v25.12.2.0

Automated Full‑Day and Multi‑Day Absence Creation and Write Back in PowerSchool SIS

You can now automatically create and update full-day and multi-day absences in PowerSchool SIS when guardians report or explain absences through SafeArrival. Absences are created or written back for the entire day and all periods, with guardian comments included when enabled.

Previously, absences needed to already exist in SIS before SafeArrival could update them. As a result, full-day absences were only written back when every period was marked absent. This release removes that limitation.

This enhancement ensures that attendance records in PowerSchool SIS accurately reflect guardian-reported absences without manual intervention. It reduces administrative effort, improves data consistency, and ensures teachers and SIS staff see complete, day-level absence information.

With this enhancement:

1. Full-day and multi-day absences reported by guardians are now created directly in SIS when reported, including future absences and same-day absences reported before SafeArrival runs.

2. Full-day and multi-day school-reported absences explained by guardians during SafeArrival outreach are now written back for the entire day, not just selected periods.

3. Guardian comments are written to SIS when comments are enabled.

4. New entries appear in Write Back History:

   • SIS Create indicates the absence was created in SIS from a guardian report.

   • SIS Write-Back indicates the absence was updated after a guardian explanation.

This enhancement helps Guardians, Teachers and SIS Staff, SafeArrival Administrators.

Enablement

PowerSchool Support must first enable this feature. Once enabled, District Administrators can enable at the organization level.

Requirements

• SafeArrival release v25.12.2.0

• SafeArrival Plugin v1.9 or later installed on PowerSchool SIS

• SIS attendance mode set to Daily or Meeting (Interval attendance is not supported)

To enable:

1. In District Admin Portal, go to SIS Settings → Schools and enable per school:

   • SIS Absence Create

   • SIS Write-Back

2. Enable Schedule Absence Create to batch-process any absences not created in real time. This runs automatically at 1:00 a.m. local time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this feature support partial-day absences?
No. Partial-day absences are not supported.

Is there an additional cost for this feature?
No. This functionality is included at no additional cost.

Can this be enabled for specific schools only?
Yes. Absence Create and Write-Back can be configured per school under SIS Settings.

How can administrators verify the feature is working?
Review the Write Back History in SafeArrival or confirm that absences appear in PowerSchool SIS for the full day and all periods.