Academics

We all want your teenager to have a successful, well-rounded start to high school. Here are five fast things you can do to get started, before school starts and throughout the school year:

• Check who your child's support system will be at NFA. Find out who these people are!
  • Building principal
  • Grade level principal
  • Guidance counselors
  • Social Worker
  • Nurses
• Help your student know their options!
  • All three NFA buildings provide amazing opportunities for our scholars to grow
  • On the resources page, please find three videos- one for each of our NFA buildings to get a view of the school through the eyes of current NFA students!
• Talk with your teenager about their long-term goals for high school! It's an exciting time and many students are bursting with big plans for how they want the next four years to go.
  • Once you know their goals and dreams, start a conversation about the steps your teen will need to take to reach these goals. Break down the long term dreams into smaller, achievable steps, so that your teen can start the school year with a game plan.
• Provide structure
  • Your teen is probably feeling pretty grown up at this point, but don’t be fooled—he or she still needs you to be a parent! Help your student set up routines for
    • Homework completion
    • Balancing academics and life
    • Healthy eating habits
    • Getting enough sleep
    • Practicing good mental health
• Foster independence
  • It won’t be long before your teen becomes an adult, and it’s your job to make sure that he or she has all the tools he or she needs to be successful in the real world. This often means teaching basic life skills such as:
    • Cooking
    • Laundry
    • Organization
    • Time management

Balancing Academics and Life

There is a common fear that students will not be able to handle the increased amount of work while also trying to expand their horizons into clubs and team sports. It is important to make sure that schoolwork comes first before clubs or sports. In order to take on these extra opportunities, students need to have a solid plan for completing their schoolwork.

Keep the following advice in mind:

• Help your student make a plan to complete schoolwork
  • Find a place
  • Find a time
• Check with your child regularly about how much of their schoolwork they're completing.
  • If sports or out of school activities are taking away time to complete schoolwork, families may need to have a conversation about cutting back time from an activity or stopping the activity.
• Check your students' progress reports and report cards! If your student is struggling, ask them to make a plan to fix whatever is stopping their success

Stay Organized!

The more organized you can be, the more you can help your student organize themselves! Some quick tips for staying organized that you can help your student follow:

• Keep your priorities straight
  • Going from the limited options of middle school to the almost unlimited opportunities provided in high school can be a lot for teenagers to handle. Help your student narrow down some of their interests so that they don't get involved in too many extracurriculars- academics have to come first to graduate!
• Get enough rest
  • The teenage brain is constantly working! If your student can’t focus, takes too much time to settle in to a task, or finds themself continually getting lost in other thoughts, they might be overly tired.
    • We all do our best work when we're rested and refreshed. Help your student get rest by creating a procedure for when it's time to sleep. This will also help in the morning when they have to get up for those 7am classes!
• Schedule specific time for big tasks
  • Breaking big tasks (like a project, essay, or studying for a Regents exam!) into smaller pieces makes it easier to accomplish and commit to
    • Instead of waiting until the night before to do that big project, encourage your student to work on a small piece of it each night, or focus on studying just one topic a night in addition to their homework
• Make a to-do list- and have it be visible!
  • Write a list of things that need to happen the next day- and make sure to cross them off as you complete them during the day!
  • If anything on the list does not get completed, it should become an immediate priority for the next day!
  • Sometimes it can be helpful to include smaller tasks that you know you’ll accomplish on this list. It's satisfying to see your accomplishments get crossed off and your list get smaller!
    • Including small victories like making your bed, reading something you actually enjoy for twenty minutes, and showering can help get a few things crossed off right away and might help to motivate you to finish the rest of the list!
• Keep your agenda up to date
  • Every high schooler at NFA gets an agenda from the school!! Help your student get into the habit of using it to keep track of assignments, due dates, meetings, and scheduled events.
• Get everything ready the night BEFORE!
  • Save yourself and your student time and stress by making sure they get their book bag ready the night before with everything they need.
  • If your student tends to take a long time getting ready in the morning, it could also help to encourage them to decide on their outfit the night before as well!

Comprehensive Attendance Policy

The Attendance Coding System The coding system will be the codes found in the District’s data processing student information system.

Excused Absence – An absence for any portion of the school day or a full school day that meets the conditions specified under “Excused Absence”.

Unexcused Absence – An absence for any portion of the school day or a full school day that does not meet the conditions specified under “Excused Absence”.

Absent/Exempt – An absence for a field trip, internship, visit to school nurse or other authorized school activity.

Tardy – The failure of a student to be physically present in the building at the start of the designated school day, or the designated start of a class period at the middle and secondary levels. A tardy may be excused or unexcused.

Early Departure - The failure of a student to be physically present in the building at the end of the designated school day or a class period. An early departure may be excused or unexcused.

Excused Absence Requires a written notification to the school from the parent/guardian Illness of student. Serious illness, quarantine or death in the family. Observance of a religious holiday, Doctor’s appointment, Family emergency, Military obligation Extraordinary weather conditions, and Road test (with proof of scheduled test).

For absences, the written excuse from the parent/guardian should be presented by the student on the day when returning to school following the absence but must be presented within five (5) school days after returning to school. For tardies and early departures, the written excuse should be presented to the school on the day of the tardy or early departure with the reason for the tardy or early departure.

Parent/Guardian Notification of Violation If a student exhibits a pattern of unexcused absence, tardiness and/or early departure, the parent(s)/guardian will be contacted. In addition, the student shall meet with the classroom teacher and/or a guidance counselor, social worker or attendance teacher in an effort to remediate the underlying problem. The Building Principal or designee may meet with the student and/or his/her parent(s)/guardian. All verbal, electronic and written contacts with the parent(s)/guardian will be documented by the District.

District Link:

https://go.boarddocs.com/ny/necsd/Board.nsf/files/BDWPDR6425A8/$file/5100%20COMPREHENSIVE%20STUDENT%20ATTENDANCE%20-June%2018%202019.pdf