Approving or rejecting absence requests made in the Parent Portal or Arbor App

This article explains how guardians can record same-day absences through the Parent Portal or Arbor App, and details the process for enabling this feature, as well as how to approve or reject absence requests. It includes information on permissions needed and how to manage absence requests effectively.

It is now possible to allow guardians to record same-day absences in the Parent Portal or the Arbor App for schools on our Comms package. Guardians can only record absences on the day, and cannot request absences for any past or future dates via the Portal. For guardians wanting to use this function, see this article.

Permissions

To use this feature, you will need the Student Profile: Attendance: View All Students permission.

Enabling Parent Portal absence requests

To enable or disable the ability for guardians to submit absences via the Portal or App, go to Students > Parents & Guardians > Parent Portal Settings. By default, this feature is switched off.

Click on the Absences option to enable or disable this feature.

Approving or rejecting absence requests

Absence requests will be displayed in Students > Attendance > Absentees > Planned Absences in the Pending Absence Records tab. 

Here, you will see a table showing the absence requests. By default, the table displays the oldest absence requests at the top, but you can click the column headers in the table to adjust the order.

Click anywhere on the row to review the absence request. You can also use the Bulk Action button to accept or reject requests in bulk. If you click accept without changes, then the note provided by the guardian will remain unchanged, and the requested mark (e.g. I for ill students) will be applied to the student's profile.

If you click Accept with changes, then you will be able to manually input any mark that you want, and you can choose whether to override the guardian's absence note, or add an additional note. You can also pin the absence to the top of the student's profile, which will remain there until the end of the absence.

When you have clicked on an absence request, you will see information about the student and the request. You can then update their attendance mark and add notes and accept or reject the request.

Approved requests will appear in the Planned Absences tab in the Planned Absences page, and rejected requests will be deleted and will not appear in the Planned Absences page or the student profile.