Attendance and Tardy Policy

For your child to get the most of his/her school experience it is very important that he/she attends school regularly, and arrives on time.  Absences and tardies have a strong effect on student performance.  Students arriving late also disrupt the learning for other children.  If your child is ill, he/she should, of course, stay at home, but please stress the importance of coming to school and arriving on time.

1. Gates open at 8:05 a.m. and the line up bell rings at 8:23 a.m.
2. Students who arrive late to school between 8:30 a.m. and 8:35 a.m. report directly to their classroom and are subject to classroom tardy policies.
3. Students who arrive after 8:30 a.m. will serve noon detention (on the same day) to make up the minutes tardy.  Students who are late due to a medical or dental appointment will be asked for a note from the doctor verifying the office visit.
4. Parents of students with three or more unexcused absences or excessive excused absences and those with excessive tardies must meet with the administration to sign a SART contract to improve the child’s attendance.
5. Truancy caused by excessive excused and unexcused absences and tardies will be submitted to the District Student Attendance Review Board.
6. Parents are asked to not take children out of class in the last 30 minutes of school, between 2:30 to 3:00 p.m.  This time is critical as teachers close the instructional day and give instruction regarding homework and assignments.  Try to schedule doctor’s appointment after school so that children are not disrupted in the last half hour of class.  Please give the office staff the reason for taking out your child. A doctor’s note may be requested for repeated early checkouts.

Illness

If your child should become ill in school, you will be contacted to come and take him/her home. It is important that you notify the school when you have a change of address or telephone number (at home or business) and if there is a change in the name or telephone number of the person to be contacted if you are not available. Keep your child home if he/she is not feeling well or has a temperature.

When a child must be absent, please notify the school by a phone call to the office and/or with a note when your child returns to school after the absence. Please include within the note date(s) of absence, child’s name, teacher’s name, and reasons for the absence, and your signature. If the absence is not reported by the second day, our automated attendance phone system will call you to request a reason for the absence.

Requests for Make-up Homework When Your Child is Ill

If your child has been absent for several days, and you wish to get make-up work, please call our office, and we will forward your request to the teacher. This homework will be made available to you in our office. We need at least one day’s notice, and possibly more, in order to provide the teacher the time necessary to properly assign the studies for your child.

Independent Study

This is strongly encouraged for students who are absent for any reason for 5 or more consecutive days. This must be arranged 3 days’ prior to the absence. This counts towards the monies our district receives from the State and is very important!

Accidents

In case of an emergency, the paramedics are called. It is very important that we have ALL phone numbers where parents can be reached in case of an emergency. Therefore, we require Emergency Cards be filled out completely, including cell phone and pager numbers. We must also have the names and phone numbers of people we may contact if you cannot be reached.

IF ANY OF THE INFORMATION CHANGES DURING THE YEAR, PLEASE NOTIFY YOUR CHILD’S TEACHER OR THE SCHOOL OFFICE. THIS WILL HELP US GUARANTEE THE SAFETY OF YOUR CHILD.

Students Who Need Medication at School

Any prescription or non-prescription medicine to be administered at school must include a Medication Consent form kept on file in the Nurse’s Office. Pick up these forms from the school office before an appointment with your doctor.

Doctor or Dental Appointments

It is requested that dental and doctor appointments be made outside of school hours. Children will miss instruction that is impossible to make up if they are taken out during school hours. If this cannot be avoided, we ask that a note to the teacher, giving the reason and time, be sent with the child. Parents/Guardians then need to come to the office and sign their child out whenever leaving before regular dismissal. Verification of the appointment may be requested to clear the absence or instructional time missed.