Attendance
STUDENT ABSENCES AND EXCUSES
Regular attendance by all students is very important. In many cases, irregular attendance is
the major reason for poor social and academic development; therefore, all families are urged to make all medical and personal appointments outside of school hours.
Reasons for which students may be excused include, but are not limited to:
• Personal illness of the student;
• Illness in the student’s family;
• Needed at home to perform necessary work directly and exclusively for parents or legal guardians (applies to students over 14 years of
age only)
• Death in the family;
• Quarantine for contagious disease;
• Religious reasons;
• Traveling out of state to attend a Board-approved enrichment activity or extracurricular activity (applies to absences of up to four days); or
• As determined by the Superintendent.
Families should communicate directly with teachers to develop a plan to complete missed work. Students who are absent from school for reasons not permitted by State law may, or may not, be permitted to make up work. Each case is considered on its merits by the principal and the respective teacher(s). Families are requested to provide direct communication to school after each absence explaining the reason for the absence or tardiness.
VACATIONS: The Board does not believe that students should be excused from school for vacations or other nonemergency trips out of the District. The responsibility for such absences resides with the adult(s), and they must not expect any work missed by their child to be retaught by the teacher. If the school is notified in advance of such a trip, reasonable efforts are made to prepare a general list of assignments for the student to do while he/she is absent.
Families must call the school office by 8:50 a.m. to inform school personnel if their child will be absent for the day. If we do not receive direct communication, we will attempt to contact you by an automated phone call. State law requires direct communication with the school regarding the dates your child missed school and with an explanation for the absence.
It is important for your child to attend school every day. When your student misses a significant amount of school, even if the absences are excused, the child misses critical instruction time and learning opportunities. This can lead to long-term, negative effects on a child’s social and academic development. . Ohio law defines excessive absence and truancy as chronic absenteeism, and includes the following definitions:
• Excessive absence: a student misses 38 or more hours of school in a single month, or 65 or more hours in one school year, with or without a legitimate excuse.
• Truancy: a student is absent from school without a legitimate excuse for 30 or more consecutive hours, 42 or more hours in one school month, or 72 or more hours in a school year.
The same state law requires schools and districts to create their own local policies to tackle excessive absences and truancy. Each truancy and excessive absence policy must outline a district's interventions, supports and processes for making sure a student gets to school every day. Here are key points from the law to keep in mind:
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• When students miss school because they are chronically or terminally ill and the district excuses their absences, the missed school hours do not count toward truancy. The law allows schools to not count these students absent if they actively are receiving home instruction. When a student is chronically or terminally ill, families and districts should work to update the student's individualized education program (IEP) to include home instruction.
• State law outlines acceptable reasons for not attending school. Districts also may add to the list of excused absences. Truancy includes only unexcused absences.
• In all cases of truancy and in some cases of excessive absences, an absence intervention plan will be developed by a team of district administrators, staff and local support agencies in coordination with the student and their family.