Attendance

Attendance Matters
Promoting academic success

Are you planning a family trip for the holidays? As you think about your arrangements, we want to stress the importance of sending your child to school every day possible. Every year, absences spike in the weeks before and after the winter holiday as families squeeze in a few more vacation days. It’s time to break that cycle.

We know that just a few missed days here and there, even if they’re excused absences, can add up to too much lost learning time and put your child behind in school. This is as true in kindergarten as it is in high school. Put simply, too many absences at any age can affect a student’s chances for academic success and eventually for graduation.

We recognize that holidays are an important time for reconnecting with families far away. The costs of plane tickets often influence when you want to travel. But keep in mind the costs to your children’s education if they miss too much school— and the message you will be sending about the importance of attendance. Even if you’ve got a homework packet from the teacher, it doesn’t make up for the interaction and learning that happens in the classroom.

Attendance Standard

• All students are expected to be on time and present each day school is open during the school year.

• Students may not be absent from school without permission of the principal/designee.

  • The school principal or designee is the only person authorized to excuse a student’s absence.
  • A note from a parent/guardian is a request that a student’s absence be excused.
  • When a student accumulates an excessive number of absences (5 days in a calendar month or 10 days
    within 90 calendar days) and additional absences occur which are caused by illness, a written statement from
    a physician verifying that the absence was caused by an illness may be required by the principal to be
    submitted by the parent/guardian (School Board Policy 4.16).

• Habitual tardiness is defined as six (6) or more tardies to school or to an individual class per quarter.

• For enforcement of compulsory school attendance, three unexcused tardies or unexcused early sign-outs may,
  at the discretion of the school principal, be considered equal to one day of absence.

Make-Up Work

A student who is absent and the absence is determined to be an excused absence, as defined by School Board Policy 4.16, is required to make up all course work missed. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain assignments from the appropriate teacher(s) upon returning to class immediately following an absence. The student will be given the number of days absent plus one additional day to make up all work missed for full credit.