Attendance Watch System: Flags, Scripts, and the Re-Entry Standard
Mat Manual companion guide to "The Student Who Vanished Was Visible for Weeks." Print it. The article lays out the fade patterns and the flag thresholds. This book is the operating kit: the flags tuned by membership typ…
| Art | For Instructors |
|---|---|
| Family | Instructors |
| Level | all-levels |
| Format | system |
| Topics | retention, school-operations, communication |
Mat Manual companion guide to "The Student Who Vanished Was Visible for Weeks." Print it. The article lays out the fade patterns and the flag thresholds. This book is the operating kit: the flags tuned by membership type, the exact words for every touch, the re-entry checklist, the paper tracking sheets, and the monthly review that keeps the whole thing alive.
School: ______________________________ Watch owner: ______________________________ Review day each month: ______________
BEFORE ANYTHING: THE ETHICS OF THE WATCH ☐ The watch exists to serve students, not to surveil them. Attendance data is used for the contacts in this book and nothing else — never shared, never sold, never quoted back to a student as leverage ("you've only been twice this month" is a sentence this system never produces). ☐ Every message in this book passes one test: would it read as care from a school that noticed, or as pressure from a business that counted? If it fails, rewrite it until it passes. ☐ Health and family details students share during save conversations are noted minimally ("family matter, pause agreed, return penciled for June") and treated as private. The sheet records the action, not the confession. ☐ A student who decides to leave gets the graceful open door (Part 5) and nothing after it but one term-later friendly note. Chasing is not retention.
Part 1: The Flag System, Tuned by Membership Type
Thresholds from the article, adjusted for how each membership actually attends.
| Membership type | Yellow | Orange | Red |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twice-weekly (standard) | One full week missed unexpectedly | Two missed weeks, or a month at half rate | Three-plus missed weeks or any cancellation signal |
| Once-weekly | Two consecutive sessions missed | Three missed; or any "not sure this is for me" remark, logged | Four missed or a cancellation signal |
| Unlimited / high-frequency | A drop of half against their own baseline for two weeks | A month at half rate | Baseline collapse (near-zero) for two weeks |
| Children's program | One week missed with no word | Two weeks missed | Three weeks, or the parent signals cost/logistics strain |
| Trial / first-90-days student | ANY single unexpected absence | A second absence | The 90-day rules of the school's First 90 Days system take over — new students fade fastest and are watched closest |
The baseline rule. Flags measure change from the student's own pattern, recorded when they settle in (usually week 3–4). A sheet with no baselines is a roster, not a watch.
Attendance Watch System: Flags, Scripts, and the Re-Entry Standard
Mat Manual companion guide to "The Student Who Vanished Was Visible for Weeks." Print it. The article lays out the fade patterns and the flag thresholds. This book is the operating kit: the flags tuned by membership type, the exact words for every touch, the re-entry checklist, the paper tracking sheets, and the monthly review that keeps the whole thing alive.
What's Inside
- Part 1: The Flag System, Tuned by Membership Type
- Part 2: Roles and Windows
- Part 3: The Message Library
- Part 4: The Save Conversation — Script and Discipline
- Part 5: The Graceful Exit and the Long Door
- Part 6: The Re-Entry Standard (Instructor Checklist)
- …and 23 more sections
The full guide is a paid Mat Manual product. Checkout is not connected yet — no payment is taken on this page.
Free companion article: The Student Who Vanished Was Visible for Weeks — the full article, free in full.
- Your next stepFirst 90 Days Checklist and Contact SystemFor Instructors · all-levels · plan
- Pairs withThe Belt Testing SystemFor Instructors · all-levels · reference
- Same problem, different artThe Sustainable Teaching WeekFor Instructors · all-levels · plan