ATTENDANCE
ATTENDANCE
Attendance is to be entered only by teachers using eSchool by 9:15AM daily. Accuracy is very important.
Students have the responsibility to comply with the attendance procedures of the school they are attending. In addition to those regulations established by the Board of Education and the School Code.
Parents are required to email the teacher and the office or submit a written explanation for the legal absence of their child within three school days from the date of the child’s return to school. All received excuse notes are to be sent to the office the day they are received.
Legal absences include, but are not limited to, illness of student, quarantine, physical or mental incapacity, death in the immediate family, court summons, violent weather, school-related work, observances of a religious holiday by bona fide religious groups, religious instruction or a State emergency.
The responsibility for making up work missed during legal absences rests with the student.
Written notification will be sent to parents of a student who has been absent for ten days. Absenteeism beyond twenty days requires a doctor’s excuse for all additional absences. All doctor’s notes should be sent down to the office to be filed in the student’s permanent folder. If a doctor’s note is not provided by the parent, the office MUST be notified. After any 20 school days of absence, a parental conference will be held.
Illegal absences for students under 17 are those due to truancy, parental negligence and unlawful employment. By Pennsylvania Law, the parents of a student who has accumulated three illegal absences and is within the compulsory age limits are to be served a first offense legal notice. Any subsequent illegal absence then makes the parents liable for a fine.
Chronic truancy will be referred to the proper agency for further legal action or, after all reasonable avenues have been explored, expulsion may be initiated.
Upon written parental request, a student may be excused during school hours for the purpose of receiving tutorial instruction by a qualified instructor in a field not offered in the district’s curriculum if the excusal does not interfere with the student’s regular program of studies.
Upon written parental request, a student may be excused during school hours to obtain professional health care or therapy by a licensed practitioner if the service cannot be received outside of school hours.
In extenuating circumstances, homebound instruction may be provided.
Students may be excused to participate in a non-school sponsored educational tour or trip if the student’s parents submit a written request for the excusal on the district trip request form, the trip has been approved by the Superintendent, and if an adult supervising the pupils who is acceptable to both the parents and Superintendent.
All absences will be marked by default UNLAWFUL in eschool. Therefore, ALL Excuse notes or emails relating to a child’s absence must be forwarded to the office daily. The office will be modifying the absences when excuse notes are received from unlawful to excused. Excuse blanks and absence related emails will be filed in the office. If you do not receive an excuse for an absence within three days, you MUST let the office know.
All early dismissal notes and regular dismissal notes MUST be sent to the office in your morning folder. Early dismissal and regular dismissal notes will be put back in your mailbox by lunch time each day.
The office will also accept parent emails to excuse absences for their children. If you receive an email from the parent, you may also accept this as an excused absence and you are required to forward that email to the office.
STUDENT ABSENCE
Students will be required to make-up work missed during a period of illness or absence. Enough work should be assigned so that the student can learn the necessary essentials missed during their absence. It is the teacher’s responsibility to see that the student has an understanding of the concepts missed upon his/her return.
After three days of successive absence, the teacher should contact the parent or vice versa concerning the nature of absence and the possible length of the absence.
Upon returning to school or within three school days, the student MUST bring in a written excuse for his/her absence. ALL EXCUSE NOTES OR EMAIL RELATING TO AN ABSENCE MUST BE SENT TO THE OFFICE. If there is a problem in receiving an excuse, the classroom teacher should contact the school office. Failure to provide a written excuse will result in the absence being declared unlawful. The teacher MUST notify the office if an excuse has not been received within three days.
Letters are sent to the parents/guardians of a student who has accumulated ten days of absence from school. After twenty days of absences, a letter will be sent to the parents/guardian, stating that continued absence will be termed as a chronic, irregular absence, and therefore will require a doctor’s excuse for each additional day of absence. The doctor’s excuses must be sent to the office to be filed in the student’s permanent record. If a doctor’s note is not received, the office must be notified. Irregular absences shall be defined as days missed in a pattern of one and/or two day duration. The principal may require a doctor’s excuse for any questionable periods of absence as verification of illness when a student has been absent frequently. Classroom Attendance must be recorded by 9:15 AM.
STUDENT TARDINESS
Students arriving late must be signed in at the office before reporting to the classroom and will be given a tardy slip to give to you.
STUDENT VACATIONS/LEAVE/ABSENSES
If parents/guardians desire to have their children excused for a trip, which is not school sponsored, but is educational in nature, a written request should be directed to the elementary principal. If approved by the principal, the days missed may be considered as excused absences.
In order for parents to seek approval, a trip request form (requested from school office or obtained online) should be submitted to the principal a minimum of three (3) school days prior to the trip and include:
Dates of trip.
Type of trip to be taken.
Educational value of trip.
Trip requests will not be approved during standardized testing weeks.
Failure to comply with these regulations may mean that the period of absence is illegal. It is the principal’s responsibility to make this determination.