Issuing and Waiving Attendance Fines

The Attendance Fines feature in Arbor allows schools to efficiently manage and track fines related to unauthorised student absences. This guide outlines how to use the Attendance Fines page.

This guide is a part of a series of three. The guides in this series are:

• Attendance Fine Features
• Issuing and Waiving Attendance Fines
• Reporting on Attendance Fines

Navigating the page

To access the Attendance Fines page, head to Students > Attendance > Absentees > Attendance Fines.

On this page, you see a table that shows:

• Which Student has been flagged and which Year Group and Registration Form their in
• What Absence Period a (potential) fine applies to
• What Status the fine has - Pending, Issued or Waived
• What Date a decision was made about the fine
• Any Notes that are logged with a decision

Clicking on a student's name in the table opens a slide over with further information on the absence, including the absences that are linked to the potential fine.

To filter the table, click the green Change button in the top right corner. You can filter by:

• The Academic Year absence periods occurred in - use the top dropdown to do this.
• The groups or individuals you want to show in the table - use the Students dropdown to do this.

Ticking the boxes next to student names gives you access to a green Bulk Action button (above the table, to the left). Bulk actions you can take include:

• Issuing/waiving fines
• Follow-up actions, like adding students to Custom Groups or adding them to Interventions
• Sending communications to Students and Guardians

Logging decisions

Issuing and waiving fines individually

To make a decision on a fine on the  Students > Attendance > Absentees > Attendance Fines page for an individual student, follow these steps: 

• Find your Student in the table
• Click on their name
• Check the absence details on the slideover
• Click the orange Edit button in the top right corner
• In the boxes:
  • Use the Status dropdown to select whether you want to Waive or Issue the Fine. This field is required.
  • Set a Decision Date using the relevant box to mark when the fine was issued or waived. You can backdate this, but you cannot set a future date.  This field is required.
  • Use the Notes box to add any comments or explanations you want to add to the fine record
• Click the green Save button to confirm your decision 

If you encounter a validation error indicating that a student's fine limit has been reached, you must set the Status to Waived to save changes. A student can only receive 2 fines in a 3-year period. For more information, see the Fines Statuses section in our Attendance Fines Features guide.

Issuing and waiving fines in bulk

With the table's bulk action, you can update multiple absence periods with the same Status, Date, and Note at once. If your fines differ in any of these areas, you'll need to repeat the actions for each case or edit the decisions after logging them in bulk. Using these steps on a fine with an existing Status, Date and Note will override the fine's details.

To decide on multiple fines in one go on the  Students > Attendance > Absentees > Attendance Fines page, follow these steps:

• Tick the boxes next to the students and absence periods you want to log a decision for
• Click the green Bulk Action button
• Select Bulk Issue/Waive Attendance Fines
• On the slide over:
  • Use the Status dropdown to select whether you want to Waive or Issue the Fine. This field is required.
  • Set a Decision Date using the relevant box to mark when the fine was issued or waived. You can backdate this, but you cannot set a future date.  This field is required.
  • Use the Notes box to add any comments or explanations you want to add to the fine record
• Confirm your choices using the green Save button.

Editing decisions 

To edit a decision, such as adding a note or changing a date or status, follow these steps:

• Click the student's name in the row of the fine you want to edit (ensure you select the correct absence period).
• In the slideover, click the orange Edit button.
• Make your changes, ensuring a decision and date are still logged, as these are required.
• Click the green Save button to confirm your changes.

Cancelling decisions 

There is no Bulk Action to cancel decisions. To completely cancel a decision and move a fine's status back to Pending, follow the steps below:

• Click the student's name in the row of the fine you want to cancel the decision for (ensure you select the correct absence period).
• In the slideover, click the red Cancel Decision button in the bottom right corner- you may need to scroll down slightly to see the button.
• On the pop-up, confirm the cancellation by clicking Cancel Decision

The next guide in this series is: Reporting on Attendance Fines