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Attendance

Showing Up Matters for REAL! 

Participating in school offers opportunities to:

  • build Routines

  • increase Engagement

  • provide Access to Resources

  • support Learning

Routines: Daily attendance routines can reduce stress, increase your child’s self-confidence and lay a foundation for good attendance in later grades. 

Engagement:  Participation in school helps your child connect with other children and adults and get excited about learning. 

Access to Resources:  Schools can give you access to meals, physical and mental health care and other supports, and fun enrichment activities (sports, clubs, music, afterschool and summer programs, etc.). 

Learning:  Children learn best from hand-on activities and through meaningful interactions with their teacher and other students.

  1. Attendance Limits:

    • 10-Day Absence Limit: Students should not miss more than 10 days in a school year. Parents may excuse their student from school 10 times in a year. Additional excused absences may be allowed under district policy for certain reasons such as religious observances, funeral attendance, or  medical necessity.

      • If a student misses school due to medical reasons, those absences will count toward their 10-day limit unless they provide a written statement from a medical professional. The statement must confirm that the student was not in suitable physical or mental condition to attend school.

    • The district will make efforts to notify families when they are approaching their 10 day excuse limit.  

  2. Reporting Absences:

    • Call in the absence: Notify the school each time your student will be absent. Notifying the school is the best way to ensure the student absence is excused.

    • Advanced Notice: If you know in advance that your student will be absent for more than one day, please inform the school office ahead of time.

  3. Coming in Late/Leaving Early 

    • Students that miss more than one-third of the school day will accrue 0.5 absence(s).

      1. In our elementary schools, one-third of the school day is 2 hours and 20 minutes on regular start days. On late start days one-third of the school day is 1 hour and 40 minutes. 

      2. In our high school and middle schools, daily absences are calculated based on how many scheduled periods the student misses in a day. 

    • Once a student has missed more than two-thirds of the school day, they will accrue 1.0 absence(s) 

    • In our elementary schools, two-thirds of the school day is 4 hours and 40 minutes on regular start days. On late start days two-thirds of the school day is 3 hours and 20 minutes.

  4. Truancy and Habitual Truancy 

    • Students are considered truant when they have missed one-third or more of a school day without a valid excuse. 

    • Families may face legal consequences if their student is habitually truant. 

      1. Students are considered habitually truant once they accrue 5 or more unexcused absences in a semester.

Attendance Hotline: (608) 845-4803

Attendance Information