Attendance

Hazelbrook Middle School Attendance

Tardy and Skipping Policy and Response 2025-2026

Tardies (Unexcused Late)

Definition: When a student is not inside the classroom, or has not met the teacher expectations of what it means to be "ready for class" at the time instruction is to start (at the bell to start class). If a student’s body is inside the classroom when the bell for class rings they should not be counted as tardy. 

Tardies will be tracked over all classes. Data will be pulled weekly, and supports will be implemented on a per quarter basis.  Attendance data will be used to identify struggling students in need of intervention.

School-wide supports we will do to encourage and help students to be on time

1. Staff will be in the halls to connect with, praise, and encourage students toward classes. 

2. Staff will make efforts to greet students at the door personally. 

3. Create start-of-class activities and routines to start class with an engaging and positive experience.

4. Take attendance daily and every period within the first ten minutes of class as part of the beginning of the class routine.

5. Teach/reteach school expectations for being on time. (See definition above.)

6. Intentionally teach students when social time is and isn’t to promote prosocial connection during the appropriate times. 

7. We will ensure that there is adequate time for transitions between classes and activities.

8. Admin and office staff will have assigned supervision in halls during passing time to maintain coverage in high-impact areas such as restrooms.

9. Supervision staff will do conscious hallway sweeps using positive prompts to encourage students to get to class on time.

10. Supervision staff will do bathroom sweeps between all periods to ensure students are not lingering in bathrooms or hallways.

11. There will be positive celebrations and reinforcements for on-time behavior.

12. Create an end-of-class routine to close out class, prepare kids for transition, and hold kids in seats until the bell rings. 

Interventions

Beginning the week of September 16th, tardies will be tracked in Synergy, which is accessible in real-time to parents through ParentVue. Contact the HMS registrar (English Speaking) at 503-431-5120 or Family Liaison (Spanish Speaking) at 503-431-5130 to set up ParentVue if needing assistance. 

If a student is not inside the classroom at the time instruction is to start they will be marked tardy or absent by their classroom teacher (more than 15 minutes late to class = skipping).  If a student arrives more than 15 minutes after the start of class, they will be marked absent. This will be counted as skipping and will also be handled by DOS/Admin. 

Tardies will be tracked through the front office and five tardies in the previous week, across all classes, will result in the following:

• 1st Offense: One lunch detention. Student’s parent(s) will be contacted via email. 

• 2nd Offense: Two lunch detentions. Student’s parent(s) will be contacted via email. 

• 3rd Offense: One lunch and one after school detention. Counselor check-in. Student’s parent(s) will be contacted via email. 

• 4th Offense: Structured day, referral to Tier 2, and required parent meeting.

Responses to chronic tardiness may at any point, also include a parent meeting, restorative measures, loss of hall pass privileges, restriction to after school activities, and possible adult escort to classes.

Tardies restart every quarter. 

Skipping Incidents and Interventions

Definition: Avoiding a student’s designated class schedule to engage in non-educational activities either at school or off-campus. 

Students without a valid pass to excuse them and miss any section of class beginning, middle, or end for 15 minutes or more will be considered skipping. 

“Unexcused Absences” Marked if the student never came to class.

“Unexcused Late” Marked if tardy to class

First skipping incident:

Office discipline referral is filled out by whoever discovers the student skipping to document the event. Attendance data will be used as best as it can be to identify student skipping incidences and referrals may come from the attendance secretary

The student is assigned after-school detention time to make up school work and time missed from class. Teachers can provide guidance about what students can work on. 

Support center staff contact the home to inform and assign after-school detention. 

Staff will conduct an empathy interview with the student to identify barriers and supports that are needed. 

What's happening? 

Why did it happen? 

What is the impact of skipping? 

What can be done to make things right? 

What will keep things right? 

How can others support you?

Second skipping incident:

The same steps as in skipping incident number one.  (Contact home, after school detention, asking what we can help support or change to make things work better.)

Also, we then invite the family to discuss further support and barriers to resolving the skipping concern.

Third skipping incident:

We will move to a structured day and also refer the student to our tier 2 team to see if there is more support or plans we can put together for the student.