1. POLICY 2900 HELPFUL FACTS & STEPS BOARD APPROVED JUNE 2015
WCSD adheres to the USOE Resolution on Attendance which includes schools and parents working as informed, knowledgeable proactive partners in championing individual student success by having clearly defined attendance policies that maximize student achievement and mastery of core curriculum standards.
Prior to or no later than school registration, the parent of students grades 1-12 shall be provided written notice informing them of Compulsory Attendance Laws, consequences, opportunities to appeal.

2. COMPULSORY EDUCATION
Directs parents to have minor between 6-18 enrolled in public, private or homeschool.
Provides parents with the right to excuse their child from school.
Requires parents to provide current contact information
Directs parents to meet with the school authorities if there are attendance concerns
Expects parents to monitor their child’s attendance
53A /53A
Parent: custodial parent, legally appointed guardian, responsible adult?

3. WHAT MAY PARENTS EXCUSE THEIR CHILD FOR??
CALL/WRITING/PERSON (determined by the school, but not to exceed one week):
Illness/Medical Need
Chronic Illness requires a note from the Doctor
Family Emergency (including death)
Valid Excuse: also includes IEP, 504, school activities, etc., as per 53A (9)
WRITTEN REQUEST (at least 1 day prior):
Scheduled family event
Scheduled Dr. appointment (without a
Doctor’s note)
S.B. 204/53A (5)(a)(b)
NEW
Use good judgement, you know your parents. Even a Board Member said he sometimes forgets to call in to excuse an absence within a week. Illness or surgery for 5 or more consecutive days qualifies for homebound services. Chronic illness, meet with the parents to make an attendance plan.

4. STUDENTS Shall complete work missed due to any type of absence
Should monitor their own attendance/tardies (Middle & up)
May attend various school interventions, service assignments, life skills courses and/or make-up times as designated by the school
Must meet with school personnel (counselor, administrator) to resolve attendance issues
May meet with court attendance mediation
Shall experience the consequences due to chronic absenteeism that affects their educational performance which may include a court referral
School procedures should be in place to help students compensate for loss of instruction.

5. DO WE STILL HAVE POINTS. DO WE STILL HAVE NO GRADES
DO WE STILL HAVE POINTS? DO WE STILL HAVE NO GRADES? DO WE STILL HAVE RESTITUTION?
NO!
Use positive intervention strategies for addressing attendance as a behavior. Think “Intervention” NOT “Restitution” (Justin Keate DHHS)
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6. DO EXCUSED ABSENCES MATTER?
WITH REGARDS TO THE POLICY NO!
UNLESS…
ABSENCES ARE
AFFECTING THE STUDENT’S ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
If they have 17 absences and are passing – let it go, there is a huge push towards performance based grading. If you are at the end of the quarter and the student has 5 excused absences and is failing & otherwise would have been passing– consider meeting with the student and providing opportunities to make up lost assignments. Remember cannot factor in excused when calculating excessive absenteeism unless it is affecting academic performance

7. DO UNEXCUSED ABSENCES MATTER?
YES!
AT 5 UNEXCUSED ABSENCES:
Duties and responsibilities required of the school begin with:
Sending the “MANDATORY PARENT NOTIFICATION FOR VIOLATION OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION AND/OR TRUANCY” (via hand-delivery or certified mail*
Must send parents the exact dates of the 5 truancies

8. DUTIES OF SCHOOL PERSONNEL: DOCUMENTING meaningful efforts to resolve attendance issues, such as:
Disseminating the policy, including tardies (administration)
Rewarding appropriate attendance (teachers, school-wide)
Showing parents how to access PowerSchool (secretary)
Monitoring attendance (teachers, secretarial staff, counselors, assistant principal)
Meeting with student to find out why (counselor)
Meeting with parent/student to make adjustments to the curriculum, schedule, making an attendance contract, and consider their ideas (school administrator)
Involving agency assistance (counselor, school admin.)
Providing a list of resources (counselor)
Referring to Student Services (school administrator)
53A /R (4)
Duties slides 8 – this slide; also mandatory slide 7; for elem & int. slide 10 in addition!!!

9. SHOULD WE START DUTIES/STEPS BEFORE 5 UNEXCUSED ABSENCES?
NOT REQUIRED UNTIL 5 UNEXCUSED, but for:
Elem/Int: It is procedure
Middle/High students: It is recommended
Especially when there is a combination of unexcused and excessive excused (10%), and tardies

10. DUTIES/STEPS BEFORE 5 UNEXCUSED ABSENCES (cont.)
Duties also include:
Sending out the “Courtesy Parent Notification” via School Messenger (2 unexcused); &
Running an At-Risk Report at the end of each grading period to determine the if absences may be having an effect on performance; & if so
ing the “Notification of Excessive Absences with Compulsory Education Requirements”
A clear-cut process for absence review should be in place (USOE). Expectations and consequences of school absence should be shared effectively with parents and students.

11. WHAT IF THE PARENTS DON’T SHOW UP or HONOR THEIR OBLIGATIONS?
It is a class B misdemeanor for a parent of a school-age child under 14 to intentionally or recklessly:
Fail to meet with the designated school authority; or
After meeting with the school authority:
Fail to prevent the child from being absent without valid excuse 5 or more times during the remainder of the school year
Document, document, document! The 5 or more time without valid excuse is a critical element! Because it is then that it goes on to Student Services
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12. Interventions in Resolving Attendance Issues

13. REFERRAL TO STUDENT SERVICES
14 & Younger
14 & Older
Gather all intervention documentation
Issue Notice of Violation of Compulsory Education (Mandatory Parent Notification)
Complete the Violation of Compulsory Education & Request for Court Action
Send to Student Services
*The schools do not determine Educational Neglect, the courts do
Gather all intervention documentation , including
Issue Notice of Truancy (the Mandatory Parent Notification)
Respond to parent should they contest the truancy notice
Complete the Referral Violation of Compulsory Education & Request for Court Action
Send to Student Services
The 12 to 14 age group may go either way depending on how cooperative the parent has been. Very cooperative, go with Truancy. Non-cooperative go with Violation of Compulsory Education. Note: the courts in WC generally issue the habitual truancy citations when student has been truant at least 10 times during one year or fails to cooperate with the school authorities.
If the courts consider filing Educational Neglect charges, they look at: child missing 10 consecutive school days or 1/16 of the term. Failure to make adequate educational progress, being 2 or more years behind in one or more basic skills and not sped or receiving systematic remediation efforts, whether the parent has made a good faith effort to secure the child’s regular attendance. Student performing above 25th percentile.
Notice of Truancy may be issued to school age minors who are at least 12 years old.
Notice of Violation of Compulsory Education may be issued to parents of school age minors under the age 14. (53A & 53A )

14. A WORD ABOUT TARDIES
Each school is required to establish a tardy policy.
R (4): …establish programs and meaningful incentives which promote…punctual student attendance
Lear Law Consultants: “…it is legally hard to allow tardies to negatively affect a student’s grade…”
“…courts generally disfavor grade reduction for nonacademic reasons, like tardies…”

15. 10 Day Rule for Fiscal Reporting
10 or more consecutive unexcused absences
Membership stops generating on the 11th day
Student may not even be logged into an on-line class
Exceptions: tutorial assistance at home due to illness, injury, surgery, suspension, pregnancy, pending court action.
Membership begins generating when the student returns or has an excused absence
This membership reporting obligation does not release the LEA after “the 10 day drop” from securing regular attendance by the school age minor
through efforts as reasonably feasible as outlined in 53A