Attendance Documentation for Census
For college-credit courses, on-campus faculty are required to take attendance through the course Census Day to identify non-attending students. Financial assistance may be reduced, denied or canceled, and students may owe repayment if they fail to attend one or more classes between the first day and Census Day.
The U.S. Department of Education provides the following definition of attendance for financial aid purposes: Attendance must be "academic attendance" or "attendance at an academically-related activity".
Moreover, the school (not the student) must document:
- That the activity is academic or academically related, and
- The student’s attendance at the activity.
Academically-related activities include, but are not limited to:
- Physically attending a class where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and students;
- Submitting an academic assignment;
- Taking an exam, completing an interactive tutorial, or participating in computer- assisted instruction;
- Attending a study group that is assigned by the school;
- Participating in an online discussion about academic matters; and
- Initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course.
Examples of acceptable evidence of academic attendance and attendance at an academically-related activity in a distance education course/program include:
- Student submission of an academic assignment;
- Student submission of an exam;
- Documented student participation in an interactive tutorial or computer-assisted instruction;
- A posting by the student showing the student’s participation in an online study group that is assigned by the institution;
- A posting by the student in a discussion forum showing the student’s participation in an online discussion about academic matters; and
- An e-mail from the student or other documentation showing that the student- initiated contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course.
Faculty should submit a list of students who never began attending their courses (i.e., No Shows) to Records@tsc.edu.
Although faculty are NOT required to record student attendance after Census Day, it is highly recommended for college credit courses.
Faculty employed full time by an independent school district are only required to keep official attendance records if required by the independent school district.
For non-credit courses offered as Continuing Education courses, all instructors are required to record student attendance for the duration of the course.