Staff Absentee
This is an administrative module that helps schools and districts work out the staff absentee, substitution or cover system for the school when a teacher is absent.
As most of the information is already in the Ed-Fi ODS, it is very easy to use this information to enhance the cover system currently being used and a good idea to use existing information to enhance modules and features.
Feature enhancement:
- Cover type:
Among the added features, teachers can specify what kind of cover and how involved they would like to be with a cover system. For example, in some districts teachers are paid per cover period. A new and young teacher might want to do more cover periods to earn more money. A senior and more established teacher might request fewer cover periods, or not want to do any cover periods, except emergency standby.
- Cover by Department:
The absentee system tries to identify a substitute or cover teacher with expertise in the academic area from the same department to cover a teacher from the same department. Should a math teacher be absent, it would be good that a cover teacher from the same math department substitute for that class.
- Teachers unions and max period rule.
This is a great customizable rule to ensure that teachers are not overloaded, and keep a teacher’s daily workload in line with parameters of the teachers unions. Some State teachers unions request that a teacher can only teach three lessons in a row and then must have a free lesson/open period, or lunch, to ensure teachers have a break. The cover system will not override this teachers’ union rule and will only place cover fairly. A well-rested teacher is a calmer and patient teacher.
