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Our Attendance Reporting System will Change on April 23, 2019

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Our Attendance Reporting System will Change on April 23, 2019

At HWDSB, one of our greatest priorities is ensuring that all students safely arrive at school every day.

To strengthen our procedures for absences, we will be deploying SafeArrival, a student absence reporting system that will make it very easy for you to report absences. It will also allow school staff to respond quickly and thoroughly to all unexplained absences. Our goal is to continue to have all absences explained and all student accounted for each day, knowing that they are all safe.

With SafeArrival, families report a child’s absence in one of three ways:

  1. Use the SafeArrival website, go.schoolmessenger.ca. The first time you use the website, select Sign Up to create your account. Select Attendance then Report an Absence.
  2. Using your mobile device, download and install the SchoolMessenger app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store (or from links at go.schoolmessenger.ca). The first time you use the app, select Sign Up to create your account. Select Attendance then Report an Absence.
  3. Call the toll-free number 1-844-506-4350 to report an absence using the automated phone system.

methods of SafeArrivalThese options are available 24 hours/day, seven days a week. You can report a future absence any time.

In addition, we will use the SchoolMessenger Communicate automated notification system to contact parents whose elementary school child is absent when the absence was not reported in advance. The automated notification system will attempt to contact parents multiple times until parents confirm and explain the absence. If this system cannot reach the designated contacts, elementary school office staff will follow up.

If you try to explain an absence using SafeArrival, but are then told that it is past the cut-off time, please contact the school directly.

There will not be a follow-up phone call for secondary students and their notification will occur, as it does now, in the evening of a day that had an absence.

If you report your child’s absence in advance using either the SafeArrival toll-free number, the website or the mobile app, you will NOT receive these notifications.

Starting April 23, 2019, please report absences in advance using SafeArrival instead of sending notes or calling/emailing the school. On this date, staff will begin using the SafeArrival notifications to let you know if your student is absent (when you haven’t reported the absence in advance).

If you have questions, please speak with your school office or principal. Resources including translations of this information can also be found at https://bit.ly/safearrivalHWDSB

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we implement this new system.

Frequency Asked Questions for Families

3b-SafeArrival Family FAQ cdn revised

Updated on Thursday, April 25, 2019.
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