Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 governs the administration of federal financial aid funds. Federal regulation mandates that these funds may only be disbursed to students who are actively attending classes. The University of Kentucky is responsible for documenting each student’s attendance to ensure compliance and failure to do so may result in sizeable fines. All instructors of undergraduate, graduate and professional courses (including lab courses, independent studies, online courses, and research credit) are required to verify attendance.
The University of Kentucky has a process in place for instructors to confirm one time if a student has attended, participated or engaged at the beginning of the semester in each class for which the student is enrolled. This process will ensure that after the start of classes, Federal Student Aid funds are not disbursed without the University confirming that recipients have begun attendance.
How is Attendance Verified?
Most classes at the University of Kentucky are in-person and so most instructors will simply take attendance at the start of class. However, attendance can also be determined by tracking engagement or participation in class. Below are examples of how engagement or participation can be demonstrated for different types of classes:
In traditional classes, submitting an assignment, homework, or quiz
For online classes, instructors may require students to introduce themselves on a discussion board or submit an assignment, homework, or quiz
For independent study classes, an instructor should have some record of interaction from the student such as an email or submission of an assignment
For research and residency credit courses (i.e. 748, 749, and 767 courses), an instructor should have some record of interaction from the student such as an email or documented research such as lab work
When is Attendance Verified?
Attendance verification occurs in two phases, a monitoring phase and a reporting phase. The monitoring window begins immediately after the last day to add the class. This is when the instructor monitors activity to determine if a student is attending, engaging, or participating in class. The reporting window begins immediately after the monitoring phase and is when the instructor reports a student for non-attendance. Attendance verification deadlines will vary based on the length of the class. Full-term classes will have one week for monitoring and one week for reporting. Part-of-term classes will have shorter monitoring and reporting windows.
To comply with the Title IV regulation, all faculty members / instructors are required to report students for non-attendance / non-participation / non-engagement through the class roll in MyUK / Faculty Services. Faculty only need to mark students that are not attending versus marking each student on the class roll. If all students are attending, you can indicate this in one place on the class roll. Once a student is marked for non-attendance / non-participation / non-engagement in the class roll, the student will be dropped from the class and from CANVAS after a 2 day delay with a grade symbol “NA”. If you choose to allow the student to remain in the class during the 2 day delay process, you may cancel the drop in the class roll.
How to verify attendance in MyUK:
Attendance verification is completed using the 'Class Rolls' section under the 'Faculty Services' tab in myUK.
The attendance verification window (reporting period) for each class is displayed under the 'Windows' section of the Class Roll.
Students reported for non-attendance are notified by email and have approximately two days to follow-up before they are dropped from your class.
Should you need to cancel a student's drop, you may do so at any time during the reporting period.
For access to the Faculty Services tab in MyUK, contact Belinda Rubio, Belinda.Rubio@uky.edu.
For assistance navigating MyUK and the faculty services tab, contact Jessica Guillen, jessica.guillen@uky.edu.
For FAQ’s on Attendance Verification and Title IV, please visit: https://registrar.uky.edu/attendance-verification/attendance-verification-faq
