Attendance Policies

1) Reporting Student Absence

It is the parents’ responsibility to report students’ absences or late arrivals to the school office. Calls to report a student’s absence may be left on the school voice mail any time between 3:00 pm of the preceding day and 7:00 am of the day of the absence. Parents are encouraged to avoid the rush between 7:00 am and 8:00 am. If you know your child will be absent for a definite number of days, this can be reported on the first day. As a safeguard, the School Connects software will typically send notification via telephone if a student is absent without a reason being logged into our schools’ absence reporting system. The School Connects call-back service offered by the school corporation is not intended to be a fail-proof procedure for accounting for all students. The corporation makes no promise or guarantee of notification to you if your child is absent from school.

2) Prearranged Absences

Every effort should be made to schedule vacations and trips at times other than school days. If this is unavoidable, the parent must notify the school at least two (2) school days prior to the absence. If the school does not receive notification at least 2 days prior to the absence, the absence may be considered unexcused. If the student has more than eight (8) days absence a year including the vacation days, any days over the eight (8) days absence limit will be considered unexcused. In the event that a child is going to be absent, the parent/guardian should notify the school office by filling out and returning a Prearranged Absence Form (see above) to the school secretary. This needs to be done at least 2 days before the planned absence. Prearranged absences are strongly discouraged, particularly during times of standardized testing.

3) Habitual Truancy

A student is considered a "habitual truant" when he/she has three (3) or more unexcused absences from school during a semester, without the knowledge of the parents or school.

4) Excessive Absences

Upon the eighth (8th) unexcused or excused absence of per semester or the fifteenth (15th) unexcused or excused absence per school year, a student and parent will be required to meet with the guidance counselor to help the student improve his/her attendance. The school, student and parent will enter into an attendance contract to correct attendance problems. The attendance contract may require the parent and student to provide the school with a doctor’s note for each additional absence. In such a case, if a doctor’s note is not provided to the school the absence will be marked unexcused. Anytime a student has missed five (5) consecutive days due to an illness, a doctor’s note will be required.