School attendance: from paper registers to a tap at the gate

What a paper register misses

A paper register is taken in class, after the lesson has started. It records who was in the room at that moment, not when each student came through the gate or when they left. Late arrivals depend on whoever stands at the gate writing names down, and those lists rarely reach the office the same morning.

Parents see even less. If a child does not arrive, the family usually hears from a phone call, if one comes at all. And because each register sits in its own classroom, a picture of the whole school takes someone walking from room to room.

How attendance with a tag works at the gate

1. A STUTAP Station tablet stands at each gate, supplied and set up by STUTAP and connected to its gate from the school portal.
2. Students tap the tag they already carry. The same tag or wristband they pay with at the canteen. The tablet shows their name and photo, and whether they are on time or late, with the time.
3. The first tap of the day is the check-in. Another tap that morning records nothing, so a student who taps twice is not checked out by mistake. Later in the day, a tap is the check-out.
4. A tag the tablet does not know is refused. The screen sends the student to the guard, and gate staff can check a student in or out by name from the STUTAP Staff app or the school portal.

Late arrivals, marked by the bell

Each campus sets its own times in the school portal: the bell, when check-in ends, and home time. A first tap after the bell is marked late, and the tablet says so. Nobody keeps a late list by hand.

From home time, every tap is a check-out. Weekends, holidays and the days the school is closed follow the school calendar, and the gate records nothing on them.

When the internet drops

A gate cannot stop for a dropped connection. The tablet keeps the campus's list of students and their photos, so it still shows who tapped. It keeps every tap on the device, says it is saved and will be sent, and sends the taps in order once the internet is back.

Each tap is judged at the moment it was made, not when it arrived. A student who tapped before the bell is on time, even if the tablet was offline until mid-morning, and parents see the tap in the app at the time it was made.

What parents see

• Today, at a glance: whether their child is at school, arrived late or has left, with the time and the gate.
• Each check-in and check-out: the time, the gate, and whether the check-in was on time or late.
• The month: every school day, with counts of present, late and absent days, and who recorded each entry: the tag, the gate staff or the school office.

Every parent in the family sees the same record. A correction by the school office shows in the app, marked as corrected.

Corrections and the class register

The register in the school portal shows every student by class and by day, or across a range of days, with filters for present, late, absent and "needs review": a check-out with no check-in. Days with no school are left out, and a day the gate took no attendance at all shows as not logged rather than absent.

Gate staff can check a student in or out by name, and take back a mistaken entry the same day. The school office, a campus or organisation admin, can add, edit or remove entries, or mark a day absent, on any school day of the current year, and can note why. Nothing is erased: each change is a new line with who made it and when, and the original stays in the history.

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