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    Electronic Signatures
    • 12 Oct 2020
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    Electronic Signatures

    • Updated on 12 Oct 2020
    • 2 Minutes to read
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    Article Summary

    For the 2020–21 school year only, CDE has determined that districts and county offices can implement the use of electronic signature for weekly attendance reports, daily participation, and weekly engagement records, even if the district or county office of education does not have prior approval of their attendance accounting system using manual signatures, as long as the following is in place: 


    1. The electronic system has a procedure to track and verify that initial attendance is entered within two weeks from the calendar day of the school day for which the attendance is a record thereof. This flexibility would be for the purpose of distance learning attendance tracking only. Attendance for in-class instruction should still be entered on the calendar day of the school day of record. Under certain circumstances, such as wide-spread power outages, system interruptions, or for students participating in distance learning, teachers are allowed to electronically submit and certify attendance on a subsequent day or week, retaining paper documentation on which attendance was recorded contemporaneously;


    SchoolWise has an audit log for when attendance is entered and altered. The attendance policy is established by the district and they determine when attendance is first entered and when records are locked. We do not enforce attendance policy, nor do we lock records automatically (except after 30 days on SchoolWise Web). The district is responsible for the implementation of their policy and determining when to lock their records. 
     

    2. The electronic system includes a report that lists the dates of data entry and modifications, and the employee identification of the person or persons logging the attendance information into the system;

    3. The report described in #2 above is readily accessible to teachers and administrators for their review;


    The SchoolWise Web report 'Absent Log (Attendance Audit)' (Attendance category) displays a log of attendance entries and modifications. It includes the location IP and name of the user when attendance is entered and/or changed online.  Please note that the attendance reason from the web initial entry is only populated from 9/25/2020 on.



    The SchoolWise Desktop report 'Absent Log (Attendance Audit) Date Range' (Attendance category) also displays a log of initial entry and changes. Please note that any changes pulled from the Web database are listed as 'Server2 - SyncAgent'. If you have access to SchoolWise Web, we recommend using the online report instead because it displays the location IP and name of the user who entered the initial attendance.




    Teachers can view the attendance change log for any of their students on SchoolWise Web.



    4. If the electronic system relies on passwords, there must be adequate safeguards to ensure that such passwords are accessible only to the employee for whom the password is created; 


    Districts can select 'Require Strong Teacher Passwords' from the District Configuration Options. Passwords will need to be at least 8 characters long with a mix of upper and lower case and at least one number and special character. As for safeguarding those passwords, it is the responsibility of the staff to adhere to their District's password policy. 


    5. For the 2020–21 school year only, districts and county offices must receive a letter from their independent auditor, indicating that the attendance accounting system has been reviewed by the auditor and that the system’s level of integrity is acceptable to the auditor. This letter would not need to be submitted to CDE.

    Districts are responsible for performing this step. If not done, then Weekly Engagement reports must be printed and manually signed by teachers. 

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