South Carolina Truancy Quick Start Guide
Welcome to the South Carolina Truancy Center!
This quick start guide will help South Carolina attendance and truancy staff learn the basics of the simpldiscipline Truancy Center and quickly find the resources needed to review attendance, manage truancy tasks, generate letters, document interventions, and make corrections when attendance changes.
Start with the South Carolina Truancy Center Overview Video below, then use the quick links on this page whenever you need help with a specific task.
The Truancy Center uses attendance information received from your Student Information System (SIS) to identify students who meet your district's configured South Carolina truancy criteria. Always review the student's attendance before completing or changing a truancy task.
Start Here
Review the complete South Carolina Truancy Center guide for detailed information about truancy workflows, tasks, incidents, intervention plans, letters, and other available tools.
Understand South Carolina Truancy Levels
South Carolina Has Three State-Defined Truancy Levels. South Carolina defines three primary truancy levels: Truant, Habitual, and Chronic. These levels are based on the student's age, attendance history, intervention status, and court involvement.
| Level | Age | Criteria | Behavior / Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truant | 6–16 | 3 consecutive UX OR 5 total UX absences with 0 minutes present | 151 Truant + Intervention Plan – Original |
| Habitual | 12–16 | Established AIP + 2 additional UX absences after the AIP date | 152 Habitual + Intervention Plan Addendum OR Truancy Contract |
| Chronic | 12–16 | Court ordered for attendance + 1 additional UX absence after the court order | 153 Chronic + District Defined Actions |
An Attendance Intervention Plan (AIP) must be established for every student who meets the Truant criteria, even if the parent does not participate in the meeting or refuses to sign the plan.
Habitual status is based on 2 additional UX absences after the AIP is established. A student may become Habitual with as few as 5 total UX absences, or may have more than 7 UX absences and still not meet Habitual criteria if an AIP has not been established.
Review the complete guide for detailed information about Truant, Habitual, and Chronic criteria, AIP requirements, behavior codes, and additional district-defined attendance intervention levels.
Managing Your Truancy Task List
Your Task List Is Your Main Workspace. As students meet configured attendance criteria, simpldiscipline creates tasks for staff to review and complete. Use the task list to identify students who need follow-up and manage your daily truancy workload.
Learn the difference between the Truancy Dashboard and the Truancy Task List, including why staff should use the Task List as their primary workspace for identifying students who currently require action.
Learn how to filter and sort the Truancy Center and task list so you can quickly locate students, specific task types, schools, statuses, and other information.
Reviewing Student Attendance
Review detailed attendance information received from your SIS, including daily and meeting attendance, attendance codes, dates, periods, minutes present, and attendance history. This is a helpful resource when determining why a student met a truancy rule.
Truancy Letters & Contact Information
Check Your School Information. Truancy letters can automatically populate information such as the school principal, attendance contact, phone number, email address, and absence excuse link. Make sure this information is configured correctly before generating letters.
Learn how to update the attendance contact name, phone number, email address, absence excuse link, and other school information that may appear on generated truancy letters.
Correcting or Reopening Truancy Tasks
If a task was completed and additional information needs to be added or corrected, learn how to reopen the task and continue working with it.
If you only need to update or correct a task, reopen the task. Reverting a truancy incident is different and can remove the entire incident and its historical information.
When a Student Is No Longer Truant
If attendance changes and a student no longer meets the criteria for a truancy incident, review the proper process for reverting or deleting the South Carolina truancy incident. simpldiscipline does not automatically remove truancy incidents if attendance is updated in the SIS.
Reverting a truancy incident removes the entire incident, including historical behavior and action information associated with that incident. Do not revert an incident simply because one portion of the student's truancy history needs to be corrected.
Helpful Reminders
Review Attendance First
Before completing a truancy task, review the student's attendance to make sure the attendance information in simpldiscipline matches what you expect to see in your SIS.
Tasks Are Independent
Letters and documents generated from a truancy task remain associated with the task where they were created. A letter generated on an earlier task will not appear as though it was generated from a later task.
Use the Student Overview for History
The Student Overview page provides a broader view of the student's history, including previous truancy information, letters, documents, and attachments.
Be Careful with Intervention Dates
Attendance Intervention Plan and other intervention dates can affect how future attendance is evaluated. In particular, the AIP date determines when simpldiscipline begins counting additional UX absences toward Habitual status. Review dates carefully before completing or editing a truancy task.
Need More Help?
Use the complete guide whenever you need more detailed instructions about South Carolina truancy workflows and requirements.
Use this guide for detailed explanations of Truant, Habitual, and Chronic status, AIP requirements, behavior codes, and additional district-defined truancy levels.
Learn the difference between the Truancy Dashboard and the Truancy Task List and why the Task List should be your primary workspace for managing students who currently require action.