How to use ASA
Making absence referrals
To make absence referrals to the Attendance Service, you’ll need to use the Attendance Service Application (ASA) and have an Attendance Service Provider.
List of attendance service providers by region — Ministry of Education website
Once a referral is generated in the Attendance Service Application, it goes straight to the Attendance Service Provider who will allocate the referral to an Attendance Advisor or Kaiāwhina for action.
When to lodge an unjustified absence referral
If a student has been unjustifiably absent, without satisfactory explanation, and your school has been unable to return the student to school, then log on to ASA and lodge an unjustified absence referral.
Once lodged, the referral is sent directly to the Attendance service provider who will allocate the referral to the appropriate Attendance Advisor or Kaiāwhina for action.
Welcome to ASA, which stands for Attendance Service Application. This is the Ministry of Education’s case management system which holds non-enrolment notifications (NEN) and unjustified absence referral information in one place, and builds the case history for each student referred to the Attendance Service. Non-enrolment notifications are initiated the same way they were before via ENROL. The NEN file is imported into ASA overnight. This simulation takes you through how to submit an Unjustified Absence referral.
ASA allows you to select from a list of your school’s current enrolled students, based on the previous days updated ENROL data. From there, you can lodge a referral that will automatically notify your Attendance Service Provider that they have a new referral. Using the referral record the Attendance Service Provider enters case notes and advises progress via emails which can include attachments and/or case notes for that specific referral. This will keep you up to date with the actions taken during the referral lifecycle.
If you need any help with ASA, phone the support team using these contact details. With regard to any information to do with a specific referral contact your Attendance Service Provider.
Please note that the student’s names and details shown in this simulation are not real people and that any resemblance to any real person is by coincidence only.
The first screen you see when you enter ASA is the Find a Student screen. This is where you can search using any one or more of the fields to find the specific student you are looking for.
If you know the student’s National Student Number (NSN), then enter the number in this field. Click on the Find a Student button or press Enter on your keyboard to start the search. This field will not search with part of a National Student Number; it needs to be entered in full.
If you know the student’s surname enter it in this field, you don’t have to use capitals as the system searches on the letters only. You can also search here without putting in the full name – just part of it will do.
To search by the students first name enter it in here, and even refine your search by entering their middle name as well.
For searching by their date of birth you need to ensure you enter the date in this format – with the year in full.
You can even use a combination of these search fields to refine your search, for example surname and first name initial, first name and gender.
The minimum criteria you can use for searching is one letter. Though, the wider the search the greater the number of results. The National Student Number search overrides any other search criteria entered.
If you do a search with more than one result, a list will appear. These results lists are of students currently enrolled at your school. To select a student, click on any of the student’s details that are underlined.
When the Student Details screen is displayed – check the details to ensure you have the correct student.
If you don’t have the correct student, click on the Back to List button, or the Find a Student tab to navigate back to the Find a Student screen.
This is an example of Student details for the student record that has the Keep Information Private flag ticked in ENROL – the heading will display on all the screens in ASA for students with this flag ticked, including the referral once it has been submitted. The use of the privacy flag occurs in situations like issuing of a protection order under the Domestic Violence Act 1975, a restraining order under the Harassment Act 1997, where a student or a family member is in a witness protection programme under the Evidence Act 1958, or where a school believes the risks are sufficiently serious to warrant its use.
If you do have the correct student, click on Lodge Referral but only after you check on a couple of things.
That you are not wanting to submit a referral for a Non enrolment – this must still be done through the ENROL system using the NEN process.
If you have the correct student but their details, such as their physical address or date of birth are incorrect or missing, you must update their details in ENROL before lodging the referral.
The student details in the ASA referral record will update overnight.
Has your school taken the necessary steps to try and get the student back to the school, for example; phoned the students caregiver?
Once you are sure you have the correct student, and you have taken all the necessary steps, and updated the student details in ENROL, then click on the Lodge Referral button here.
This screen is used to complete the necessary information to allow the Provider to action this referral in an efficient manner so please ensure you complete as much as possible to assist.
Four fields are mandatory and they are marked with a red asterix. You cannot save a referral without completing these fields: the name of the Primary Caregiver, the Relationship of that caregiver to the student, the street address of the Primary caregiver, reason for the referral.
Either type in the fields or click on the arrow at the end of the field for a drop down list to select from.
This comments field is used to record any caregiver information that will assist the Provider in contacting them.
The Reason for Referral field displays another drop down list and if you choose Other or Additional support required you need to type further information in the Additional Comments box.
For primary schools enter the number of half days the student has attended so far this year and the total number of half days for each term.
You can upload any documents into ASA that will assist the Provider, the first is the Attendance records. To do this click on the Browse button and search for the document on your computer. When you select the document it will appear as a file path in the field. Click on the Upload Attendance Sheet button. This will display the document here and if required, you can add other documents by repeating the process.
Tick the boxes for the Actions your school has taken prior to submitting this referral. When you tick a box a date field appears to the right –enter the date of the Action in the correct format. You can Upload any other relevant documentation, for example, letters or emails that have been sent or received, by browsing and clicking on the Upload Relevant Documents and attaching the same way you uploaded the Attendance records.
Tick the relevant people or agencies that have also been involved. Once ticked, add the date and any supporting comments.
Before submitting your referral – check the details. If you require a hardcopy for your records, click on the print icon.
If you do not wish to proceed, click on the Cancel button. To proceed click on the Submit Referral button. Click on the OK button. Once the referral has been submitted it cannot be edited or cancelled.
When you have submitted a referral you are taken to the Active Referrals screen. From here you can see a list of referrals submitted that are still ‘active’ or not complete; the date they were submitted; and the Status of the referral.
There are four status’s for an unjustified referral.
Loaded for Action means that it has been received by the Provider and is yet to be allocated to an Attendance Advisor.
Open means the referral is in progress and with the Attendance Advisor.
Monitoring means the student has been returned to school but the referral remains with the Attendance Advisor so they can monitor the student’s attendance and provide support as required.
Pending Closure means the Attendance Advisor has re-assigned the referral to the Work Coordinator for closing.
If you know there was a referral for a student and it no longer appears on this list – it is because the referral has been resolved and closed.
If you wish to view the referral details you submitted – click on any underlined text to display the original referral.
To go back to the list – click on the Referral List tab. To log out of ASA, click on the Logout tab.
If you get this screen – the first time you try and logon – it is because you haven’t been set up in ASA. Contact the Resourcing and E-Admin Contact Centre on 04 463 8383
When you wish to leave the SAS system please remember to click on the log out button. This will log you out of ASA. It is also important to remember that if you leave ASA open for a system defined period of time, you will be automatically logged out (be aware that this can occur while you are working on referral). This is to stop other people using your login in the ASA system.
If you want to Lodge a Referral for a student and the button on the top right hand says View Current Referral, this means the student has a current Active referral. You are unable to process a further referral for this student as they can only have one active referral at a time.
You should be able to view this referral by Clicking on the View Current Referral button.
ASA is a web-based application so if you do not have internet access, then you will not be able to access the system.
For support phone the Resourcing and E-Admin Contact Centre on (04) 463 8383 or email e.admin@minedu.govt.nz.