Absences and Tardies
Your child’s attendance at school is a big deal. Missing even 10% (just two days per month) leads to a significant loss of learning opportunities. Do everything you can to help your student(s) love school and show up daily. This is an important life skill that will serve them well into adulthood. Even when a child struggles to learn, showing up each day: shows resilience and also impacts their social and emotional learning:
- Teaches the payoffs of resilience
- Builds confidence
- Increases self-esteem
- Holds connectivity with their teacher(s) who can reinforce learning strategies
- Provides them with irreplaceable social interactions
This year, we will strive for students to come to school daily, be on time and stay for the entire day. Students who stay home because of illness should be exhibiting symptoms such as a fever, vomiting, severe cough/cold, etc. If you need to excuse an absence, messages to excuse must be received within 5 school days of the absence and must include a reason for the absence. Outside of these guidelines will result in absences remaining unexcused.
Students who arrive in their class, ready to learn, after 8:45 are considered tardy. Tardy slips are distributed beginning at 9:00 AM, but students arriving after 8:45 will still be marked tardy by the classroom teacher. Tardies are only excused with a medical note.
Students who feel ill while at school will be assessed for the same symptoms before calling home. Without one or more of these symptoms, we will supervise the student throughout the day and provide them opportunities to rest, when needed.
Checking Students Out
We ask parents to avoid checking students out early as often as possible to avoid missing valuable instruction. If you must check your student out, please come to the front doors and ring the bell. You will be asked to come in to complete the Student Check Out Form. You will also be asked to verify your identity by providing your government issued ID card. The ID you provide must match the information in ASPIRE. Afterwards, the student will be called down from the classroom. This process can take up to 10 minutes so please allow yourself plenty of time. For student safety, we will not call students down prior to checking ID in the office.
In the case a student must leave early for a doctor’s appointment, please help us keep accurate attendance by providing a doctor’s note the next school day or by email.
Please be aware that we will not check out a student during the last 15 minutes of school except in emergencies. This time is extremely busy for teachers and staff. Thank you for understanding.
These guidelines are in place to support student success. Research shows that chronic absences and tardies impact students’ academic, social, emotional, and behavioral success. We want each student to be successful, and together we can make this happen!
