Notice

To be successful in this endeavor, it is imperative that all members of the school community are aware of this policy, its purpose, procedures and the consequences of non-compliance. To ensure that students, parents, teachers and administrators are notified of and understand this policy, the following procedures shall be implemented.

• The attendance policy will be included in student handbooks and will be reviewed with students at the start of the school year.

• Parents will receive a plain language summary of this policy by mail at the start of the school year. Parents will be asked to sign and return a statement indicating that they have read and understand the policy.

• When a student is absent, tardy, or leaves early from class or school without excuse, designated staff member(s) will notify the student’s parent(s) by phone and mail of the specific ATED, remind them of the attendance policy, and review ATED intervention procedures with them.

• A back-to-school event will be held at the beginning of each school year to explain this policy and stress the parent’s responsibility for their ensuring their children’s attendance.

• School newsletters and publications will include periodic reminders of the components of this policy.

• The district will provide a copy of the attendance policy and any amendments thereto to faculty and staff. New staff will receive a copy upon their employment.

• All faculty and staff will meet at the beginning of each school year to review the attendance policy to clarify individual roles in its implementation.

• Copies of this policy will also be made available to any community member, upon request.

Excused and Unexcused Absences

Excused ATEDs are defined as absences, tardiness, and early departures from class or school due to personal illness, illness or death in the family, impassable roads or weather, religious observance, quarantine, required court appearances, attendance at health clinics, approved college visits, approved cooperative work programs, military obligations, or such other reasons as may be approved.

All other ATEDs are considered unexcused absences.

All ATEDs must be accounted for. It is the parent’s responsibility to notify the school office within at least 24 hours of the ATED and to provide a written excuse upon the student’s return to school.

General Procedures/Data Collection

• Attendance will be taken during each class period.

• At the conclusion of each class period or school day, all attendance information shall be complied and provided to the designated staff member(s) responsible for attendance.

• The nature of an ATED shall be coded on a student’s record.

• Student ATED data shall be available to and should be reviewed by the designated school personnel in an expeditious manner.

• Where additional information is received that requires corrections to be made to a student’s attendance records such correction will be made immediately. Notice of such a change will be sent to appropriate school personnel subject to applicable confidentiality rules.

• Attendance data will be analyzed periodically to identify patterns or trends in student absences.

• Where consistent with other school practices, teachers and staff shall detain students in the hallways who are absent from a class period without excuse and refer the students to the Building Principal.

• Continuous monitoring will be conducted to identify students who are absent, tardy, or leave class or school early.

Attendance Incentives

The district will design and implement systems to acknowledge a student’s efforts to maintain or improve school attendance. For example:

• Monthly lottery drawings to award prizes for perfect attendance. Three prizes will be awarded each month at each grade level. Names of students with perfect attendance will be placed in a drawing by grade and three names will be drawn for the award of prizes each month, subject to parental consent and applicable confidentiality rules.

• An attendance honor roll shall be maintained and published monthly identifying those students with perfect attendance as well as those students whose attendance has improved significantly, subject to parental consent and applicable confidentiality rules.

• At the building and classroom levels, Building Principals and teachers are encouraged to schedule special events (quizzes, game days, debates, etc.) for days of chronically high absenteeism, like Mondays and Fridays.

• At the classroom levels, teachers are encouraged to assign special responsibilities (distribute and collect materials, lead groups, assist the teacher, etc.) to students who may need extra motivation to come to school.

Disciplinary Consequences

Unexcused ATEDs will result in disciplinary action consistent with the district’s code of conduct. Those penalties may include, for example, detention or in-school suspension. Students may also be denied the privilege of participating in or attending extracurricular events.

In addition, designated staff member(s) will contact the student’s parents and the student’s guidance counselor. Such staff member(s) shall remind parents of the attendance policy, explain the ramifications or unexcused ATEDs, stress the importance of class attendance and discuss appropriate intervention strategies to correct the situation.

Attendance/Grade Policy

The Board of Education recognizes an important relationship between class attendance and student performance. Consequently, each marking period a student’s final grade may be based on classroom participation as well as student’s performance on homework, tests, papers, projects, etc.

Students are expected to attend all scheduled classes. Consistent with the importance of classroom participation, unexcused ATEDs will affect a student’s class participation grade for the marking period.

 At the high school level, any student with more than nine unexcused ATEDs for one-half year or 18 unexcused ATEDs for a full year will not receive credit for that course. However, students with properly excused ATEDs may make up the work for each ATED, and those ATEDs will not count toward the minimum attendance standard.

To ensure that parents and students are aware of the implications of this minimum attendance requirement, the teacher or other designated staff member(s) will advise the student and contact the parent(s) by telephone and mail at appropriate intervals prior to the student reaching nine or 18 unexcused ATEDs.

In implementing the policy set forth above, students who are unable to attend school or a class on a given day due to their participation in a school-sponsored activity (i.e., music lessons, field trips), may arrange with their teachers to make up any work missed. This also applies to any student who is absent, tardy or leaves early from school or a class due to illness or any other excused reason.

All students with an excused ATED are expected upon their return to consult with their teachers regarding missed work.

Only those students with excused ATEDs will be given the opportunity to make up a test or other missed work and/or turn in a late assignment for inclusion in their final grade. Make up opportunities must be completed by a date specified by the student’s teacher for the class in question.

Annual Review

The Board shall annually review building-level student attendance records and, if such records show a decline in student attendance, the Board shall review this comprehensive attendance policy and make any revisions to the plan it deems necessary to improve student attendance.

Ref: Education Law 1709; 3024; 3025; 3202; 3205-3213; 3225
        8 NYCRR 104.1; 175.6