Absence AI

The Issue

Reporting a single student absence often triggers a chain of manual processes — notifying teachers, updating attendance records, alerting the nurse's office — which can take up to 15 minutes of staff time per student. For schools managing hundreds of students, this adds up quickly and pulls staff away from more pressing tasks.

This Solution

Absence AI demonstrates how a Realtime LLM voice agent can handle the entire absence reporting workflow automatically. Parents call in, speak naturally, and the system collects, confirms, and processes the absence — reducing staff handling time to virtually zero.

Features

• Realtime voice intake: Parents report absences in a natural voice conversation — no forms, no hold times.
• Smart absence collection: Handles single or multiple students in one call, with per-student reasons.
• Illness triage for the nurse's office: When a student is absent due to illness, the agent follows up to collect relevant health details — fever, vomiting, positive COVID/flu tests, and any other symptoms — and routes a structured note to the nurse.
• Automated confirmation: The agent verifies all details with the parent before submitting.
• Structured record generation: Produces clean, typed absence records without manual data entry.
• Minimal staff intervention: Designed to test workflows that reduce staff time dramatically.

Screenshots

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

• Node.js (v18 or newer) and npm installed. Download Node.js
• An OpenAI API key (get one here)

Quick Start

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/internetdrew/absence-ai.git
   cd absence-ai

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Create your local environment file:

   cp .env.example .env.local

Then edit .env.local and add your OpenAI API key.

4. Start the development server:

   npm run dev

Tech Stack

• Frontend: React + Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui
• Realtime API: OpenAI Realtime (WebRTC)
• Voice handling: Browser microphone + WebRTC peer connection
• Backend: Node.js Express server for session handling

Project Structure

License

MIT License

Agent Notes

See AGENTS.md for repo-specific guidance and Realtime/WebRTC conventions.