Scheduled Detentions connect to your school's calendar. Minga handles enrollment, tracks due dates, records attendance, and triggers escalation automatically, so your staff spends less time coordinating. This article shows you how to configure your school detention calendar, establish automated detention periods, and update individual sessions.

Permission Level Required: Owner | Admin

⚠️ Note: This feature is available only on Plus and Premium plans.

Scheduled Detentions Overview: A high-level look at open vs scheduled detentions.
Step 1: Set Up Blackout Dates: Establish calendar dates when detentions will not run.
Step 2: Create Detention Periods: Build the recurring schedule framework for your school detentions.
Step 3: Configure a Scheduled Detention Consequence: Create consequences for scheduled detentions, allow multiple Scheduled Detentions on one consequence, and customize parent notifications.
Step 4: Manage Detention Sessions: Monitor, edit, or delete specific upcoming sessions.
Troubleshooting
FAQs
Resources

Scheduled Detentions Overview

Open Detentions - A consequence type that's assigned through Minga but manually managed offline.

Scheduled Detentions - A consequence type that automatically assigns a student to a session within your school's defined detention period and is managed in-app.

When a Scheduled Detention consequence is assigned to a student, Minga immediately validates that a feasible session exists, calculates a due date, and places the student in a session automatically.

Each Scheduled Detention consequence also has additional configuration options to Open Detentions, set when you create or edit the consequence:

Detention Period - Specify which detention period this consequence can assign students into.
Registration Buffer - Set how soon after the consequence is assigned a student becomes eligible to be auto-registered into a session.
Opportunities - Specify how many detention sessions a student can miss before the Scheduled Detention is marked overdue.

⚠️Note: A Scheduled Detention consequence can be created before any detention period exists; however, it will stay inactive until at least one detention period is created and assigned to it.

For more information on Open Detentions, refer to this article.

Step 1: Set Up Blackout Dates

Before setting up scheduled detentions, it's important to define blackout dates to prevent detentions from being scheduled on holidays, school closures, or any other days detentions shouldn't fall on.

Start by navigating to Behaviors > Settings

Step-by-step Guide to Creating Detention Blackout Dates

Navigate to Behaviors.
- Behaviors opens your discipline management dashboard.
Click Settings.
- Settings opens the configuration options for all behavior features.
Find Scheduled Detention Settings.
- This section controls the global options for your detention calendar.
Click Add Dates.
- A configuration window appears to let you enter new calendar exceptions.
Enter a description in the Description field.
- For example, type "Winter Break" to identify the holiday window.
Select your start and end dates using the calendar fields.
- These fields default to the current calendar date.
Click Save.
- Save applies the blackout dates to your school schedule.

⚠️ Note: If you add blackout dates after detention periods already exist, a warning modal will appear. The system will delete the scheduled sessions that fall within those dates. The system automatically moves all registered students to the next available detention session.

Blackout Schedule Best Practices:

Add your blackout dates first before creating any detention periods. This order prevents accidental session deletions and student reassignments.
Cover the full school year upfront by adding public holidays, exam blocks, staff days, and major school events.
Review your blackout calendar at the start of each school term to catch any schedule changes.
When creating scheduled detention consequences, you will specify which detention period they can be served in.

Step 2: Create Detention Periods

A detention period serves as the structural template for your recurring detentions. The system uses this template to automatically generate individual sessions.

Step-by-step Guide to Creating Detention Periods

Navigate to Behaviors from the main menu.
Select the Scheduled Detentions Tab.
Click Add Detention Period.
- A configuration panel opens containing mandatory setup fields.
Enter a title in the Detention period title field.
- For example, type "After School Detention" to clearly label the session.
Set your start date and end date using the calendar fields.
- The start date defaults to the current date. The end date defaults to June 30.
Configure your schedule by selecting specific days, a start time, and an end time.
- You can add or delete multiple sessions under a single detention period. Multiple types of detention periods can run at the exact same time.
Enter a location in the Location field.
- This designates the physical room where students must report.
Select your staff member from the Supervisor dropdown menu.
- This field is optional.
Enter a maximum capacity in the Capacity field.
- This field defaults to 20 students.
Click Create.
- The Create button only enables once you fill out all mandatory fields.

⚠️ Note: Individual sessions are completely auto-generated from the master period parameters. Admins do not create individual sessions manually.

Detention Period Best Practices:

Name periods clearly so staff can distinguish between them, such as "After School Mon/Wed" versus "Friday Lunch".
Start with one period type before adding more complex options to your system.
Verify the end date before saving to ensure it aligns perfectly with your specific school year calendar.
Adjust the default capacity of 20 to accurately reflect your room size and supervision constraints.

Step 3: Configure a Scheduled Detention Consequence

Once you have blackout dates and at least one detention period in place, you can configure a consequence to automatically assign students into those periods. This step turns the calendar framework from Steps 1 and 2 into something Minga can actually assign to a student.

Creating a consequence will follow the same steps outlined in How to Set Up a New Consequence, but there are a few key settings to configure:

Step-by-step Guide to Configuring a Scheduled Detention Consequence

Navigate to the Behavior are using the main navigation sidebar.
Click the Consequences tab located at the top of the screen.
Click the Create consequence button in the top right corner.
Select Guidance.
Enter the Consequence Name.
Click the Type of Consequence drop-down and select Scheduled Detention.
From the Detention period dropdown, select the appropriate detention period that this detention consequence will be served in.
Optional: Enter an Internal Description to clearly identify the outcome for staff.
Optional: Select an icon, color, and point value.
Optional: Enable Add note to consequence to allow the assigner to give more context. This is only applicable for manually assigned consequences and not ones assigned through automation.
Under Registration Settings enter the Registration buffer (hours). This specifies how soon after a Scheduled Detention is assigned that a student can be auto registered into a session.
Under Overdue actions, enter a number in the Opportunities field. This specifies how many Scheduled Detention sessions a student can miss before the Scheduled Detention is marked as overdue.
Optional: Toggle ON Add Escalated Consequence and select a consequence from the dropdown menu that this consequence will escalate to if not completed by the deadline.
Optional: Under the heading Consequence restriction, when toggled on, you can select who will be able to assign this Consequence manually through MyTools or MyClass instead of relying on an automation group. You can restrict by:
• Role
• User List
• Group
• Grade
• or specific People
Optional: You can also opt to Assign or remove a sticker when the Consequence is assigned.
• When adding a sticker, you will be presented with the option of removing the sticker when the consequence is resolved OR choosing to remove the sticker manually.
• For Consequences that do not require completion, the sticker must be removed manually or through the workflow outlined in Use Stickers with Consequences and Automations.
Under the heading Number of Scheduled Detentions, enter a number in the Quantity field. This specifies how many scheduled detentions a student will be assigned.
Under Parent Notifications, you can enable the following settings:
• Send parents notification email
• Send parents notification SMS
• Send parents reschedule notification email
• Send parents reschedule notification SMS
Under Student Notifications, you can enable the following:
• Send students notification email (student email notifications must be enabled for your school).
• Send students reschedule notification email
Under Admin Notifications, enable Send admin notification and reschedule emails.
Enter the email addresses of each admin that should be notified when this consequence is assigned.
Click Create.

⚠️ Note: A Scheduled Detention consequence can be created before any detention period exists. It will stay inactive until at least one detention period is created and assigned to it. See Step 2: Create Detention Periods above.

Allow Multiple Scheduled Detentions on One Consequence

Some consequences require more than one detention session, for example, a multi-day in-school suspension. Instead of creating a separate consequence for each session, you can configure a single consequence to assign multiple sessions at once.

Step-by-step guide to configuring Multi Day Scheduled Detentions

1. While creating or editing a Scheduled Detention consequence, scroll to Number of Scheduled Detentions heading.

2. Enter the number of consequences to be assigned in the Quantity field. This specifies how many scheduled detentions a student will be assigned. Defaults to 1. 3. Click Create(or Save if editing an existing consequence).

⚠️ Note: Minga schedules each session sequentially into available slots within the selected Detention Period, so a student is never double-booked into two sessions at once. Each session receives its own due date based on its specific slot, and the Opportunities rule you configured applies to each session individually, not to the consequence as a whole.

Customizing Scheduled Detention notifications

You can notify parents when a Scheduled Detention consequence is assigned by enabling Parent Notifications on the consequence. There is a full walkthrough on Enabling Parent Notifications for Behaviors, but we have also outlined this below for the particular settings around Scheduled Detentions.

1. On the consequence, under Parent Notifications, confirm Send parents notification email is toggled ON.

2. Edit the Email subject and Email body fields if you want to customize the notification.

The default subject uses placeholder variables, for example: "Hello, ${firstName} ${lastName} has been assigned a ${typeName}..." These variables automatically populate with the student's name and the consequence type when the email sends.

3. You can also enable Send parents reschedule notification email so that guardians know if any sessions have been rescheduled.

👌 Good to Know: Regardless of how many sessions a Quantity greater than 1 assigns, the parent notification email is sent once, listing every scheduled session's date and time. After that, they receive one reminder per session as it approaches, not a full recap before every session.

Configuring Scheduled Detention Consequences Best Practices

Create your Detention Periods before configuring a Scheduled Detention consequence. A consequence assigned before a matching period exists will stay inactive.
Set Opportunities high enough to account for a realistic number of missed sessions before a student is marked overdue, especially for consequences with multiple detentions attached.
Use Quantity only for consequences that genuinely require more than one session. A single-session consequence should keep Quantity at 1.
Customize the Email subject and Email body if your school's tone or requirements differ from the default template.

Step 4: Manage Detention Sessions

The Scheduled Detentions tab allows you to monitor and adjust specific scheduled sessions. The date range defaults to the current week. Each row displays the session type, date, time, enrolled count, location, and assigned supervisor.

Step-by-step Guide to Managing Detention Sessions

Editing a Detention Session:

Navigate to the Scheduled Detentions tab in Behaviors.
- This screen displays all generated sessions for the selected date range.
Click the pencil icon on the desired session row.
- The edit panel opens for that specific session.
Adjust the date, time, location, supervisor, or capacity fields as needed.
- Editing one session only affects that single session. It does not alter the configuration of the master detention period.
Click Save.
- Save updates the session details. The system automatically notifies all registered students if the date or time changes. Students remain registered to the session.

Deleting a Detention Session:

Navigate to the Scheduled Detentions tab in Behaviors.
Click the blue pencil icon for the session you would like to delete.
Click Delete at the bottom left of the screen to remove a session entirely.

Note: When deleting or editing a current period that affects currently registered students, a warning modal appears. Confirming the deletion automatically moves registered students to the next available session (it will automatically extend their number of chances to complete their detention), and they will be notified in Minga of the change.

Editing or Deleting Detention Sessions Best Practices:

Edit individual sessions only for genuine administrative changes, such as a last-minute room swap or an unforeseen time adjustment.
Only delete a session if it is genuinely cancelled. Empty sessions do not cause software conflicts and keep your historical schedule intact.

Troubleshooting

Issue: A warning modal appears when trying to add blackout dates.

Solution: This warning indicates that you are adding calendar exceptions to an active schedule. Confirming this action will delete any scheduled sessions within that date range. The system will automatically move registered students to the next available session.

Issue: A Scheduled Detention consequence isn't assigning students to sessions. Solution: This usually means no detention period has been created and assigned to the consequence yet. Confirm a detention period exists (Step 2) and that it's selected in the consequence's Detention Period field (Step 3). The consequence stays inactive until both are in place.

FAQs

Will parents get a separate email for every detention session?

No, Parents will not get a separate email for every detention session. They receive one email listing every scheduled session when the consequence is first assigned, then one reminder per session as each one approaches.

Can I set a consequence to assign more than one detention session?

Yes, you can set a consequence to assign more than one detention session by entering a value in the Quantity field under Number of Scheduled Detentions. Minga schedules each session sequentially so the student is never double-booked.

Can multiple detention periods run at the same time?

Multiple detention periods can run at the same time if you create additional types of detention periods scheduled for the same days and hours.

Will editing an individual session change the entire recurring period?

Editing an individual session only affects that specific session and does not alter the configuration of the master detention period.

What happens to registered students if a detention session is deleted?

If a detention session is deleted, the system displays a warning modal and automatically moves all registered students to the next available detention session.

Can I update multiple detention sessions at the same time?

You cannot bulk edit detention sessions because sessions must be adjusted individually using their respective edit icons.

Set Up and Manage Scheduled Detentions

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