Attendance

When picking up students during the instructional day, parents/guardians are required to present a physical government issued ID prior to entering the building then proceed to the main office for assistance in the checkout process. This process ensures the safety of your student and the school campus.

Upon returning to school the same day, parents/guardians must also check the student back in with the office.

Students will only be released to their parents/guardians or to parties authorized by parents/guardians, who are 18 years or older.

If a parent/guardian desires to take his/her student at the completion of an activity, written notification must be given to the teacher and the main office ahead of time. No child will be permitted to leave the school with any other adult unless the parent/guardian has given written permission to release the child to that person’s custody.

Without prior authorization from a parent/legal guardian, students will not be released before the end of the school day to anyone other than a parent or legal guardian or designated emergency contact. By default, a parent who resides with the student and a parent who resides at another address will be allowed to pick up the student.

Parents should notify the school administration in writing to allow other individuals, including but not limited to step-parents, older siblings and grandparents, or child care providers to pick up their child(ren) prior to the end of the school day.

All absences, excused or unexcused, contribute to the overall attendance rate for your child. Students with 10% or more absences at any time during the school year, will be considered chronically absent, regardless if the absences are excused or unexcused.

Teachers will reach out to parents when consecutive days of absences or concerns are noticed:

• Families will receive notification when a student has been absent for 5 days of school, regardless if the absences are excused or unexcused.
   
• After 10 days of absences, a school administrator may reach out again to the family regarding the student’s attendance and an attendance letter will be emailed home.
   
• After 16 days of absences (considered chronically absent), an administrator will contact families and an attendance contract may be put in place. 
   
• If a student continues to be absent, a home visit may be made by an administrator and School Resource Officer and other steps may be taken, as school personnel are mandatory reporters, if the child’s safety or educational neglect is a concern. 

Additional information can be found in the Truancy Policy. <LINK?>

• Attendance at the elementary level will be recorded within 10 minutes after class begins in the morning and within 10 minutes after class resumes after lunch. 
   
• Attendance at the secondary level will be recorded within the first 10 minutes of each attendance period. 
   
• If a student is absent in the classroom when attendance is taken, the student will be marked absent.

Tardiness is defined as the appearance of a student without proper excuse after the school day begins or within the first 10 minutes of the scheduled time that a class begins.

Early departure is defined as a student’s departure from class within the last 10 minutes of class. 

Partial absence is defined as a student arriving 10 or more minutes late to class, or leaving 10 or more minutes before the end of class. 

A proper excuse during the school day is considered a pass signed by another staff member excusing the tardy.

Late arrival within the first 10 minutes to school with a parent excuse will be marked as an excused tardy and contributes to the total number of absent time for a student.

Because of the disruptive nature of tardiness and the detrimental effect upon the rights of the non-tardy student to uninterrupted learning, penalties, disciplinary action, or other alternatives shall be imposed for excessive tardiness.

For district purposes of calculating truancy and chronic absenteeism, three (3) tardies or early departures will be considered a partial absence and three (3) partial absences will be considered an absence.