Reporting & Verifying Absences

Administrative Review and Attendance Intervention

Administrative Review

A substantially late, repeated, unusual, or pattern-based request may require administrative review before an attendance mark is changed. Review may be required when a request:

• involves multiple or repeated absences submitted together or after the fact;

• is submitted substantially after the attendance mark occurred;

• is connected to repeated partial-day absences, late arrivals, or early releases;

• raises concern about repeated absences from the same course on known assessment days; or

• is submitted after an attendance-eligibility deadline for a major school activity.

Administrative review does not mean the request is automatically denied. It means an administrator must consider the explanation, documentation, attendance history, and relevant circumstances before the record is changed. Attendance marks will not be changed solely to restore eligibility for an activity, and a late request does not extend a published eligibility deadline.

Chronic Absence

A student is chronically absent after missing 10 percent or more of the school days in which the student has been enrolled, for any reason. The calculation includes absences regardless of attendance code, including excused absences and absences coded A, U, or Z, and is reviewed throughout the year.

Truancy

A student is classified as truant when, without a valid excuse, the student is absent for three full days in one school year; is tardy or absent for more than 30 minutes during the school day on three occasions in one school year; or has any combination of these.

School Response

Depending on the seriousness and circumstances, the school may:

• contact the student and family and review barriers to attendance;

• develop an attendance improvement plan;

• provide counseling, health, academic, case-management, or other support;

• issue formal truancy notifications;

• require a School Attendance Review Team (SART) meeting; or

• refer a continuing serious attendance problem to the School Attendance Review Board (SARB) or another district attendance program when referral requirements are met.

Families are expected to respond to school communication, attend requested meetings, provide required documentation, and participate in the attendance improvement process.