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Student Absences & Excuses

One criteria of a student’s success in school is regular and punctual attendance. Frequent absences may lead to poor academic work, lack of social development, and possible academic failure. Regular attendance is of utmost importance for school interest, social adjustment, and scholastic achievement. No single factor may interfere with a student’s progress more quickly than frequent tardiness or absence.

According to state law, it is the obligation of every parent/guardian to ensure that every child under their care and supervision receives adequate education and training and, if of compulsory attendance age, attends school.

Continuity in the learning process and social adaptation is seriously disrupted by excessive absences. In most situations, the work missed cannot be made up adequately. Students who have good attendance generally achieve higher grades, enjoy school more, and are more employable after leaving school. For at least these reasons, the Board believes that a student must satisfy two basic requirements in order to earn full class credit: (1) satisfy all academic requirements and (2) exhibit good attendance habits as stated in this policy.

Truancy

If a student is absent without an excuse signed by the parent/guardian or if the student leaves school or a class without permission of the teacher or administrator in charge, the student shall be considered truant. An “habitual truant” shall be defined as a student of compulsory attendance age who has four total days of unexcused absences from school in any one month or 10 total days of unexcused absences during any school year. Absences due to suspension or expulsion shall not be counted in the total of unexcused­ absences for purposes of defining a student as an “habitual truant.”

In order to reduce the incidents of truancy, parents/guardians of all students shall be notified in writing at the beginning of each school year of their obligation to ensure that all children of compulsory attendance age attend school. Parents/guardians shall be required to acknowledge in writing awareness of their obligations and to furnish the school with a telephone number or other means of contacting them during the school day. When a student fails to report on a regularly scheduled school day and school person­nel have received no indication that the parent/guardian is aware of the absence, school per­son­nel or volunteers under the direction of school personnel shall make a reason­able effort to notify the parent/guardian by telephone.

In accordance with law, the district may impose appropriate penalties that relate directly to classes missed while truant.

The administration shall develop regulations to implement appropriate penalties for truancy. The school administration shall consider the correlation between course failure, truancy and a student dropping out of school in developing these regulations and shall implement research-based strategies to re-engage students with a high number of truancies. 

For more information regarding compulsory attendance and District 6 truancy policies, please refer to Board policies JHB (Truancy), JH (Student Absences and Excuses), JFC (Student Withdrawal from School/Dropouts), and JEA (Compulsory Attendance Ages).