Create Course Marks Type Letter

Tool Search: Attendance Letters

Attendance letters using the Course Marks Letter Type looks for the existence of an attendance event in a course/section for the student. This option can be used for skinnied courses and for courses scheduled over multiple period schedules.

 Verify the correct School and Calendar is selected in the Campus toolbar.

Refer to the Attendance Letter Workflow when creating a letter.

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Step
1.Create an Attendance Letter.
Letter Criteria Screen
2.Name the attendance letter.
3.

Select the letter type, and determine if student can requalify for the letter.

Learn about the different letter types.

Learn about Letter Requalification.

4.Select the type of attendance (status/excuse or attendance codes).
5.Enter the status/excuse values or the attendance codes that trigger a letter.
6.

Enter a Weight value for each of the entered values or codes.

Learn about Weight values.

7.

Enter the number of events the student must have to receive a letter.

Learn about qualification criteria.

8.

Select the appropriate interval for the letter.

Learn about intervals.

9.

Select which Teachers and Sections to include in the letter.

11.If available, select which Sections to exclude from the letter (non-attendance taking courses, etc.).
Letter Format Screen
12.Write the letter in the designated Default Language.
13.

Write the same letter in additional languages that can be sent to parent/guardians who prefer to receive communications in that language.

Learn how to add preferred languages and create letters in another language.

Generate and Print Letters
14.Select the letter to generate from the Saved Letters list.
15.

If desired, select a previously-saved Ad hoc Filter that includes the students who should be receiving the letter.

Determine which operation to use when generating letters with an ad hoc filter.

16.Preview and Print letters.
17.Review the list of students that met the criteria of the letter, and remove their selection as needed.
18.Preview the letters prior to sending.
19.Print the letters.

Other Letter Types are available for selection. See the following table for a description of each letter type:

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Letter TypesDescriptionWhen to Use
Period Marks

This option looks only at the existence of an attendance event in a period for the student and provides a total number of periods in which a student has an attendance event. Attendance taken in the selected courses are not be used by the trigger calculation.


Choose this letter type to list the total number of periods in which there is an attendance event.

Use the By Course/Term Interval to include the total number of periods in which there is an attendance event for a specific course (requires courses to be selected in the editor). 

This is best for Block Schedules and for Modified Block Schedules.

Course Marks

This option looks at the existence of an attendance event in a course/section for the student. This option can be used for skinnied courses and for courses scheduled over multiple period schedules.

Choose this letter type to list the total number of a particular course is missed.

Use the By Term interval to include the total number of courses in which there is an attendance event for that term.

Whole/Half Day Absences

This option uses student attendance minutes that meet the entered weight to generate a letter. Whole Day and Half Day minute values are entered on the Calendar tab.


If a student is absent for the entire day, a count of 1 is included in the letter; if a student is absent for less than the entire day, a count of .5 is included in the letter.

Choose this letter type to list attendance events by the whole or half day.

Early Release events may alter the the totals for this letter.

This type is best for elementary schedules that use an AM/PM period setup.

Exact Day Absences

This option uses student attendance minutes that meet the entered weight to generate a letter, using the entered Student Day minute values on the Calendar tab.


If a student is absent for the entire day, a count of 1 is included in the letter.

Choose this letter type to list attendance events for the day.

This type is best for schools that only report attendance for a specific period, or only have one period in their schedule.

Single Day Count

This option looks for any student attendance record matching the selected status/excuse combination either by Year or by Term. If a student has one or more periods with an attendance entry, the day counts towards the total number of qualifying events for a letter.

Choose this letter type to list attendance events for the selected day.

This letter type includes attendance events with an excuse of unknown.

Absenteeism Level

This option uses the Attendance Aggregation Preference summary view options to determined whether a student is considered chronically absent.


When selected, an Absenteeism Mode field also needs to be selected. Choose from one of the four aggregation types - Federal, Exact, Exact Minute and Approximate. For more information on these modes, see the Attendance Aggregation Preferences article.

Choose this letter type to list a student's percentage of being absent. It does not rely on weights or intervals.

Enter Letter Criteria

 Selecting letter criteria is referenced in Steps 2-11 of the Attendance Letter Workflow.
  1. Select the New button. A criteria entry screen appears.
  2. Enter a Name for the letter.
  3. Determine if students can requalify for the letter. If yes, mark the Allow Letter Requalification checkbox. 
  4. Select Course Marks from the Type dropdown list.
  5. Choose the desired Attendance Type from the dropdown list.
    • For Attendance Code type, select an Attendance Code from the dropdown list and enter a Weight value. To add more attendance codes and corresponding weights, click the Add Attendance Code button.
    • For Status/Excuse type, select a Status and Excuse value from each dropdown list and enter a Weight value.
  6. Enter the total Qualification Criteria for Letter value in the provided text box.
  7. Choose the Interval to determine which attendance days will be counted. See the Intervals section for an explanation of each option.  
  8. If the letter should be made available for use at multiple schools in the district, and your chosen interval is by Term or by Course/Term, expand the Select terms for additional calendars option, and select the desired terms for each desired school. 
  9. If the letter interval is by Term or by Course/Term, and it should be made available for use at multiple schools in the district, and your chosen interval is by Term or by Course/Term, expand the Select terms for additional calendars option, and select the desired terms for each desired school.
  10. If the letter should be run for a particular group of Teachers and Sections, select the relevant groups. When a specific teacher is selected, the list of sections are only those for which the selected teacher is the primary teacher. Or, leave the Teacher selection at All Teachers and All Sections, which lists every possible teacher and section. If a student has multiple sections of the same course during the reporting interval, all sections will be counted as one.
  11. For Status/Excuse attendance type letters, indicate if any course Sections should be excluded from calculation.
  12. Indicate where the letter should be Organized to.
  13. Click the Save button to save the letter. Click the Save and Continue button to enter the body of the letter. Both of these options do save the entered criteria.
  14. Continue to the Write the Body of the Letter procedures.

The first example below is using Attendance Codes as the Attendance Type; the second example is using Status/Excuse as the Attendance Type.

Screenshot of Course Marks Attendance Code Letter Editor Options.

Course Marks Attendance Code Letter Editor Options

Screenshot of Course Marks Status/Excuse Letter Editor Options.

Course Marks Status/Excuse Letter Editor Options

Write the Body of the Letter

 Writing a letter is referenced in Steps 12-13 of the Attendance Letter Workflow.

See the Letter Format article for detailed information about entering the text of the attendance letter, including how to create letters in multiple languages.

  1. Enter the text of the letter using the editor.
    1. To insert a data element from Campus (such as guardian name or other data) to complete a mail merge, select the Campus Field icon at the top right of the editor. NOTE: When including guardian names, choose the mailingAddress.guardianXXX options from the Campus Fields (within Student > Census > Mailing Addresses section).
    2. To insert a pre-formatted table of information (such as an attendance summary), select the Campus Sub-Report icon at the top right of the editor.
  2. When finished, click Save Format. A letter may be saved to a user account (by having user account selected in the organized to) or shared with a user group. When the letter is saved, it will be available for future selection from the main page of the Attendance Letter Wizard.
For additional information about using Campus Fields and Sub-Reports see the Campus Field and Sub-Report Options section. To create letters in another language, see the Preferred Language Setup section.

This example uses the Campus Fields for the student's first and last name, and the Course Mark Summary Campus Subreport.

Screenshot of Course Mark Summary Letter Format Editor.

Course Mark Summary Letter Format Editor

This example uses the Attendance Letter Criteria Campus Fields to show the dates and courses that were considered for a letter using the by Course/Term Interval.

Screenshot of Course Mark Summary Letter Format with Campus Fields.

Course Mark Summary Letter Format with Campus Fields

Notice the Preview list of students includes a Course Number column and a Qualified column, indicate the course and date for which the student qualified for the letter. Also notice the same student is listed multiple times, for each absent for a course in which the student qualifies for a letter.

Screenshot of Letter Showing Qualified Date, Qualifying Courses.

Letter Showing Qualified Date, Qualifying Courses

When using the Campus Fields for Qualified Date and Qualified Course, and a student qualifies to receive a letter due to absences in many courses (interval is either Course or Course/Term), the MOST RECENT qualification date among the qualifying courses and periods prints on the letter. Note that Course Numbers and Course Names are listed in a comma separated string if the student qualifies for multiple courses; if the student qualifies for only one course the Course Number and Course Name are spliced together.

If a student qualifies in multiple courses for a letter on 08/01, 08/10, 08/15, the qualified date in the letter is 08/15.

Generate and Print Letters

 Generating and Printing Letters is referenced in Steps 14-19 of the Attendance Letter Workflow.

Without an Ad hoc Filter

  1. Select the letter to generate from the Saved Letters list.
  2. Click the Print and Preview Letters button. A list of students who met the criteria of the letter are listed.
  3. Review the list of students that met the criteria of the letter, and remove their selection as needed.
  4. Click the Preview button to review the letter format prior to printing.
  5. If satisfied with the format, click the Print Letters button, and select how to sort the letters and choose to record a PLP Contact record.

With an Ad hoc Filter

  1. Select the letter to generate from the Saved Letters list.
  2. Select the desired Ad hoc Filter.
  3. Click the Print and Preview Letters button. A list of students who met the criteria of the letter and the criteria of the Ad hoc Filter are listed. 
  4. Review the list of students that met the criteria of the letter, and remove their selection as needed.
  5. Click the Preview button to review the letter format prior to printing.
  6. If satisfied with the format, click the Print Letters button, and select how to sort the letters and choose to record a PLP Contact record.

Screenshot of Course Marks Letter Print.

Course Marks Letter Print