The Staff Portal provides a secure place for your staff to manage their classes and take student attendance. Follow these simple steps to launch the Staff Portal, view your classes, take class attendance, and confirm attendance has been completed.
Use the button below to expand or collapse all sections, or select a heading to view one section at a time.
Step 1 - Access and Log in to the Staff Portal
The Staff Portal can be accessed and opened from multiple access points:
- Log in from within Jackrabbit
- Log in for multi-locations within Jackrabbit
- Log in remotely with a link
- Log in remotely from a mobile device
Step 2 - Navigate to the Manage Activities Tab
Once logged in to the Staff Portal, go to the Manage Activities tab to view your classes. As a default, the current day's classes are displayed. Use the Activities Filters to display different activities as needed.
Set the Attendance Status Filter to Not Completed to quickly locate the classes that need to have attendance completed.
Step 3 - Use the Attendance Button
Click the Attendance button next to a class to open the Attendance page. If the class displays a green Checklist icon on the main page, attendance has already been completed.
If your Staff Portal Settings allow for partial attendance, an orange Checklist icon indicates that class attendance has been started but not completed.
Use the Show Empty Classes toggle to display or hide empty classes on the Manage Activities page.
Step 4 - Take Attendance
Select either Present or Absent for each student. Use the All Present or All Absent buttons to quickly complete attendance for a full or empty class. Click the Undo button to revert any changes made since the last save. Use Return to return to the Manage Classes main page.
Mark a Student Present
For students who are marked present, you can add attendance details noting whether the student was late for class, left early, or was just observing class that day.
Use the arrow next to the Present button to drop down the attendance detail options; select all that apply. A badge will display under the Present button for each option. These attendance details can be displayed on the Student Attendance Report.
Mark a Student Absent
For students marked absent, you can add the absence for today (the current date) or schedule it for a future date.
If your Jackrabbit account is set to track absences and you allow makeups, a Can Makeup? checkbox will appear next to each student marked absent on the current day. Select this checkbox to indicate the student is eligible to attend a makeup class. When an absence is scheduled in the future, eligibility for a makeup is determined at that time. You can also add an absence note, regardless of makeup eligibility, which will appear on the student’s Absences tab and can be used to explain the absence or why a makeup is not allowed.
The staff person taking attendance must have Allow this staff person to mark absent students eligible for a make-up class? set to Yes on the Portal Settings tab of their Staff record.
Schedule a Future Absence
Staff can schedule a student's absence in advance. Select Schedule Future Absences, choose the date range for the absence, optionally enter a reason, and select the Is Eligible for Makeup? checkbox if the student is eligible to make up the missed class. Click Next Step to complete the process. Note: You cannot schedule a future absence on a date when the facility is closed.
Partial Attendance
If the Can staff save partial attendance? setting is enabled (Staff > Staff Portal > Portal Settings > Attendance Options), you can save your progress at any time and return later to complete it. This is especially useful when taking attendance as students arrive while managing other classes at the same time. Classes with saved but incomplete attendance are marked with an orange Checklist icon to indicate partial attendance.
If partial attendance is not allowed, you must mark every student as either present or absent before you can save attendance for the class. A warning will appear if any students are left unmarked, and attendance cannot be saved. Unmarked students will be highlighted to help you complete the process.
Step 5 - Confirm Attendance is Complete
Return to the main Attendance page to locate classes with no Checklist icon or an orange Checklist icon. Select the Attendance button to complete marking the students present or absent, and Save.
A staff person who is allowed to enter attendance and is set to the Time Entry Method of either Clock In/Out or Manual In/Out (Staff record > Portal Settings tab) will receive a warning if they attempt to clock out when they still have classes that need to have attendance completed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. If a staff member has not completed taking attendance in the Staff Portal, what should I do?
A. The best bet is to catch this early! The Executive Dashboard displays an alert for the previous day's classes that did not have complete attendance taken in the Staff Portal. Keep an eye on this alert daily to stay on top of Staff Portal Attendance.
Use the link in the alert to take you to the details of which classes were not completed for the previous day. You can enter a different date in the search field of the Date column to view another single day, or you can generate the report for a range of dates from the Staff menu > Staff Portal > Staff Portal Reports > Incomplete Portal Attendance.
The attendance must be completed in the Staff Portal for a class to be removed from the Incomplete Portal Attendance report for any date.
Use the Portal Msg link next to the class to create a Staff Portal login message that the instructor of that class will see when they next log into their portal, reminding them to complete attendance for the class. If you are set up for text messaging in Jackrabbit, you will see a link to send a text to the instructor.
If the attendance needs to be completed right away, you have the option of logging in to the Staff Portal and completing the attendance for the class yourself (You must have a login ID that is permitted to manage other instructors' classes. See Attendance Settings). You could then use the Portal Msg link/Text Msg link to let the instructor know that you have completed attendance for them.
Q. Will a makeup student appear in the Staff Portal so the instructor knows they will be in class?
A. Yes! Makeup students are included in the roster on the Attendance page and are highlighted as being in class for a makeup. Attendance can also be taken for makeup students. Note: absences for makeups are automatically marked eligible for makeup.
Q. If I know all my students will be attending classes tomorrow or the next day, will I be able to mark them as being present?
A. No. You are limited to marking students as present or absent on the same day as the class.
Taking attendance for Events is not included in the Staff Portal; we recommend you use the Event Sign In/Out Sheets to create an attendance record for an event.
