Record Attendance, View Total Days, Past Dates, Sick Days, and School Breaks

HomeTrail lets your family decide what counts as attendance, then records the days when each student met that standard. You can begin at any point in the school year and add attendance for earlier dates.

Attendance requirements vary by location and family. Check the rules that apply to you before deciding whether a sick day, field trip, co-op day, or other day should count.

Define attendance for a student

During setup, enter Daily Attendance Criteria for every student. Describe the standard you will use, such as completing four hours of learning or finishing the day's planned work.

To change the criteria later:

1. Open Trailhead.
2. Select Attendance.
3. Find Student Attendance Criteria.
4. Update the student's criteria and select Save.

HomeTrail keeps the criteria connected to attendance records so you can understand what an earlier checked day meant.

See total days attended

HomeTrail counts attendance days for each student's current grade during your school year. These totals are based on completed school days, not calendar year-to-date.

In the HomeTrail app

1. Open the HomeTrail app and select the Day tab.
2. Make sure you are viewing today. The totals card appears only on today's date, not on past or future days.
3. Select Attendance and Nature Time Totals.
4. In the Totals modal, read Attendance this School Year and each student's Completed Days bar. This shows completed days toward your required days for the current grade.
5. The same modal also shows Hours In Nature with WEEK, MONTH, and YEAR totals.

School-year total on the web

1. Open Pathfinder.
2. Select Reports.
3. Under Generate New Report, choose Year End Report.
4. Select the student and grade, then select Generate.
5. Open the finished report and read Attendance Days in the summary at the top.

The Year End Report shows attendance for the selected student and grade across the school-year dates you chose.

Totals for a specific date range on the web

1. Open Pathfinder.
2. Select Reports.
3. Under Generate New Report, choose Progress Report.
4. Choose the students, date range, and any filters you need, then select Generate.
5. Open the finished report and read the total in the Attendance and Sessions section.

Use a Progress Report when you want totals for part of the year, such as one month or one quarter.

Set your required days and criteria

Trailhead → Attendance is where you enter Required Attendance Days per School Year and each student's Student Attendance Criteria. That page does not show your running attendance total.

Add or remove attendance on a past date

1. Open Planner.
2. Use Month or the week chooser to find the date.
3. Select the date to open its Day page.
4. In Students, select the attendance circle beside each student who attended.
5. Select a checked circle again if you need to remove attendance.

You can also update attendance directly from an earlier week in the weekly Planner. Adding attendance does not create a learning session or duration by itself. Add or edit the day's sessions separately when you also need activity, subject, notes, photos, or time records.

Record a sick day

If the student did not meet your attendance criteria, leave attendance unchecked. To leave a simple explanation, add a day label such as Sick day in the monthly Planner.

If learning still met your family's attendance criteria, you can mark attendance and log the activities that were completed. HomeTrail does not decide whether a sick day legally counts for your family.

Schedule a school break

Use a break for a planned date range such as a vacation, holiday, or seasonal break:

1. Open Home and find Your rhythm.
2. Select Breaks.
3. Enter the break name, start date, and end date.
4. Select Add break.

You can return to Breaks to edit or remove it. Breaks appear in the Planner and help HomeTrail understand your school-year rhythm. They do not automatically mark attendance for those dates.