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How Do I Track Homeschool Attendance?

Famlo takes attendance one meeting at a time, on a roster built for a phone held at a door. It records two different things: whether a child was there, and who handed them over at each end of the day.

Quick Answer​

Open the activity in your organization's console and select Take attendance beside the Roster heading. Pick the meeting you are running, then mark each child Present, Late, Excused or Absent, and record Drop off and Pick up as they arrive and leave. Show sign-in QR lets parents sign their own children in from their phones.

Read this before you rely on it for state filing​

:::warning There is no attendance export Famlo has no attendance export of any kind. There is no CSV, no PDF, no printable roster report, and no attendance report — not for a single activity, not for a series, and not for a term. Attendance is readable on the roster inside Famlo and nowhere else.

If you or your families need attendance records for a state filing, an umbrella school, or a funding program, keep your own record alongside. Do not plan a reporting requirement around an export that does not exist. :::

A practical habit that works: photograph or transcribe the roster at the end of each meeting into whatever you already keep — a spreadsheet, a paper register, the log your state requires. It takes a minute per meeting and it is the only record you will be able to hand to anyone.

Who can take attendance​

Only an organization's owner, co-leader and event manager can open a roster or mark anyone. A member manager, a billing manager or an ordinary member cannot, and the control is not shown to them at all.

Roles are assigned by the owner. See Members, roles, and messaging.

Step 1: Open the roster​

  1. Open the activity from your organization's console.
  2. Select Take attendance, beside the Roster heading.
  3. You land on Attendance, a list of every meeting for that activity.
  4. Select the meeting you are running.

On the console dashboard, the today widget carries a Take roll button that goes to the same list, so you do not have to find the activity first.

Step 2: Read the meeting list​

Each row shows the meeting's label — its own name, or its date — and how many attendees are expected. On the right sits either a count of how many have been recorded out of how many are expected, or a green Done badge once every expected attendee has a record.

A repeating activity lists its whole term here, one row per meeting. A one-off activity lists a single row.

If the list is empty you will see "No meetings scheduled yet. Set a date on the activity to take attendance." Setting the date on the activity is what creates the meeting.

Step 3: Know who appears on a roster​

A meeting's roster is the active bookings for that meeting, read fresh every time you open it. Nothing is reserved in advance and nothing is copied forward.

That matters for a repeating class. Each date carries its own registrations, so a family booked into one date appears on that date's roster and not on the others. Cancel a registration and that child drops off; add one an hour before you start and they are there when you open it.

An empty roster reads "No one is registered for this meeting yet."

Step 4: Mark who is there​

Every child on the roster has the same four buttons, in this order:

  • Present
  • Late
  • Excused
  • Absent

Select one. The button you chose stays highlighted, and the count in the header updates to "N / M present". Present and Late both count toward that number; Excused and Absent do not.

Only one status applies at a time. To correct a mistake, select the right one — it replaces what was there. There is no undo control, and no "no show" status.

Allergies, special needs and medical notes appear as badges under each child's name, so you can see them without leaving the roster.

Step 5: Record drop-off and pick-up​

Custody is recorded separately from attendance, and separately at each end. This is the part of the roster that answers "who has this child now".

Under each child's status buttons sit two panels:

  1. Drop off — select it when the child arrives. The panel is replaced by "Dropped off" and the time.
  2. Pick up — select it when the child leaves. The panel is replaced by "Picked up" and the time.

Each records the time it happened and the person who recorded it. They are stored as two separate events rather than one presence flag, so a morning hand-over and an afternoon collection are both answerable afterwards.

Pick up stays unavailable until a drop-off has been recorded. Recording a drop-off for a child you had marked Absent lifts them to Present, because they are plainly here; an explicit Late or Excused is left as you set it.

Once a time is recorded it stays. The roster shows it as text rather than a button, so there is nothing to clear by accident.

Step 6: Let parents sign their own children in​

Every meeting has a printable sign-in code. Parents scan it and sign their own children in and out, which keeps the queue at the door moving while custody is still recorded properly.

  1. On the roster, select Show sign-in QR.
  2. The Scan to sign in page shows the code for that meeting, with the activity title and the meeting label under it.
  3. Select Print this code to put it on paper, or leave it on screen at the door.

The instruction printed under the code reads: "Parents: scan with your phone camera, sign in to Famlo if asked, then tap to drop off or pick up your children."

A parent gets a page listing only their own children who hold an active booking for that meeting. Each row reads "Not signed in yet", "Dropped off" with a time, or "Picked up" with a time, and carries a single button — Drop off or Pick up. Once both are recorded the row reads "All done for today".

A parent can only ever sign in a child in their own family who is booked into that meeting. Present, Late, Excused and Absent stay with your staff. A parent's drop-off records their child as present, and your roster updates to match.

The code is tied to one meeting. Use that meeting's code rather than reprinting an old one.

What the roster shows you about a child​

An organizer running an activity a child is booked into can see that child's allergies, special needs, medical notes, emergency contact, authorised pickup list, and photo-consent answer.

:::note Medications are not shown to organizers No screen in the organizer console displays a child's medications or dietary restrictions. If a child's medication matters for your activity — an inhaler, an EpiPen, a dosing time — ask the family directly and keep your own note. Do not assume it will appear on the roster, because it will not. :::

What a family can see of their own attendance​

A family sees their own bookings, not their attendance record.

  • Your calendar holds everything the family has booked, in Week or List view, filterable by child. It is a record of what you registered for.
  • The sign-in page reached from a meeting's code shows only that meeting, and only your own children.

There is no attendance history page for a family, and nothing for a family to download. If your state requires a participation record, keep it yourself as you go.

Reminders​

On the day of a meeting, everyone who organizes the activity gets an in-app reminder while the roster is still incomplete. It stops once every expected attendee has a record, so finishing the roster is what ends the nudging.

Tips​

  • Write it down as you go. Famlo will not give you the record later, so capture it at the end of each meeting.
  • Print the code the night before. It is one page, and it saves you fifteen minutes at the door.
  • Charge your phone. The roster is a phone screen, and a dead phone means a paper fallback you did not prepare.
  • Mark statuses first, custody second. Statuses are quick; drop-off and pick-up happen at different times anyway.
  • Check the roster before you leave home. It is read fresh, so a late registration or a cancellation shows up without you doing anything.
  • Give a co-leader the roster too. Owners, co-leaders and event managers can all open it, so you are not the single point of failure.

Troubleshooting​

I cannot find Take attendance. The control sits on the activity page beside the Roster heading, and only owners, co-leaders and event managers see it.

A child I expected is not on the roster. The roster is that meeting's active bookings. Check the family completed registration, that payment cleared on a paid activity, and that they booked this date rather than another in the run.

The list says no meetings are scheduled. The activity has no date set. Add one on the activity, then reopen Take attendance.

Pick up will not respond. It stays unavailable until a drop-off is recorded for that child. Record the drop-off first.

I marked the wrong child present. Select the correct status on that child's row — it replaces the old one. There is no undo button.

I recorded a drop-off in error. The time cannot be cleared from the roster. Note the correction outside Famlo and carry on.

A parent says the code will not work. They need to be signed in to Famlo, and they need a child with an active booking for that meeting.

I need an attendance report for my state filing. Famlo cannot produce one. Read the roster on screen and copy it into your own record.

I am looking for a search box or a status filter on the roster. There is neither, and no progress bar. It is a plain list of the children booked into one meeting.