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An excusal is a parent’s explanation for a student’s absence on a school day. Approved excusals turn the student’s attendance into an excused absence.
Parents submit excusals from the parent portal. To approve or reject excusals, you need attendance edit permission. By default, Owners, Admins, Teachers, and Requesters have it.

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How parents submit an excusal

Parents can open the excusal form in three ways: click Submit excusal on their child’s overview, use the action on an absent day under Recent attendance, or follow the link in an absence email. The form asks for:
  • Date of absence. Turn on Covers multiple days and set a Last day of absence for a longer absence.
  • Reason (required).
  • Supporting document (optional), as a link, such as a medical certificate in a shared drive.
A multi-day excusal creates one excusal for each school day in the range. Weekends and non-school days are skipped. A range can’t be longer than 30 days, and it must include at least one school day. Members with the Admin role get an email for each submission. For a pending excusal, Review Excusal in the email opens the Excusals page.

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Review or auto-approve

The Require staff review of parent excusals switch in Attendance settings controls what happens next:

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Review excusals

1

Open the queue

In the rail, click Attendance, then Excusals in the panel. The badge next to Excusals shows how many excusals are pending.
2

Check the details

Each row shows the student, class, date, reason, who submitted it, and a Document link if one was attached. Use Search student or class… to narrow the list.
3

Decide

Click Approve or Reject. To approve several at once, select them and click Approve selected. When you reject, you can add an optional note. The guardian who submitted the excusal gets an email.
Decided excusals move to Reviewed, which shows the outcome, the reviewer, and the review date. Filter it by Approved or Rejected.

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How excusals change attendance

Excusals and attendance records link both ways:
  • Approve an excusal after attendance is marked. The student’s record for that day changes to your first active status in the Excused Absence category. The change appears in the record’s history.
  • Mark attendance after an excusal is approved. If a teacher marks the student with an Unexcused Absence status, Relyant applies the excused status instead.
  • Reject an excusal. The attendance record stays as it is.
Pending excusals never change attendance.
Keep at least one active status in the Excused Absence category. Without one, approving an excusal doesn’t change the attendance record.

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Override an approved excusal

On the Take Attendance page for a class, students with an excusal show Excusal submitted or Excusal awaiting review under their name. If a student has an approved excusal and you pick an Unexcused Absence status, Relyant asks Override excusal? Click Mark Absent Anyway to keep the absence.

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See a student’s excusals

Open a student’s profile, click the Attendance tab, and view Excusals. Parents see each excusal’s status in the portal as Pending review, Approved, or Not approved.

Take attendance

Mark attendance and view record history.

Students

Open a student’s attendance and excusals.