Attendance Policy

Every Student, Every Day Attendance Policy and Plan

School Year 2023-2024

P.S. 112 Lefferts Park

We are excited to share our school’s Every Student, Every Day Attendance Policy and Plan. This policy and plan will hopefully provide you with the information and guidance you need to help you help your child attend and stay in school.

OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY’S ATTENDANCE GOAL

Attendance matters. Missing a day of school means missing hours of instructional time. Research shows that students who attend regularly achieve greater success in school and in life. Our school’s collective goal for attendance remains the same. We want every child attending school every day or at least 95% of the school year.

ATTENDANCE TAKING

Our School will take Attendance:

Upon arrival each morning. The school day begins promptly at 8:00am.

COMMUNICATION WITH FAMILIES

Our school uses the following methods to communicate with families about attendance:

Phone calls

It is very important for the school to have families’ up-to-date contact information. To make sure we can reach you, please alert us of any changes to your address or phone number by:

Calling our Pupil Personnel Secretary, Martha Ryan at the school phone number, 718-232-0685

ABSENCES

It is crucial that we know your child is safe when he or she is not present in school. If you know your child is going to miss school on a certain day or will be missing school for an extended period, please notify the school in advance by:

Leaving a message on the Parent Coordinator’s phone line or sending an email no later than 8:00am. Please note, absences should NOT be communicated via REMIND.

Parent Coordinator, Cathleen Giordano

718-232-0685, ext. 1064 or email cgiordano7@schools.nyc.gov

If your child is absent and our Parent Coordinator has not received a phone call or an email regarding the absence, we will follow up that day by making a phone call. This follow-up helps us to ensure that your child is safe, healthy and that your family has what it needs to help your child overcome the barriers to attending school.

While every single absence is equal to missed instructional time, we nonetheless mark absences as excused and unexcused. Please provide us with information on the reason for your child’s absence. Here is what you need to know regarding excused and unexcused absences:

● Excused Absence:

An absence can be excused for reasons including illness, injury, family emergency, religious observation, pre-arranged appointments, but is still documented as an absence.

● Unexcused Absence:

An unexcused absence is when too little to no information is provided when a student is marked absent for the day. If a student has 3 consecutive unexcused absences, it will be officially logged into our citywide attendance database. These procedures allow the attendance team to track and monitor attendance patterns.

LATENESS

If a student is late, they are still marked as present. If you know your child is going to be late on a certain day please:

Notify the Parent Coordinator by telephone or email.

Cathleen Giordano, 718-232-0685, ext. 1064 or cgiordano7@schools.nyc.gov

Just as with absences, we flag lateness as excused and unexcused. Here is what you need to know regarding excused and unexcused lateness:

● Excused Lateness:

Lateness may be considered excused for the same reasons provided for absence e.g. Illness/injury, religious observation, family emergency, pre-arranged appointments, or school or bus delays or documented MTA delays, but is still documented as a lateness.

● Unexcused Lateness:

Unexcused lateness is when a student is not in his or her classroom at the start of the school day and have not provided reasons for lateness.

LEAVING EARLY

This section explains our school’s policy for a student’s early departure from the school day. If your child is going to leave early on a certain day, please notify the school by:

Informing your child’s teacher in writing. Your child’s teacher will inform the main office. You may also call the main office directly if it is a last minute situation.

● Early Departure:

Leaving school early must be arranged in advance. A student can be dismissed from school early to the family or a person who has been identified on the Blue Card. Anyone picking up a student must come to the office and provide a photo ID. Please refrain from picking up your child during the lunch hour so that your child may finish a healthy lunch unless it cannot be avoided.

ATTENDANCE AND MAKE-UP WORK

If a child is absent or late, grades, coursework, or exams could be affected. Here is what you need to know regarding our grading policies and how we support our students with make-up work:

Lateness to class may result in a lower class average due to the loss of instructional time in activities such as classroom participation, examinations (Quizzes/full period exams), conferences, or group work, etc. Students are not required to make up the exact hours of missed instructional time however, they should make-up any missed class or home work.

Long term absence is detrimental to student success. Traveling for extended periods of time during the school year is not advised.

Every Student, Every Day Practices

This section shares information regarding our schools’ multi-tiered support plan. It is our hope that through these supports your children have what they need to attend school regularly.

COMMUNICATION

Every day a student is absent, automated calls are generated for notification. We will also make a phone call home to check in and make sure the student and family are healthy, if we do not have information about the absence. During parent-teacher conferences, we will share information regarding your child’s attendance and discuss how we as a school community can be most helpful in creating the conditions for your child to attend regularly and thrive in school.

PERSONALIZED SUPPORTS

Students who have 3 or more unexcused absences at the end of any given month, will be connected to a caring staff member who will serve as a mentor and an advocate for students and their families. Students may be linked to enrichment clubs and academic support if needed!

CELEBRATIONS

We are dedicated to making sure every child has the positive support they need to not only attend school every day but to succeed. We recognize and celebrate students’ attendance improvement, no matter how small. Students will be recognized with class certificates and individually through Student of the Month and Honor Roll awards.

SCHOOL CALENDAR

To view a calendar of the school’s events, go to:

https://sites.google.com/view/ps112/

CONTACT INFORMATION

We hope this information is helpful to you! If you have questions about our Every Student, Every Day 2022-23 Attendance Policy and Plan, please contact the main office at: 718-232-0685 or the Parent Coordinator at ext: 1064