5200 - ATTENDANCE

Southern Local School District

Administrative Guidelines

5200 - ATTENDANCE

The Board of Education as an agency of the State is required to enforce regular attendance of students. The Board recognizes that regular attendance and promptness are marks of a good student and a good citizen. In school, as in other facets of life, punctuality and regular attendance are necessary for success.

Attendance shall be required of all students enrolled in the schools during the days and hours that the school is in session or during the attendance sessions to which s/he has been assigned unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the County Superintendent that the student cannot benefit from instruction. If the bodily condition of the student is such as to prevent attendance at school, the District shall ensure that s/he is receiving instruction at home from a person qualified to teach the branches of education in which instruction is required.

A student absent for observation or celebration of a bona fide religious holiday shall be excused from attendance on that holiday.

In accordance with statute, the Superintendent shall require from the parent of each child or from an adult student who has been absent from school or from class for any reason a written statement of cause for such absence. The principal reserves the right to verify such statements and to investigate the cause of each.

ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES

		1.	When a student has been absent, s/he must bring a written excuse from his/her parent/guardian or doctor to the office when s/he returns to school. These excuses must be brought to the office as soon as the student arrives on the ground, to avoid the rush at bell time. A slip will be given to the student at the office to take to the homeroom teacher. If the excuse is forgotten, come to the office to get a slip for homeroom anyway. Students not reporting to the office will be given detentions. If excuse is forgotten, the student must bring one the following day or detentions will be assigned.
		2.	In grades 7-12 students who miss any period or any part of a period will be counted one eighth (1/8th) day absent. Any student late for homeroom will be counted tardy. After three (3) tardies a student will receive one (1) detention for each additional tardy.
			In the elementary schools students who miss any period forty-five (45 minutes) or any part of a period will be counted one eighth (1/8th) day absent.
		3.	Students will be allowed one-half (1/2) day for getting their driver's permit and one-half day for getting their driver's license without being counted absent.
		4.	Student participation in school functions will not be counted absent.

	B.	Attendance procedures for the junior high and the elementary schools shall be established by the building principals and approved by the Superintendent.
	C.	EXCUSED ABSENCE

When a student is absent from school, it must be for any excused absence. An excused absence is for any of the following reasons:

			a.	family illness.
			b.	personal illness.
			c.	death in family.
			d.	other excused absences must be approved by the principal before the absence. These include:

				1)	personal business;
				2)	work on the farm or at home only if student is passing.

If the principal is not contacted for approval before missing for (d) above, the absence will be considered unexcused.

	D.	UNEXCUSED ABSENCE
		Any absence not covered in C above will be considered unexcused.
	E.	PENALTIES FOR UNEXCUSED ABSENCES
		One (1) letter grade reduction will be given for the six (6) weeks for each unexcused absence at the high school only.
	F.	PENALTIES FOR EXCESSIVE ABSENCES

		1.	The principal may report to the appropriate authorities infractions of the law regarding attendance of students below the age of eighteen (18).
		2.	Any high school student who misses ten (10) days or more per semester may not receive credit in his/her subjects for that semester.
		3.	Any junior high or elementary student who misses twenty (20) days or more in a school year, may be required to repeat the grade in which they are enrolled.
		4.	The principal shall ensure the development of procedures to notify the parent of excessive absences.

Revised 8/91