yellow, or white.

Student record with green background:

• A student record with a green background indicates that the validation tool doesn’t recognize the student, but has found an existing record that appears to match the incoming record. If the incoming student record matches the selected existing student record, check the Match checkbox. Otherwise, create a new student record by checking the New checkbox.  Once all changes are completed, select Save.

Student record with yellow background:

• A student record with a yellow background indicates that the validation tool doesn’t recognize the student, but has found an existing student record that is a potential match. Review the potential match and determine whether or not the existing student record matches the incoming record or if a new student record should be added to eduCLIMBER.  Use the same process explained above; if the student record is a match, select the Match checkbox but if the student record should be new, select the New checkbox.

Student record with white background:

• A student record with a white background indicates that the validation tool couldn’t find a student with the exact name listed in the import file. This doesn’t mean that the student doesn’t exist, it just means that the validation tool could not find a match for the student.  In these circumstance, the following steps will help verify if it is an existing student or a new student record.

1. Check to see if the student exists in eduCLIMBER by clicking the View Matched icon and searching for the student.
2. Search by name of ID number to see if the student exists. If you find a match, you can click the Use Student button. If you cannot find a match for the student, you can exit out of the student search screen and create a new student

If the validation tool doesn’t recognize a school in the upload file, indicate how to handle the school. There are four options for validating schools: create, alias, exclude, and ignore.

Create the school

• This will add a new school in eduCLIMBER.

Set an Alias for the school

• Alias allows you to match the school named in the upload file to an existing school in eduCLIMBER. For example, you might have an elementary named Climberville Elementary but the assessment file lists the school as eduCLIMBER Elementary. You can create an alias so that any time eduCLIMBER sees eduCLIMBER Elementary it is automatically associated with Climberville Elementary.

Exclude the school

• Exclude allows you to completely ignore the record and all associated data. The data associated with the school record will not be imported into eduCLIMBER.

Ignore the school

• Ignore allows you to ignore the building that the student is in but still import all assessment data. The assessment data will be tied to the student and and buildings they may be rostered to through other data imports.

If the validation tool does not recognize an attendance status code in the upload file, validate the attendance status code. Status for eduCLIMBER is used to determine whether the student was absent or tardy. 

Add an alias

• Add an alias to an attendance status code so that eduCLIMBER knows what the code means. For example, you might alias T to Tardy and A to Absent.

Create a new status

• Attendance statuses are rarely created through the validation tool. In most cases, attendance statuses should be added through the Configuration page. You do have the option to add a new status here though.

If the validation tool does not recognize an attendance excused code in the upload file, you will have to validate the attendance excused code. Excused determines whether a student is Excused or Unexcused.

Add an alias

• You will add an alias to an attendance excused code so that eduCLIMBER knows what the code means. For example, you might alias E to Excused and U to Unexcused.

Create new status

• Attendance excused statuses are rarely created through the validation tool. In most cases, attendance statuses should be added through the Configuration page.

If the validation tool does not recognize an attendance reason in the upload file, you will have to validate the attendance reason. 

Create new reason

• Attendance reasons are almost always created as new.

Add an alias

• Attendance reasons are rarely aliased. The only time you would alias an attendance reason is if you wanted the incoming reason to be displayed differently in eduCLIMBER. For example, if you have an Attendance reason named Tardy-Excused and you just want it to display as Tardy you could create an alias.

To learn more about data validations, visit the Validating Data manual.