How to Notification Letters – School Data Solutions

Notification Letters

This application is called “Notification Letters”, because that’s the picture people have in their mind, regarding this topic. People think about the letters being generated, sent, signed, and returned. But the letters are a part of a broader concept that involves the fulfillment of requirements. Oftentimes letters are sent, in response to some requirement being imposed: either by law, as a requirement for some program, or by district policy.

Some letters are sent to achieve a goal beyond notification. For example, some letters are sent in an effort to change perceptions, with the goal of thereafter changing behaviors. If we can change behaviors, that is a big accomplishment. It’s even better when the changed behaviors produce changes in achievement, accomplishment, and performance. Those things are the ultimate goal.

One example where the word “Requirement” fits perfectly, pertains to the recent focus on “Chronic Absence” by the Washington State Legislature, Governor, and Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Part of this new focus involves legislation that imposes a requirement on Washington State school districts no notify parents of students who are “Chronically Absent”.

This particular notification requirement highlights a number of complications. “Chronic Absence” is defined in state law as a student being absent 18 or more days of school in a single school year. If our intention was nothing more than strict compliance, we would limit our focus to only those students who have missed 18 or more days of school. However, many districts intend to preemptively notify parents and students when a students absences seem inclined to result in them reaching the threshold of 18 or more at some point during the school year.

Preemptive notification moves us beyond the “letter of the law” to the “spirit of the law”. The purpose of notification is to modify behavior, and reduce absences. The act of preemptively notifying parents, is designed to avoid the student reaching the condition of being Chronically Absent. This means that districts seem likely to want to utilize absence thresholds beyond the simple “18 or more”. And these alternate thresholds are subjective, and likely to differ between districts.

A district may end up notifying a large number of students who reach the end of the year with less than 18 absences, and therefore technically did not require notification. Therefore, we will need an additional set of logic to identify those students who did legally require notification, along with a determination of whether or not they were notified.

Steps for Setup

1. Add Report Categories into Database

2. Add Report Definitions into Database

Chronic Absence Explanation Report

Chronic Absence - Elementary Report

Chronic Absence - Middle Report

Chronic Absence - High Report

Chronic Absence Student Details Report

Chronic Absence Communications Report

10% Absence Notification Letter

5/10 Unexcused Notification Letter

4+ Months 10% Absence Notification Letter

2 Unexcused Absence Notification Letter

Excellent Attendance Notification Letter

Absence Improvement Notification Letter

3. Add StudentNotificationRequirementStatusSelections

4. Add StudentNotificationFulfillmentAttemptStatuses

5. Configure Risk Indicator(s)

10% Absence Last 30 Days
10% Absent Year
10 Unexcused Year
2 Unexcused Last 30 Days
5 Unexcused Last 30 Days
5 Absences Last 30 Days
10 Absences Year

6. Configure the Notification Requirement

Click: Create New Notification Letter

In the actions button, Click: “Create New Requirement"

On the Details Tab;

Notification requirements may have a number of rules or regulations involved. And there might be

content available on the Internet that can be linked to. The details screen provides a place to display this

information, along with access to external resources.

Name: Chronic Absence

Description: Used to Describe this NL

Student Detail Report Definition: “Chronic Absence Student Details Report”

District Compliance Report Definition: “Chronic Absence CommunicationsReport"

On the HTML Tab;

Configure the HTML text that is displayed to the user upon the navigation to the Notification Letter.

On the Risk Indicators Tab;

Select all of the Risk Indicators being used as triggers to identify students.

For Chronic Absence, we want to select these indicators:

10% Absence Last 30 Days
10% Absent Year
10 Unexcused Year
2 Unexcused Last 30 Day
5 Unexcused Last 30 Days
5 Absences Last 30 Days
10 Absences Year

On the Report Definitions Tab;

Select all of the Reports being used as letters to send to parents.

For Chronic Absence, we want to select these Reports:

10% Absence Last 30 Days
10% Absent Year
10 Unexcused Year
2 Unexcused Last 30 Day
5 Unexcused Last 30 Days
5 Absences Last 30 Days
10 Absences Year

7. Configure the Notification Letter

Click: Create New Notification Letter

Click: Build Notification Letter

On the Details Tab;

Select all of the Risk Indicators being used as triggers to identify students.

For Chronic Absence, we want to select these indicators:

10% Absence Last 30 Days
10% Absent Year
10 Unexcused Year

On the Student Groups Tab;

The notification requirement applies to all students who match some qualifying condition. In the case of

Chronic Absence, a notification is required for all students who currently have an absence rate of 10% or

higher. District-wide, that can be a lot of students. Therefore, the user can select one or more student

groups to limit the list of students they will be accounting for, with this notification. It is assumed that

other educators will be accounting for the rest of the student population.

For any given user, only students within the selected student-groups will appear as needing notification

letters. This is a mechanism for limiting the domain of students to a manageable number.

For Chronic Absence, you want to select the student group in which you are responsible for. If that's an entire district of students, students in a specific grade or students in a specific school, you would select those following students for a manageable amount.

On the Risk Details Tab;

Select all of the Risk Indicators being used as triggers to identify students.

For Chronic Absence, we want to select these indicators:

On the Deliveries Tab;

When the user first engages the Deliveries tab, they see a list of all currently enrolled students, from within the selected student groups, who meet any of the defined notification reasons.

Student Status;

Within the student name column, we see the student status. Each student is either in a state of Notification

Required, Notification no longer Required, or Notification Fulfilled. Since this is our first time opening the

screen, only students who require a notification appear, and no notifications have been sent. As time

passes, and students attendance improves, some students will transition to a state of Notification no longer

Required. But they will stay on the list to allow the user to see prior notification deliveries or attempts.

Once a notification has been signed and returned for a student, that student will appear on the list with a

status of Notification Fulfilled.

8. Activate your Guardian Accounts

Click Administration —> Activate Guardian Account

Steps on the Activate Guardian Tool:

Step 1. Search for a Guardian by using the Search Box

Step 2. Click: Select Guardian

Step 3. Configuring the Guardian Username and Password

Step 4. Click: Activate Guardian Account

Step 5. Finally, send the Guardian their Password reset email.

9. Send Notification Letters to Parents

When we wish to deliver notifications, we can do so either manually -- by printing and mailing paper

documents -- or electronically, be sending emails with links to secured electronic documents. We start

either of those processes using the button at the top right of the notification screen.

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