If you want to know the best practices for making absent student work bins and folder stations, this post has a collection of ideas for you. When students are absent from class, you can keep copies of work for the week in a station for them to collect when they return to school. Sometimes students can be gone for days and they can feel overwhelmed at the thought of missing out on assignments and notes. Handouts, homework, worksheets, and notes can be kept in folders for students to catch up on work that they missed.

Student-work for absent students can best be stored in storage items like five-drawer rolling cart organizers, hanging file organizers, classroom mailboxes, letter tray organizers, modular drawers, or desktop organizers. These storage options must have a minimum of five or more storage slots for each of the five days of the week so that students can just collect papers from the slots that are labeled with the days for which they were absent.

I love to find awesome classroom organization ideas. As an Amazon affiliate, I may earn a commission for purchases using my links. The ideas and paid links below are based on Amazon finds that are great for making collection stations for students to grab the work they missed.

Absent Student Work Bins and folder Stations

Use a hanging file organizer: Label the folders in a wall hanging organizer with the days of the week. The days of the week and the words ‘We Missed You’ (in the picture) were made with a Cricut. A file pocket chart can hold worksheets, papers, or folders for a week’s worth of work.

Use a drawer cart: Store each day’s worksheets and handouts in mobile drawers, which can be moved around for stations. The extra drawers can be used for additional filing. Vinyl stickers or Washi tape with the days of the week can be added. I made this free template of Days of the Week labels that you can add to your drawers.

Use stacking modular drawers: Plastic stackable drawers are commonly used in classroom for storing filing papers and weekly work. You can choose to stack them tall from the ground up, or stack them on a table top with each stack being for a different subject area. See the Sterilite drawers here.

Use a letter tray organizer: This sturdy letter tray organizer has slots for each weekday. Wire frame organizers always last a long time. It is easy to label each slot with the days of the week by using small binder clips. Just add a label sticker to each binder clip, then clip them to the compartments.

Use a classroom mailbox organizer: If you need something with more than the five slots for the days of the week, you can use a mailbox organizer that has many slots, especially with removable slots. This will allow you to create the amount of space you need to organize your worksheets and class notes.

Use book bins: Each book bin can be labeled with a different day of the week or subject and be filled with handouts for that day. See different book bin colors here. Washi tape with the days of the week (like this one) can be added to each bin.

Use a desktop organizer tray: Some teachers organize handouts by subject. An organizer tray with many slots is good for this. A sturdy organizer like this will have enough storage for a week’s worth of handouts.

Use plastic stackable Trays: These five-tray stackable trays come in bright assorted colors that can be labeled Monday to Friday for each day of the work week. 

A substitute teacher from my facebook page says that she keeps a file folder on each kid’s desk. For every paper that she passes out, a copy goes into the folder. For kids that change classes, she puts it in a wall hanging file folder organizer or just a location with extra papers for the entire unit. She teaches the lower grades.

More ideas will be added soon.