Database for Church - Childrens Program

[RTforNewHope]

I am trying to build a database for a Church Program that
we have. What I want to be able to do is keep track of
the kids, give lists of kids that are in attendance to
the teachers, and also have a way to follow up with the
kids that have "missed".

I have a table of all the kids - names, addresses,
grades, school they attend, names of people that are
authorized to pick them up, etc.

The program is very similar to VBS. When the kids
arrive, I need a way to "check" them in for that date.
Then I need a query to give to each teacher so they will
know what kids they have for the day.

My main issue is how to keep a record of their
attendance. I need to be able to check them in quickly.
As well as have a query that will pull records of kids
that missed two weeks in a row, so we can send them a
letter.

I hope someone can help me quickly. This program will
begin in around a month.

Thank You!

 

[Allen Browne]

Seriously, this database will take you much longer than one month to
develop. If you have never done one before and are just doing it in you
spare time, it will take you 6 - 24 months to get it right. If you have an
interest in learning to develop databases then by all means go ahead, but if
you are just wanting to save time and money you would be better off to take
a 2nd job at McDonalds and save to buy existing software.

There are several aspects to your database. To get you started, you will
need tables like this:
1. A table of all the people you deal with: childen, parents, teachers,
workers, etc.

2. A table of the inter-relationships between people. This table will have
relationships back to the People table, so it can define 12 as the parent of
8, 77 as a guardian of 62 (therefore permitted to pick them up), and so on.

3. A lookup table of the kinds of relationshps used in #2.

4. A table of the classes/streams you offer, e.g. "creche", "junior youth",
etc, with a foreign key back to #1 for the supervisor of each one.

5. A table of enrollment. Foreign keys to table 4 (i.e. which class) and
table 1 (i.e. which kid). One record for each time a child joins a class,
with the date joined. The child's current class is the one with the most
recent join date.

6. A table of attendance. Foreign key to the child (#1) and the class (#4),
with the date of attendance.

There will probably be lots of others, but that's about as simple as you can
make it.

 

[RTforNew Hope]

Thank you for your response.

I already have a table of the children as well as a table
for the classes. The table of the children includes
their parent/guardian and others that are authorized to
pick them up.

I have created a relationship between the student table
and the class table by Grade.

Can you help me beginning with #5. A table of enrollment.

I'm just not sure where to start.

Thank You!

 

[Allen Browne]

The Children table will have a ChildID primary key (usually AutoNumber).
The Class table will have a ClassID primary key.

The Enrollment table will have these fields:
ClassID Number (Long) which class this record is about.
ChildID Number (Long) which child.
EnrolDate Date/Time when this child enrolled in this date.
The table just tells you who is enrolled in the class.

The Attendance table has a similar structure, but with AttendDate instead of
EnrolDate.