Attendance Definitions
Truant - a student missing more than 30 minutes of instruction without an excuse three times during the school year.
Habitual Truants - a student who is absent without a legitimate excuse for three or more consecutive school days, seven or more school days in one month or twelve or more school days in a school year.
Chronic Truants - EC Section 48263.6: Any pupil who is absent from school without a valid excuse for ten percent or more of the school days in one school year, from the date of enrollment to the current date, is deemed a chronic truant.
Chronic Absence - is missing an extended amount of school for any reason, and includes both excused and unexcused absences. Although no standard definition exists, it is recommended that a chronic absence is missing 10 percent or more of school in an academic year.
Once the student is considered a habitual truant (3rd Step Truant) or has excessive absences for illness, the student will be referred to the Principal, who will arrange for a Student Attendance Review Team (SART) Meeting.
Team members may and should consist of an administrator, attendance secretary, student, parent, school counselor, teacher, attendance liaison, and/or school psychologist.
A corrective action plan will be developed with parental input.
The student will again be directed to attend all classes unless excused for legal reasons.
The parents or guardians and student will be informed that failure to follow this directive will be considered “defiance of authority,” the following incident may lead to loss of extracurricular and co-curricular eligibility and a referral to law enforcement.
Alternative programs, including the need for additional counseling, may be discussed.
It is not expected that school sites must try all of the listed interventions but should logically try incentives that may work for the student depending on their issues in not attending school. Professionals from the above agencies make additional resources and services available to families at the SARB meeting.
Example Interventions:
Home Visit(s)
Referral to School Counselor
Student Mentoring
Student Attendance Review Team (SART)
Referral to School Nurse
Class Schedule Change
Modified Day
Parent Conference
Student Study Team (SST)
Parent Attending Classes
Wrap Around Services
Attendance Incentives
Refer to School Attendance Review Board Hearing (SARB) once your school has exhausted all possibilities of support/monitoring for students and families and the interventions have not significantly improved attendance. The student is now on his/her 5th Step of Truancy. The SARB is a community/school program designed to meet the needs of youth with attendance and behavior problems. The MUSD Review Board is comprised of the district's CWA Supervisor, School Psychologist, School Counselor, School Resource Officer, School Nurse, MUSD Homeless Youth Liaison, Madera County Mental Health, Madera County Human Services, and Madera County Probation Department.
* At a SARB hearing, a student school representative must present the case to the SARB Board.