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FlexTime Set Up Guide

How to configure settings, create templates, and establish school-wide rules from start to finish.

This guide helps Owners establish the foundational settings for the FlexTime solution before staff and students begin regular use. By the end of this guide, your school will have functional time blocks, custom permissions, and default templates ready for daily scheduling.

Permission Level Required: Owner

In this guide:

Configuring Settings, Roles, and Permissions

A key step in creating a successful FlexTime program is ensuring that the settings are optimized for your goals and that the right roles have the right access to the tools needed.

Step- by-Step Guide to FlexTime Settings

  1. Select FlexTime from the main menu.

  2. Click on the Settings tab.

  3. Optional: Add users to the Flex Manager list.
    • Flex Managers will be allowed to create flex activities and periods, access reporting, assign activities to periods, update settings and access the dashboard.

  4. Optional: Add users to the Flex Report Viewer list.
    • Users on the Flex Report Viewer list will be allowed to access the flex reports and dashboard.

  5. Under the heading, FlexTime Settings, you can configure the following:
    ​
    • Enable FlexTime for Teachers: Toggle this to ON to allow teachers to manage their own FlexTime Activities by creating their own Activities/Activity Templates to add to FlexTime periods.

    • Enable FlexTime for Staff: Toggle this to ON to allow staff to manage their own FlexTime Activities by creating their own Activities/Activity Templates to add to FlexTime periods.

    • Allow teachers to view reports: When toggled ON, this allows teachers to view FlexTime Reports.

    • Allow teachers to manage all activities: Enable this setting to allow teachers to assign, register, or check students into any activity, even if they are not the primary teacher.
    • Restrict check in times: When toggled ON, users can only check into an activity within 10 minutes before or after the scheduled time.
    • Auto-end hall pass on check in: When enabled, active hall passes will automatically end when the user is checked into an activity.
    • Enable tardy check in: When toggled ON, this allows teachers to check in students as tardy when they arrive late to the activity.
    ​

  6. Under the Period Visibility heading, you can configure these settings:
    • Teacher visibility (days): The number of days in advance that teachers can view periods.
    • Student visibility (days): The number of days in advance that students can view periods.

Planning and Scheduling Periods

Easily create and manage custom time blocks that fit your school’s unique schedule without the manual spreadsheet headache.

You can even clone existing FlexPeriods for future dates to create your Flex schedule for the semester by cloning a single FlexPeriod for multiple days.

Step-by-step Guide to Creating Flextime

  1. Select FlexTime > Periods.

  2. Decide when and how often your school's FlexTime periods will occur.

  3. Click Create Period.

  4. Input 'Title', 'Date', and 'Time.'

  5. Toggle on Allow teachers/staff to add activities if you'd like to allow teachers and staff to add activities to this period.

  6. Toggle on Allow teachers/staff to register or unregister students to give teachers and staff the freedom to remove or or add students to this flex period.

  7. Toggle on Enable deadline to prevent teachers and staff from making any changes before or after the activity begins.

  8. Decide whether students should be allowed to self-register for activities during this period by toggling Allow students to self-register.

For an in-depth walkthrough on creating and cloning Flex Periods, check out our article Create FlexTime Periods.

Managing Activities and Templates

Create reusable activity templates and add them directly to your scheduled Flex Periods.

Activity Templates are the "blueprints" for the sessions offered during a Flex Period. Instead of creating a new session every time, you create a template that can be reused across multiple dates.

Step-by-step Guide to Creating an Activity Template

  1. Navigate to FlexTime > Activity Templates using the top navigation menu.

  2. Click the Create Activity button.

  3. Enter the Activity Name and a clear Description for the session.

  4. Select the Teacher (main) from the dropdown list to assign a host.

  5. Select the Activity Type and type in the designated Location.

  6. Input a maximum number in the Seats Available field to establish a capacity limit.

  7. Configure your registration and check-in preferences using the toggles:

    • Allow Students to Register: Toggle on to let students self-register during an open period.

    • Restrict Who Can Register: Toggle on to restrict access by grade level, roles, or special identifiers.

    • Enable self check in: Toggle on if students can check themselves into the room.

  8. Click Create to save your template.

Now that the templates are created, you can add them to the already created FlexPeriods:

Step-by-step Guide to Adding an Activity to a FlexTime Period

  1. Navigate to FlexTime > Activities using the top navigation menu.

  2. Select the specific date and scheduled block from the Flex period dropdown menu.

  3. Click the Add activity button.

  4. Select a teacher or use the search bar to find your activity template.

  5. Click Assign to add the session to the period schedule.

For a comprehensive look at creating Activity Templates and adding them to FlexPeriods, refer to FlexTime Activity Templates: Creating, Cloning, and Assigning Activities.

Registering and Checking in

Manage daily student placement and take attendance during live FlexPeriods.

Assigning vs. Registering Students

Before placing students, you must understand the distinction between assigning and registering:

  • 🔒 Assigning a student: Locks the student into the activity. Only the assigning Teacher, an Owner, or a Flex Manager can move an assigned student.

  • 🔓 Registering a student: Places the student flexibly. The Student can change their registration if permitted, or another Teacher can move them.

To see an interactive walkthrough and a detailed step-by-step guide, please refer to Assigning and Registering Students to FlexTime Activities.

Checking Students In

Recording FlexTime attendance ensures student safety and provides data for participation reports.

In Minga, there are several ways to record a student check in, depending on what works best for your school and workflows:

  1. Kiosk: A Kiosk can be used at an activity, allowing students to either scan their ID or enter their student number manually for quick entry. Learn how to set up a Check In Kiosk here.

  2. QR Code: Every activity (if enabled in the activity settings) has a unique QR code that can be saved as an image or printed, for students to scan with a device. This QR is found in FlexTime > Activities.

  3. My Class: Before the Flex period begins, a Check In action within My Class becomes available for manual teacher check-in.

  4. From FlexTime: FlexTime > Activities shows every activity in the current period. Each activity has a Check-in button.

  5. My Tools: For other school staff without access to My Class, check-ins to flex activities and other events can be done from My Tools.

For a detailed view and interactive guide on FlexTime Check Ins, refer to the Checking Students In to an Activity section of the Teachers' Guide to FlexTime.

Reviewing Reports and Data

With the comprehensive reporting tools, you will gain valuable insight into FlexTime attendance and adoption.

This high-level overview highlights why administrators use each tracking tool to audit their enrichment blocks.

Reporting tools and their core purpose

  • FlexTime Dashboard: Serves as a real-time monitoring center during active periods. Administrators use this view to instantly isolate missing students who successfully registered for an activity but have not completed their room check-in.

  • FlexTime History Report: This report allows school leaders to look back at historical data over custom date ranges, filter by student groups, and export CSV spreadsheets for district record-keeping.

  • FlexTime Unregistered Report: Identify who has not yet been registered for a particular FlexTime Period, and take action directly in the report to assign or register a student.

  • Activity Report: See how each activity is performing with metrics like Attendance %, number of check-ins, and how many students have been assigned/registered.

  • Student Report: Use this report to gain insight into each student's total FlexTime experience, from total registrations to attendance %.

  • Staff Report: View the number of activities a teacher has led and the total instruction time spent in FlexTime at a glance.

Go deeper: For a complete view into FlexTime's full reporting capabilities, check out our handy article Analyze School Engagement with FlexTime Reporting.

Troubleshooting

Issue: Students are not appearing in the dashboard check-in list.

Solution: If students do not appear in the dashboard check-in list for a FlexTime activity, verify that the students were registered for that specific activity before the flex period started.

FAQs

Can I see which students skipped a registered activity?

You can identify students who skipped a registered activity by navigating to FlexTime Manager > Dashboard and clicking the total number displayed next to Not Checked In. This view generates a targeted list of all students who hold a valid assignment or registration for that flex period but have not yet been marked present by a teacher or staff member.

How do I find the attendance history for one specific student?

You can locate the complete attendance history for an individual student by navigating to FlexTime > Reports, selecting the FlexTime History report, and typing the student's full name into the Search field. This filters the historical database to display every registration, assignment, and check-in event associated with that specific student.

Resources

Related Articles
Teachers' Guide to FlexTime
Assigning and Registering Students to FlexTime Activities
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