SLC Elementary Attendance Update

Though our attendance protocols can be found in our student handbook, every year we have questions come up regarding them. I wanted to take the opportunity to explicitly share this information with families at the beginning of the school year, as well as address some of the common questions we receive.

In recent years attendance has become difficult to navigate, since we want to keep everyone healthy. As a parent, I know firsthand that it can be difficult to decide whether or not to send your child to school when they have symptoms. A cough, sneeze, or runny nose alone should not keep you from sending your child to school. However if your child has a fever, they should not return to school until they have been fever free for 24 hours. When in doubt you can always reach out to Mrs. Tuper for advice.

Here is some additional information which may be helpful to know:

• Each morning the teachers take attendance. If a student arrives after 9:05 a.m. they are considered tardy and a parent must sign them in at the office.

• Students must deliver excuses for absence(s) to the nurse upon their return to school. All cases of sudden and severe out-of-school illnesses or injury should be reported to the school nurse, Mrs. Tuper, when such information is available. Keeping us informed of these instances helps us to better support your child through the illness or injury.

• If your child is absent for a few days in a row, you will likely receive a phone call from our school nurse, Mrs. Tuper, checking in on your child.

• Attempts to get students back in school may include calls home from the counselors to ensure there are no additional barriers, and if there are, we try to support the family in overcoming these barriers.

• If your child is absent from school for more than 18 days in a school year, New York State considers them “chronically absent.” This is true whether or not the absences are considered excused.

The following chart shows our action steps (attendance protocols) in supporting families with addressing their child's attendance:

If your child is feeling well, we expect to see them at school. If they are ill or cannot attend school on a given day, we do appreciate a phone call, email, or direct message via our school app. If there are any barriers to your child attending school that we may be able to assist you with at any time, please reach out. Our goal is to support student attendance and success by taking a team approach with families. Please do not hesitate to reach out to one of our counselors, Mrs. McFarland or Ms. White, or myself if we may be of any assistance. We can be reached on our school app, by phone, or email, as shown below:

School Phone Number: 315-389-5131

• Mrs. McFarland (counselor), phone extension 29352, kmcfarland@bfcsd.org

• Ms. White (counselor), phone extension 29350, cwhite@bfcsd.org

• Mrs. Tuper (nurse), phone extension 29312, atuper@bfcsd.org

• Mrs. Colterman (principal), phone extension 29300, dcolterman@bfcsd.org

Respectfully,

Danielle Colterman, Principal

St. Lawrence Central Elementary