Issue Description
I am experiencing a critical gap in tracking excused absences for students with legitimate health reasons (e.g., fever, cough, mental health needs). Current Canvas roll call options only allow Present, Late, or Absent, with no way to flag excused absences without manual tracking. This causes:
- Data loss: When students mark "Absent" (unexcused), we cannot distinguish excused absences from unexcused ones in reports.
- No real-time visibility: I cannot see individual student attendance status without exporting data (which loses excused absence context).
- Contradiction with schools guidelines: Our school’s Student Health Care Services form explicitly states: "Common medical reasons for missing classes... do not lend themselves to retrospective objective confirmation." This means students cannot provide doctor’s notes for minor illnesses (e.g., fever/cough), yet we still need to track these absences responsibly.
Steps to Reproduce & What I’ve Tried
- Reproduction:
- Student misses class due to a medical/mental health reason (e.g., fever).
- I mark their roll call as "Present" (badge "Excused").
- Result: Canvas shows "Present" in reports, but no record exists of whether it was excused.
- What I’ve Tried:
- Used "badges" to track absences
- Exported roll call data - Excused absences are lost in exports (only "Present" appears).
- Manually tracked excused absences in spreadsheets -Time-consuming, error-prone, and violates privacy.
Why This Matters
As an instructor, I have a responsibility to ensure students’ well-being. Without a way to automatically flag excused absences:
- I cannot proactively contact students for mental health support.
- I cannot notify Student Services when a student needs urgent assistance.
- I cannot track legitimate absences without misrepresenting attendance.
School-Specific Note
This issue occurs in all Canvas courses. Per Student Health Care Services policy, common medical reasons cannot be objectively confirmed (e.g., no doctor’s notes for fever/cough), yet we must still support students.
Recommended Solution
Add an "Excused Absent" roll call option to Canvas. When selected:
- Auto-flags attendance as "Excused" (no manual tracking).
- Shows real-time student status in Canvas’s built-in Attendance tab (no exports needed).
- Preserves data for student support (e.g., alerts Student Services).
(This solution would eliminate 10+ hours/week of manual tracking.)
Next Step Requested
Please add the "Excused Absent" roll call option to Canvas’s default settings.
