Overview

This article explains the process you should follow to manage unauthorised absences by sending our reminders, checking responses, and updating pupil attendance codes through the Unauthorised Attendance Management part of Juniper MIS.

Prerequisites

• First Day calling must be set up for your school (for more information, see MIS: How do I set up First Day calling?)
• You must have access to the Manage / Attendance / Unauthorised window in Juniper MIS.
• All registers must have been taken for the session before contacting parents.

Instructions

Contact parents to determine the reason for absence

1. Send a text message (SMS) and / or Email to the appropriate named contact(s) of all pupils absent from school without authorisation (see MIS: How do I send out First Day messages?).
2. Check for calls, messages and emails reporting the reason for the absence.

Open the Unauthorised Attendance tab

Within Juniper MIS: 

1. Select Manage.
2. Select Attendance.
3. Select Unauthorised to view the Unauthorised Attendance tab:
   
4. Select the date of the absences you want to view / chase from the top right corner. By default, this is set to today's date.

Update the Parent contacted flag

For each period of absence that you have chased up by contacting the parent, update the Parent contacted flag. This enables you to see which unauthorised absences you have / haven't chased up in the future:

1. Select the + sign next to a pupil:
   
2. For each absence that you have chased, toggle Parent contacted. When the control is purple, it indicates the Parent has been contacted: 
   

Update an individual pupil's reason for absence

To update an individual pupil's attendance code from the Unauthorised Attendance tab:

1. Locate the pupil whose attendance code you want to update.
2. Check their name (where multiple unauthorised absences are listed, select the + sign, and then select all appropriate instances).
3. Select an attendance code from Set Attendance to. For an explanation of each attendance code, see MIS: What are the different attendance codes?
4. When prompted, select OK, got it! to confirm the change:
   

Repeat these steps for each pupil as needed. 

Update the same absence reason for multiple pupils

To update the attendance code for more than one pupil from the Unauthorised Attendance tab:

1. Either:
   1. Check the name of each pupil whose attendance code you want to update (where multiple unauthorised absences are listed, select the + sign, and then select all appropriate instances).
   2. Alternatively, to check all instances of unauthorised absence for all pupils, select the checkbox next to the PUPIL NAME title:
2. Select the attendance code you want to apply to all selected pupils from Set Attendance to. For an explanation of each attendance code, see MIS: What are the different attendance codes?
3. When prompted, select OK, got it! to confirm the change:
   

Repeat these steps for each different attendance code you want to bulk update. 

Outcome

The pupil's attendance code will be updated from the unauthorised absent code to the newly selected code. The pupil's name will be removed from the Unauthorised Attendance list when the page is refreshed.

Related information

• MIS: How do I set up First Day calling?
• MIS: How do I send out First Day messages?
• MIS: What are the different attendance codes?

Updated 18 September 2025 13:42