By Daniela Coe-McNamara
Staff Writer
Throughout the year, Mira Costa has used various check-in systems for Office Hours, including sign-in sheets and quick read codes, to ensure students were in attendance during this time. The administration has now finally created a space in PowerSchool for Office Hours attendance, rightfully making students accountable for their attendance during these periods.
With the incorporation of Office Hours periods in PowerSchool, it now shows parents, students and administrators student attendance as unexcused or truant, in the case that students fail to check-in to a pre-approved locations for either of the hours: a classroom, the library, the auditorium etc.
Students scan into these codes with either a QR code reading app or Snapchat, another photo-taking application. They must then enter their student identification number, found on their ID card, and the check-in code available at the respective location.
The creation of PowerSchool attendance slots shows the new standard of accountability concerning attendance during these periods. This accountability has positive effects as it is slowly morphing Office Hours into a legitimate period, growing from when the administration originally implemented the schedule at the beginning of the year.
At the start of the year, there were written sign-in sheets in each Office Hours location for attendance, allowing students to sign in and out a little too freely, said Vice Principal Kristin Wolberg. Eventually, the administration placed QR codes around the school for students to check into at administration-approved locations, but according to a La Vista poll of 85 students, 66% of respondents indicated they didn’t check-in because they don’t care.
It’s clear that this caused a downfall of the slow implementation of Office Hours that the administration did not plan for in the first few months of the program.
For this reason, PowerSchool now has spaces where the absences will appear if students fail to check in. Unexcused absences during Office Hours will result in the same call home that parents receive when their child misses any other class. The legitimacy of creating absences in PowerSchool is intended to show students the academic purpose behind these new periods, said Wolberg.
Through using PowerSchool as a tool for the administration to hold students more accountable for their absences, attendance can be reported in the most efficient and organized manner possible.
However, the administration has attempted to make the introduction of Office Hours go smoothly, the lack of information provided regarding attendance during these periods is one of the biggest downfalls in the program.
According to the survey, 74 percent of students do not believe that the QR system is effective. Although the administration implemented this system to make Office Hours more organized, its lack of instruction has made it a confusing and ineffective process for students and staff.
Holding students accountable in a visible way puts more pressure on students to find a way to check-in, at the same time indirectly forcing them to make use of this time.
The Costa faculty and staff is taking a step in the right direction by holding students accountable for their attendance.
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