We have seen a significant drop in our percentage of students with 90% or better attendance and we currently have the second lowest attendance of all elementary schools in the district. Here are attendance guidelines from the CPS student handbook you need to know.
A. ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES
1. Parents should notify the office each day that the student is absent prior to the beginning of the school day. Students who are not excused from school by parents, administration, or participation in a school-sponsored activity will be counted as truant.
2. The school will attempt to contact the parent of a student who is absent if, for some reason, the parent fails to notify the school. This may occur by automated or personal phone call.
3. If no contact by a parent/guardian is made within 48 hours following an absence, the student will be considered truant.
4. Students who leave school during the school day without prior parental consent provided to school office staff and without the approval of school office staff will be considered truant.
5. Student absence can become a major concern related to the student’s overall success in school. When a student has been absent from school for five (5) days, parents will be notified via letter. Parents will also be contacted when the student has been absent ten (10) days and fifteen (15) days.
6. When student absence is judged by school staff to be excessive, avoidable, unexcused, or truant, some form of action will be taken. Some or all the strategies below may be utilized to prevent additional occurrences of such absences:
- Student referral to outreach and school counselors or a student assistance team.
- Implementation of the building dropout prevention plan.
- Personal or automated phone calls to parents and letters sent home regarding individual absences.
- Home visits by Home School Communicator or other school personnel.
- Completion of the Public School Truancy Form, including all actions taken by school staff to correct unexcused and truant absences, and forwarding simultaneously to the appropriate authorities (Children’s Division, Juvenile Court Services, Prosecuting Attorney, or other law enforcement officials).
7. Students of the District who attend part-time are eligible to attend field trips within the district only when those trips relate specifically to the classes the student attends. Part-time students are not eligible to attend any field trip that does not relate specifically to a class the student attends within the district, including any grade-level, building-wide or District-wide field trip that does not have a specific curricular purpose (e.g., attendance reward trips, etc.).
8. Attendance may also be used when considering whether to revoke a special permission to attend a school other than his/her home school.
B. ATTENDANCE DEFINITIONS
All absences, including those approved in advance by parents and/or school official, will be counted as days absent, unless the absence is for a school-sponsored activity. Absences can be excused or unexcused.
1. Excused Absences – Parents may excuse up to seven (7) absences per school year. An excused absence is one considered unavoidable for illness, death in the immediate family, unavoidable appointments, required religious observations, required court appearances, or other extenuating circumstances explained to the satisfaction of the principal or designee. All excused absences require the appropriate documentation to be considered excused. Make-up work can be turned in for 100% credit. For coding purposes, excused absences with the appropriate medical documentation will be coded as medical.
2. Unexcused Absence – An unexcused absence is one that does not have the proper documentation to be excused. All unexcused absences will be considered truancies unless the absence is reported to the office by a parent within 48 hours.
Link to student handbook https://www.cpsk12.org/Page/6407
