In-Person Attendance

For more information, please visit the CMS page at https://www.cms.k12.nc.us/backtoschool/Pages/Health-and-Safety.aspx.

On days when a student is scheduled to receive In-Person Learning, the student must attend school for at least half of the day to be marked "Present On-Site."

If the student does not attend school on scheduled In-Person Learning days, the appropriate absent code will be used.

The Present-Off Site (1R) code can only be used for a student who does not attend on a scheduled In-Person Learning day if the student is at home due to a suspected, positive case of Covid-19, or if the student is required to quarantine due to Covid-19.

Students absent during In-Person Learning days should engage in/complete asynchronous instruction as make-up work.

On days when a student is scheduled to receive In-Person Learning, the student must attend school for at least half of the day to be marked "Present On Site." If the student does not attend school on scheduled in-person learning days, the appropriate absent code will be used

• Attendance in elementary grades is based on daily attendance.

• Attendance in middle grades is based on daily attendance. Teachers will continue to record attendance by period to inform the daily attendance code.

• HS will maintain attendance by period.

The Present--Off Site (1R) code can only be used for a student who does not attend on scheduled In-Person Learning day if the student is at home due to Covid-19 suspected/positive case or quarantine or administrative disciplinary reasons.

Students absent during in-person learning days will still be expected to engage in/complete asynchronous instruction as make-up work.

In a remote environment, monitoring student engagement is critical. We will maintain a focus on students logging on, leaning in and learning! It is the district's expectation that students make every effort to attend live, in-person classes at the scheduled times. School staff are expected to actively maintain regular (daily) contact with students and families so that should the need for daily attendance considerations arise, documentation is captured through a regularly (daily) monitored, systematic process in order to prevent students from falling behind in their studies. Emphasis will be placed on accurately reporting attendance, not tardies. For students enrolled in courses designed for 100% asynchronous instruction, logging in to live instruction is not required but they must engage in the course content.

A student cannot be considered absent solely due to not logging into an online resource/lesson on a remote learning day. As a result, teachers can consider the present off-site code (1R) for students who do not log in for live instruction and report a short- or long-term hardship. The hardships should be considered for exceptions, and not the default for taking student attendance. In the event that a student is unable to log into live lessons due to device/connectivity issues, isolated home-related occurrences, or longer-term hardships, the family must inform the teacher so that additional considerations for accurately noting student daily attendance are utilized. Additionally, schools must encourage 2-way communication by having staff contact students/families to verify and document the hardship/situation in order for the student to be considered present for the date the student did not log into the live session. In the event that a student does not attend at a live session and does not report a hardship, the student will be coded as absent. If the student is absent due to illness, medical/dental appointments, death in immediate family, religious observances, or other reasons as outlined by the state attendance manual, the student's attendance will be coded as an excused absence. Students who are absent must be allowed to complete all make-up work to be graded in accordance with the CMS grading plan guidelines.

During remote learning, attendance must be entered daily for every student (see Key Attendance Information). In high school, attendance must be recorded daily for each class. In middle school, the daily attendance is taken by the homeroom teacher and by the assigned teacher of each class period. In elementary school the daily attendance is taken by the homeroom teacher. Attendance for students who are present for live, online instruction for 50% or more of the school day will be recorded as "present off-site" (1R).

Considerations for teachers to utilize for families who report short- or long-term hardships include (present off-site-1R code):

1. Completes daily lesson/ module(s) as assigned by teacher, and submits classwork within 1-day of assigned date

2. Evidence of engagement with course content (module completion, posts to discussion boards, enrollment in 100% asynchronous courses, etc.)

3. Two-way course content-related communication between student & teacher

4. Absent for live online instruction but watches recording of instruction, assigned videos or reading selections, or other class assignments on same day