Electronic Attendance Verification (EAV)

If a service is using Digital Sign In & Out for their families then it must be verifying attendance records with the parents or guardians of their enrolled children. 

Discover provides the ability to Electronically Verify attendance data. However, electronic verification is an optional method of verification. Any services which have enabled Digital Sign In & Out are required to verify and maintain records of these attendances with parents and guardians electronically or manually.

More information about EAV can be found here in the Funding Handbook - Section 6-3: Attendance Records

There are two ways for families to complete Electronic Attendance Verification in Discover:

• Via the Home App - Please see parent/guardian instructions here.
• Via the Parent/Guardian Portal (please see below).

Notifying Families of EAV

Centres can use Bulk Communications to send an email to parents or primary caregivers to let them know EAV is available to them.

Please see the template below. This can be copied and pasted in to the text field in Bulk Communications.

Kia Ora [Firstname],

We are pleased to let you know that Electronic Attendance Verification is now available for all parents/guardians. To sign/confirm your child’s attendance electronically, please set yourself up using the following link:  >> [copy your centre's link here] <<

You will be presented with a login screen. If this is the first time you have been to this portal and don’t have Home App credentials, you will need to enter your email address in the User name field (the email is the one this message has been sent to) and then click "Reset Password". The system will then email you with a temporary password. Use the temporary password to set yourself up with a more memorable password for weekly use.

Once on the Parent Portal you can click on ‘’Attendance’’ and then on ‘’Verify’’ if you agree with the sign in/out times. 

We hope you are just as excited as us to have electronic signatures at our centre.

Nga mihi,

Your friendly Centre Administrator 

Accessing EAV via the Parent/Guardian Portal

To gain access to the EAV in the Discover portal, parents/guardians need to be set up with a login for the widget.

The link to the widget can be accessed through the Discover menu under Centre Setup > Setup Widgets > Click on ‘Parent Login at the Centre'. 

This link can be emailed out to parents and guardians ahead of time. 

When selected, parents and guardians will see the login screen below and must input their preferred login details to proceed. 

Logging In

If your families are already using the Home App and have login credentials set up they will be able to use these to log into the portal. 

Electronic Attendance Verification can be accessed straight away if parents and guardians already have a login setup.

If a parent or guardian does not have a password, the ‘'Reset Password’’ function can be activated. A reset password request will be sent to the linked email address on their profile.

We recommend the use of devices with a minimum of 10-inch screen size to access and view the EAV features clearly. Laptops, desktops and tablets are preferred options. Mobile phones can be used but they may not offer the best user experience.

Completing EAV

Once logged in parents or guardians will need to click on Attendance. There will be the option to bulk verify the attendance by selecting all or multiple weeks.

There will be four possible statuses for attendances:

Considerations

• If attendance is missing for one day verification cannot be completed for the week.
  
  
• If a centre makes changes to the attendance on Discover the attendance status will revert to unverified.
  
  
• If a parent or guardian cannot see the verify button then it is likely due to the attendance entries that have not been completed for the week in question. Please ensure that the attendance has been entered for every day that the child was booked in for.
  
  
• If the times that the caregivers signed in or out differ from what is on the EAV screens, in the Centre Settings > Tablet Settings; if Override Tablet Times or Centre Time Validation is ticked, it will override the times to your licenced hours or opening/closing times.

Viewing Verified Attendances

To view Verified attendances navigate through Reports > Children Reports > Children Attendance - Parent Verification report.

Here you will be able to view parent/guardian signatures. 

The report will indicate if a caregiver has not agreed with the sign in out times.

The administrator can correct attendance data via the Attendance screen. Once completed, when the parent or guardian logs in to the portal in future the 'Verify' button will be present for them to confirm the updated data.

Setting Reminders 

Administrators can prompt caregivers to verify their records by setting up an automated reminder. 

Navigate to Centre Settings > Centre Details > Tablet Settings section and select the 'Enable Electronic Attendance Verification'.

Please note: 

Managing Paper Attendance Verifications

If only some parents or guardians are engaging with EAV, the Children Attendance report can be located in Reports > Children Reports. From here, paper records can be printed and verified. Please ensure that the Signature field is included when generating the report.