Student Attendance Accounting Handbook (SAAH) Changes

The Student Attendance Accounting Handbook (SAAH) is published yearly by TEA and contains the official attendance accounting guidelines that must be followed by all school districts and open-enrollment charters in the state of Texas. The 2019-20 SAAH has recently been published and has many significant changes from the prior year’s handbook. With all of the legislative changes that have been passed during the 86th Texas Legislative session, a version 2 of the 2019-20 SAAH is already in the works and will be published in the near future. Some of the updates below will be released in version 2. TEA publishes a proposed version of the SAAH prior to its adoption so that school districts can implement the changes prior to the start of the new school year. All districts are responsible for following the current year’s SAAH regardless of its current status. Any changes should be reviewed and implemented in your district immediately.

Classroom aides can now take student attendance.

Aides that meet the requirements for being a paraprofessional are now able to take student attendance for FSP funding at the snapshot time chosen by the campus. For more information on classroom aides and whether or not they meet the criteria to be a paraprofessional please refer to TEA’s website “Becoming and Educational Aide in Texas” that can be found at https://tea.texas.gov/Texas_Educators/Certification/Initial_Certification/Becoming_an_Educational_Aide_in_Texas. This update can be found in section 3.6 General Attendance-Taking Rules in the 2019-20 SAAH.

A campus’ Official Attendance Time no longer needs to be in the 2nd or 5th instructional hour.

Previously, a campus was required to choose an Official Attendance Time (OAT) in the 2nd or 5th instructional hour of the day or have board approval to have an alternative attendance time for the campus. This requirement has been removed. Once your campus has selected its OAT, it cannot be changed during the school year. This update can be found in section 3.6.2 Time of Day for Attendance Taking in the 2019-20 SAAH.

Telemedicine appointments now count for fundable absences.

To code a student with a Telemedicine appointment absence, you still need the same documentation as a face to face doctor’s appointment. The doctor still must be “a health care professional licensed, certified, or registered to practice in the United States”. You would need documentation that the appointment occurred, not just that it has been scheduled. The student still must have been present on campus for some part of the same day the appointment took place. These appointments do not need to just be medical, mental health appointments are eligible for this fundable absence as well. This update can be found in section 3.6.3 Requirements for a Student to Be Considered Present for FSP (Funding) Purposes in the 2019-20 SAAH.

Biometric scanners can now be used to record attendance.

In previous versions of the SAAH, fingerprint scanners have been an acceptable means of recording attendance. In the 2019-20 SAAH, this has been updated and now any biometric technology can be used. “Examples of biometric technology include but are not limited to, fingerprint recognition, facial recognition, retina recognition, and iris recognition.” The school must have the ability to print documentation that provides detailed information regarding the date and time that a student logged in and out of the biometric system in the case of a TEA audit. This update can be found in section 3.6 General Attendance-Taking Rules in the 2019-20 SAAH.

Full day Prekindergarten Programs required for PK-4 students.

Previously, it was the district’s decision to offer either a full day or a half day program for both 3-year old & 4-year old Prekindergarten programs. Beginning in the 2019-20 school year, it is now required for a PK-4 program to be a full day program. Your PK-3 program can still be run as a ½ day program. You will continue to code all PK students as ½ day ADA eligible, because at this time the state is not funding a full day program, even though it is now required for your PK-4 students. To help alleviate some of the financial burden of a full day program, the state has offered an Early Education Allotment to help fund the second half of the day. If your district is still only offering a ½ day PK-4 program, there will be a waiver available in January that will allow you to continue to only offer a ½ day program for the remainder of this school year. More information on PK programs can be found in Section 7 Prekindergarten (Pre-K) in the 2019-20 SAAH.

New Prekindergarten Qualifier

Students who qualified for and attended PK in a PK-3 program are automatically eligible to attend a PK-4 program the following year, even if the student did not attend a PK-3 program in your district. The only time you should use this indicator is if the student no longer qualifies based on any of the other state defined PK qualifications and this is their only qualifier. If your district is qualifying a student based solely on that student having qualified for and attended a PK-3 program in another district, you will need to request and retain the proof of qualification from the prior school as your documentation.

The Home Language Survey must now be offered in Vietnamese.

The Bilingual/ESL section of the SAAH has been completely rewritten. One of the most noticeable updates is that your district is now required to offer the Home Language Survey in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. You can find updated 2019-20 translated Home Language Surveys by clicking on (Revised) LPAC Home Language Surveys 2019-2020 at http://www.elltx.org/. More information on EL programs can be found in Section 6 Bilingual/English as a Second Language (ESL) in the 2019-20 SAAH.

The Student Attendance Accounting Handbook is a great resource and should be utilized to help answer any questions you may have regarding attendance rules and regulations, special programs, audit documentation, the responsibilities of staff members and much more!

Need some help?

If you need any assistance navigating the SAAH or have any attendance related questions, please reach out to the CSS PEIMS director, Laura Jandle, at ljandle@charterschoolsuccess.com.