# Tracking attendance

URL: https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/attendance
Tab: Scheduling & Courses
Category: School year
Updated: 2026-10-08

Record attendance by day and see totals for the year.

Attendance is automatically recorded as students use OpenSky. Each day with a completed lessons is automatically marked as Present. You can track and override these labels at any time.

Video: https://openskyvideo.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/attendance.mp4

## Recording a day

1. Open **Calendar** in the sidebar and click the student's name. The ring on it is their days present out of the year's school days.
2. Hover over a day (tap on a phone) and pick a status from the bar: **Half Day**, **Absent**, **Present**, **Sick**, **Holiday** or **Weather Day**.
3. The footer counts your unsaved changes; click **Save** to commit them or **Discard** to drop them.

![Recording attendance on the Calendar page](https://opensky-public-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/supportimages/scheduling/attendance-1.png)

**More options** opens **Update Attendance**, which adds **Late**, a **Note (optional)**, and **Remove Override** to hand the day back to automatic.

## How statuses work

- **Present**, **Half Day** and **Late** count towards attendance. A half day counts as 0.5 and a late day as present.
- **Absent** and **Sick** are school days the student missed.
- **Holiday** and **Weather Day** are excused and come off the school-day total.
- Any absence status also takes that student's lessons off the day; they move to the next teaching day.

A future day accepts only absences. A break day accepts only presence, which counts it as a school day for that student alone. Weekends and other non-teaching days cannot be marked. A past school day with lessons scheduled and nothing completed counts as absent until you mark it. An activity with **Counts towards attendance** ticked marks the day present when completed; see [Activities](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/activities).

## Catching up on a backlog

Click the three dots "..." on a day to open **Update Attendance**, and click **Mark all** marks that day and every earlier teaching day in the year as **Present**. It overwrites any statuses already on those days.

## From the checklist

A date's **⋯** menu has **Change day status** for one student or for all, and **Add** then **Add day off** records a **Sick Day**, **Weather Day** or **Absent** over a range.

## Totals and the goal

The **Overview** tab shows **Days Present** against the year's target, **Progress**, **Days Remaining** and a breakdown by status. Click the pencil beside **Days Present** to set the target, such as 180.

## Exporting a record

With a student selected, click the printer icon above the calendar. The PDF is a one-page **Attendance Record**: your school's name and contact details from [School profile](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/school-profile), the student's name, grade and school year, the totals, and a month-by-day grid using the codes P, H, L, A, S, X and W. The same record can go in a portfolio; see [Generating a portfolio](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/generating-a-portfolio).

## Need more help?

Reach out any time at [support@openskyplanner.com](mailto:support@openskyplanner.com) and we will be happy to help.