Attendance Information

Attendance is the key to success!

Regular and punctual attendance is the greatest single factor in school success.  Texas Compulsory Attendance Law requires students to attend school regularly, unless otherwise exempted, by law.  It is the responsibility of the parent and student to cooperate and communicate with the school on all attendance matters.  The key to high school graduation is strong school attendance by students and a partnership between guardians and the school.  

In a study conducted, Leander ISD found that students with 10 or more unexcused absences in a single school year, were 15.5 times more likely to drop out of high school.  

At Rouse, we know that students will need to be absent from time to time.  We care about our students and their success in school and at life.  We have designed this site to provide you with information regarding Texas attendance laws and how to ensure compliance and most importantly, student success.  Texas Compulsory Attendance Law has two parts- Truancy and Attendance Hours.  




Attendance Document:


  Attendance Hours vs. Attendance Letters

Texas Education Code Section 25.092 states, "a student may not be given credit for a class unless the student is in attendance for at least 90 percent of the days the class is offered."  

Absences, whether  excused or unexcused, will result in owing attendance hours (seat time) to make up those hours to receive credit for the course. Due to the number of times A-day and B-day classes meet each semester, a student will begin to owe hours for a class period that is missed 4 or more times in the fall semester or 5 or more times during the spring semester. Remember that if a student is tardy after 10 minutes, an absence for the class is recorded.  Therefore,  if a student misses on average any class more than two times a week - every week, they will owe hours for that course. 

 Attendance hours are posted weekly on the AP office wall.  Attendance make-up hours need to be documented on The Attendance Hours Owed Sheet (copies are also available in the AP offices).     

 Attendance hours can be made up by:  

*attending and documenting  tutorials with teachers         *attending and documenting AM or PM detentions, or Saturday School  (see dates and times on the "Attendance Hours Owed Sheet")                                                 *Volunteer hours with a NON-PROFIT organization, but only half can be made up in this manner. Assistant Principal approval is needed if organization is not listed on this form.   

 

Once a student owes hours for a semester, every additional period or day they miss in that semester will accumulate more hours.   

-1 period missed = 1.5 hours owed                                        

- 1 day missed = 6 hours owed     

Texas Education Code Section 65.003 of the Texas Family Code states, "a child engages in truant conduct if the child fails to attend school on 10 or more days or parts of days (one period counts as a part of a day) within a six-month period in the same school year."

Our attendance program codes absences as: 

D- excused (doctors notes)                                       

A- absence (with parent notification)               

O- unexcused absence (no parent notification)       

The "O" or the absence, for a period or an entire day, with no parent communication is what triggers our truancy letters.

*3 full or partial days= first letter                       

* 7 full or partial days= second letter                   

*10 full or partial days=  third letter                                              

Communication within 48 hours of the absence to our attendance secretary will keep truancy letters from being prompted.  After 48 hours the attendance coding can not be changed.  You can send communication 1 of 3 ways:  

1) Send a note with your student.  

2) Send an e-mail from the e-mail address that is on file to RHSAttendance@leanderisd.org 

3)  Send a fax to 512-570-2006 with Student Name and ID #.                           

Please be sure your communication includes:

*The date of the absence                                          

*Student Name, Grade, and ID Number

*Reason for absence

*Parent Signature (for notes)                                                          Even with communication, attendance hours will still accumulate after a student has missed more than 10% of a course for ANY reason.  

 Please contact your alpha assistant principal to start the process of an attendance appeal.