How to Track Participation for Multiple Participants

Your Out-of-School TimeTracker software allows for easy recording of participation, including whether a person was present or absent.

To track participation for an activity for multiple participants, start by clicking Participation in the left-hand navigation menu.

Please see this article to learn about recording participation for just one participant.

Participation Menu.png

Click Enter for activity.

Selecting the Activity/Session and Date of Participation

This opens the Record Participation for Activity form.

The form has dropdown menus for selecting the Activity and Session for which you are recording participation. Any field marked with a red asterisk is required.

If the activity for which you are recording attendance is not in the drop-down list, users with the proper security role can add it to the Activities section of the system. Click here to for an overview about managing activities.

Select the desired Activity and Session.

Next, select the date of attendance using the calendar control icon or type the date in the date field.

Click Next Step.

Some dates on the calendar will be crossed out and are not selectable. Crossed-out dates represent dates not within the date range of the Session's Schedule or that the site is closed as defined in the Site Calendar section of the system. Dates in previous or subsequent months are sometimes visible but not selectable; use the arrows at the top of the calendar to move forward or back between the months to select those dates.

Additional Information about Calendar Dates for Scheduled Activities

For Scheduled activities, sessions are established for specific dates. If you choose to enter participation on a date that is not one of the specific dates the Session was scheduled for, the message below will appear.

You may change your selection to a date the session was scheduled to be offered by clicking Select another session/date, or you may add this date to the session schedule and continue to add participation by clicking Schedule and continue.

A warning will appear at the upper right if the site is closed on the selected date.

To continue recording participation, pick a different date.

Enrolled / All Participants filter

The Enrolled Participants filter is selected by default if you have selected to record participation for a Scheduled activity. If any participants are enrolled for the selected activity, their Status column has a blue "Enrolled" label. Participants appearing as Enrolled were previously signed up for the activity and are expected to attend.

You can also select the All Participants filter to find someone who attended but was not previously enrolled in the activity.

The Enrolled Participants filter is not present for Unscheduled activities. This is because Unscheduled activities do not have an expected list of participants, and therefore, no one is enrolled.

Select the Enrolled Participants or All Participants filter.

Session Times / Current Time Toggle

Next, consider how you want to record participation. When participation is recorded in the system's database, a Start time and End Time for each participant are always recorded. By default, the session's Start Time and End Time are used. These times can be adjusted to meet your attendance recording requirements.

Do you want to record the participant's presence without tracking exact times, or is it crucial to record precise start and end times for accurate duration of service tracking?

You can adjust the recorded times by using the Session Times/Current Time toggle.

Current Time is ideal for real-time participation tracking, like marking attendees in and out at events with a mobile device or using a barcode scanner.

The Session Times option is best for all other situations, including recording participation from sign-in rosters.

Use the toggle slider to select Session Times or Current Times, depending on how you want to record participation for this activity.

Selecting Participants

You are now ready to begin recording each participant's participation in the selected activity session on the selected date.

If the activity has a long list of Enrolled Participants or you are recording participation from the list of All Participants, you can use the search bar to locate participants by name.

A count of participants by status is shown. These counts will be updated as participants are marked as present, unexcused absent, etc.

To update a person's participation status along with others at one time, check the box to the left of each name.

A barcode scanner can also be used to mark participants as present. For details about recording attendance via barcode scanning, please see this article.

Checking the top box marks all participant check boxes. If you want to update most of the people with a certain status, it is typically quicker to check all of them with this "all" box and then uncheck the few that should not receive that status.

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Updating Status

The next step is to update the checked people's status and participation times. This step must be completed or no participation will be saved. The next steps are very important. Please continue reading to learn how to update the status of the checked participants.

Click the Set statuses/times button.

Status dropdown.png The Multiple Participants form will open.

Using the Status dropdown menu, select the appropriate status for the previously checked/selected participants.

Present: The participant was in attendance.

Excused Absence: The participant was expected to be in attendance but was not present and communicated a valid reason for missing the activity session.

Unexcused Absence: The participant was expected to be in attendance but was not and did not provide a valid reason for missing the activity session; this is essentially a "no-show."

Then verify the Start and End times. Time fields are not visible/required for Excused and Unexcused absences.

For those marked "Present," the Session Time/Current Time toggle selection made above is relevant. If you selected Session Time, the Start Time and End Time fields default to the Session start and end times set up in the Activities section of the system. If you selected Current Time, these fields will default to the actual time you opened the Set Statuses/times window.

Change the times by clicking in the time fields and adjusting the hours, minutes, and am/pm. You can also manually type the time into the time fields.

Click Now to quickly change the Start Time or End Time to the exact time you are recording attendance.

The system will not allow you to select an End Time that is before the Start Time.

You can also enter Notes about the event's participation. These notes will be applied to each person selected and be visible in their participant record's Participation section.

When you are done, click Save Status to update the Status, Start Time, End Time, and Notes for the selected participants.

Repeat the steps above to update the statuses/times of a different group of participants (e.g., to mark some with a status of "Unexcused Absent").

Updating Status for an Individual Participant

To update an individual's Status, Start Time, End Time, and Notes, click on their name to open a form. This may be needed to adjust times if the person left the activity early or needed a different Note than others.

Click on Student Name Track Participation.png

Follow the previous steps to update their Status, Start Time, End Time, and add any individual Notes if desired.

Click Save Status when done to save changes for the individual.

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Click Done at the bottom of the Select Participants screen to save all selected participants' statuses, times, and notes.

Set Status for Remaining Enrolled Participants of a Scheduled Activity

When Done is clicked for a session of a Scheduled Activity, if any participants are still marked with a blue "Enrolled" status after recording those who were "Present," a Set Status for Remaining Participants modal window will open as shown below.

If you want to update the remaining participants to "Unexcused Absent" (for example), update the data fields and click Save Status. Then, click Done at the bottom of the Select Participants screen again.

If you want to leave the participants with an Enrolled status, click Skip this step. This will take you back to the main Participation screen.

Track PArticipants Student Still marked as enrolled.png

Updated August 18, 2025 18:42

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How to Track Participation for Multiple Participants