Reporting Absences and Tardiness

Connecticut General Statute 10-184 requires that all student absences and tardiness be reported to the school office. Whenever your child is absent or tardy, the school should be notified.  For the parent’s convenience, we maintain a 24-hour attendance voice mail.  Parents are asked to contact the office at (203) 888-4513, Press 2 before 7:30 AM.  Voice mail allows you to leave a message regarding absence.  Any absence reported by the teacher but not by the parent will alert the school to a potential problem and will necessitate a call to you either at home or at work.  Please make sure the school office has current phone numbers.  It is critical that the school is notified of absence/tardiness – it is not only a legal issue but also a matter of safety for all of our children.

Reporting an absence to the attendance line accounts for the student; however, it does not qualify the absence as being an “excused absence.”

Attendance Procedure

1. If a student is absent from or tardy to school, the parent/guardian is expected to contact the school attendance line: (203) 888-4513, Press 2 by 7:30 a.m.  

2. If the school has not heard from the parent/guardian or designee by the designated time, then a telephone call will be made via the SchoolMessenger system to the parents/guardians in order to verify a student’s absence.  Reasonable effort will be made to contact the parent/guardian if they are not reached.  Please keep daytime phone numbers current with the school’s main office and update your SchoolMessenger information as necessary. A letter will notify parents who repeatedly fail to contact the school regarding their child’s absence with a copy submitted to the Superintendent.

3. When your child returns to school, please send him/her back with signed documentation.  Documentation can be written by a parent (absences one through nine) and should be returned to the homeroom teacher.

4. If your child is absent for a 10th time, please send him/her back with signed documentation that meets the criteria described in this section (DOCUMENTING AN EXCUSED ABSENCE).

5. Students absent for a total of ten (10) days will be referred to the Attendance Review Committee for monitoring.

6. Teachers are expected to report, to the building administrators, any pattern of absences and/or tardiness so the problem can be addressed immediately.

Documenting an Excused Absence

In order for a student absence to be considered an “excused absence,” SMS must receive written documentation describing the reason for the absence within ten (10) days of the student’s return to school.  In addition, the following conditions must be met:

1. Any absence before the student’s 10th absence is considered as excused if the student’s parent/guardian approves such absence and submits appropriate written documentation (i.e. a signed parent note, doctor’s note, note from school official who communicated with a parent, etc.).  Neither voicemail, e-mail nor text message shall serve to satisfy the requirement of written documentation.

2. For the student’s 10th absence and all subsequent absences, only the following reasons with the appropriate written documentation, submitted within ten school days of the student’s return to school, will constitute an “excused absence”.  Please note that several of these reasons require documentation beyond that of a written parent note:

• Student illness (written documentation must be signed by a medical professional);

• Religious holidays;

• Mandated court appearances (written documentation must be in the form of an official document of the legal requirement to appear);

• Funeral, death in the family, or other emergency beyond the control of the student’s family;

• Lack of transportation that is normally provided by a district other than the one the student attends;

• Extraordinary educational opportunity (written pre-approval from school administration required).

Failure to provide the proper documentation for absence can lead to truancy, which by definition is: any student five (5) to eighteen (18) years of age, inclusive, who has four (4) unexcused absences from school in any one month or ten (10) unexcused absences from school in any school year.

These school regulations are consistent with the Seymour BOE Student Attendance and Truancy Policy (P1020), as well as meeting the requirements of the State Board of Education.