Commack school district calling absence policy

SUBJECT: COMPREHENSIVE STUDENT ATTENDANCE

Statement of Overall Objectives

School attendance is both a right and a responsibility. The District is an active partner with students and parents in the task of ensuring that all students meet or exceed the New York State Learning Standards. Because the District recognizes that consistent school attendance, academic success, and school completion have a positive correlation, the District has developed, and, if necessary, will revise this Comprehensive Student Attendance policy to meet the following objectives:

1. Increase school completion for all students;
   
2. Raise student achievement and close gaps in student performance;
   
3. Identify attendance patterns to design attendance improvement efforts;
   
4. Know the whereabouts of every student for safety and other reasons;
   
5. Verify that individual students are complying with education laws relating to compulsory attendance; and
   
6. Determine the District's average daily attendance for state aid purposes.

Description of Strategies to Meet Objectives

The District will:

1. Create and maintain a positive school building culture by fostering a positive physical and psychological environment where the presence of strong adult role models encourages respectful and nurturing interactions between adults and students. This positive school culture is aimed at encouraging a high level of student bonding to the school, which in turn should lead to increased attendance.
   
2. Develop a Comprehensive Student Attendance policy based upon the recommendations of a multifaceted committee that includes representation from the Board of Education, administrators, teachers, students, parents, and the community. The District will hold at least one public hearing prior to the adoption of this collaboratively developed Comprehensive Student Attendance Policy.
   
3. Maintain accurate recordkeeping via a Register of Attendance to record attendance, absence, tardiness, or early departure of each student.
   
4. Utilize data analysis systems for tracking individual student attendance and individual and group trends in student attendance problems.
   
5. Develop early intervention strategies to improve school attendance for all students.
   
6. Notify staff, students, and parents about the attendance policy through student handbooks, reviewing it with students at the beginning of the year, mailing a plain-language summary to parents at the beginning of the year, school newsletters and publications, staff review at the start of the year, or otherwise.

Determination of Excused and Unexcused Absences, Tardiness, and Early Departures

Based upon our District's education and community needs, values, and priorities, the District has determined that absences, tardiness, and early departures (ATEDs) will be considered excused or unexcused according to the following standards.

1. Excused: An ATED may be excused if due to personal illness, illness, or death in the family, impassable roads or inclement weather, religious observance, quarantine, required court appearances, attendance at health clinics, physician's office, or dental office, provided that evidence is provided, approved college visits, approved cooperative work programs, military obligations, approved field trips, or other reasons recommended by the committee for approval by the Board of Education.
   
2. Unexcused: An ATED is considered unexcused if the reason for the lack of attendance does not fall into the above categories (e.g., family vacation, hunting, babysitting, haircut, obtaining learner's permit, road test, oversleeping) day of the ATED.

The parent or person in parental relation must notify the school office within the business day of the ATED. A written excuse, signed by a parent or person in parental relation, should be presented by the student when returning to school following each absence.

Student Attendance Recordkeeping/Data Collection

The record of each student's presence or ATED will be kept in a register of attendance in a manner consistent with the Commissioner's regulations. An ATED will be entered as "excused" or "unexcused" along with the District code for the reason.

Attendance will be taken and recorded in accordance with the following:

1. For students in non-departmentalized kindergarten through grade 5 (i.e., self-contained classrooms and supervised group movement to other scheduled school activities such as physical education in the gym, assembly, etc.), the student's presence or absence will be recorded after the taking of attendance once per school day, provided that students are not dismissed from school grounds during a lunch period. Where students are dismissed for lunch, their presence or absence will also be recorded after the taking of attendance a second time upon the student's return from lunch. For purposes of APPR and Teacher-Student Data Linkages (TSDL), classroom attendance for all students K through 12 must be recorded on a subject by subject basis for Teacher of Record Determinations.
   
2. For students in grades 6 through 12 or in departmentalized schools at any grade level (i.e., students pass individually to different classes throughout the day), each student's presence or absence will be recorded after the taking of attendance in each period of scheduled instruction.
   
3. Any absence for a school day or portion of the day will be recorded as excused or unexcused in accordance with the standards articulated in this policy.
   
4. In the event that a student at any instructional level from grades K through 12 arrives late for or departs early from scheduled instruction, the tardiness or early departure will be recorded as excused or unexcused in accordance with the standards articulated in this policy.

A record will be kept of each scheduled day of instruction during which the school is closed for all or part of the day because of extraordinary circumstances including adverse weather conditions, impairment of heating facilities, insufficiency of water supply, shortage of fuel, destruction of or damage to a school building, or other cause as may be found satisfactory to the Commissioner of Education.

Attendance records will also indicate the date when a student withdraws from enrollment or is dropped from enrollment in accordance with Education Law Section 3202(1-a).

At the conclusion of each class period or school day, all attendance information will be compiled and provided to the designated school personnel who are responsible for attendance. The nature of the ATED will be coded on a student's record in accordance with the established District/building procedures.

Student Attendance/Course Credit

The District believes that classroom participation is related to and affects a student's performance and grasp of the subject matter and, as such, is properly reflected in a student's final grade. For purposes of this policy, classroom participation means that a student is in class and prepared to work.

Consequently, for each marking period a certain percentage of a student's final grade may be based on classroom participation as well as the student's performance on tests, papers, projects, etc. as determined by the building administrator or classroom teacher.

Students are expected to attend all scheduled classes. Consistent with the importance of classroom participation, unexcused ATEDs will affect a student's grade, including credit for classroom participation, for the marking period.

Except as noted below, in grades K through 8, any student having more than 36 unexcused absences for the school year is in danger of being retained at their current grade level. In any class bearing high school credit, any student with more than 9 unexcused ATEDs for 1/2 credit courses, or 18 unexcused ATEDs for one credit courses, will not receive credit for that course. Students with properly excused ATEDs may make up missed work for each ATED, and those ATEDs will not count toward the minimum attendance standard, provided that all missed work has been submitted for credit.

To ensure that parents or persons in parental relation and students are aware of the implications of this minimum attendance requirement, the teacher or other designated staff members will advise the student and contact the parent or person in parental relation by telephone or mail/email at appropriate intervals prior to the student reaching 9 or 18 unexcused ATEDs.

All students with an excused ATED are expected to turn in missing work, assignments, or take tests/quizzes upon their return to class within a reasonable time period in accordance with a schedule specified by their teacher.

Students who are absent from class due to their participation in a school-sponsored activity are to arrange with their teachers to make up any work missed in a timely manner as determined by the student's teacher. Attendance at school-sponsored events where instruction is substantially equivalent to the instruction which was missed will be counted as the equivalent of regular attendance in class.

Only those students with excused ATEDs will be given the opportunity to make up a test or other missed work or turn in a late assignment for inclusion in their final grade. Make-up opportunities must be completed by a date specified by the student's teacher for the class in question. The building principal will reserve the authority to waive this requirement in consultation with the classroom teacher.

For summer school and courses meeting 1/2 year or 1/4 year, the same policy will apply and a calculation of the absences will be prorated accordingly.

Transfer students and students re-enrolling after having dropped out will be expected to attend a prorated minimum number of the scheduled class meetings during their time of enrollment.

Students will be considered in attendance if the student is:

1. Physically present in the classroom or working under the direction of the classroom teacher during the class scheduled meeting time; or
   
2. Working pursuant to an approved independent study program; or
   
3. Receiving approved alternative instruction.

Notice of Students who are Absent, Tardy, or Depart Early Without Proper Excuse

A designated staff member will notify by telephone the parent or person in parental relation to a student who is absent, tardy, or departs early without proper excuse. The staff member will explain the District's Comprehensive Student Attendance Policy, the District's/building level intervention strategies, and, if appropriate, the relationship between student attendance and course credit. If the parent or person in parental relation cannot be reached by telephone, the staff member will provide the notification by mail. Further, the District's Attendance Policy will be mailed to the parent or person in parental relation to promote awareness and help ensure compliance with the policy.

If considered necessary by appropriate school officials, or if requested by the parent or person in parental relation, a school conference will be scheduled between the parent or person in parental relation and appropriate staff members to address the student's attendance. The student may also be requested to attend this conference to address appropriate intervention strategies that best meet the needs of the student.

Attendance Incentives

To encourage student attendance, grade appropriate/building-level attendance incentives may be offered at the discretion of the building administration or classroom teacher.

Disciplinary Consequences

Unexcused ATEDs will result in disciplinary sanctions or corrective action as described in the District's Code of Conduct. Consequences may include, but are not limited to, in-school suspension, detention, and denial of participation in interscholastic and extracurricular activities. Parents or persons in parental relation will be notified by designated District personnel at periodic intervals to discuss their child's ATEDs and the importance of class attendance and appropriate interventions. Individual buildings/grade levels will address procedures to implement the notification process to the parent or person in parental relation.

In addition to the responsibilities of each staff member in terms of his or her attitude, the following procedures are to be followed:

1. Unexcused absences of three or more school days in any ten-week period must be reported to the building principal on an Attendance Referral Form by the teacher responsible for maintaining the attendance register. A copy of each referral will be forwarded to the Associate Superintendent for Operations. The Associate Superintendent for Operations will report all referrals to the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, if appropriate.
   
2. Upon receiving the Attendance Referral Form, the building principal will formally notify the parents or guardians using the prescribed format as suggested by counsel of the violation of the Compulsory Attendance Law. The building principal will initiate an investigation by summoning the parents to a preliminary violation hearing. The classroom teacher, guidance counselor, social worker, or other appropriate personnel should also attend this meeting.
   
3. A preliminary violation hearing may result in discussion, admonition, referral for other services, a program of family counseling, or recommendation to the Associate Superintendent for Operations that formal court action is necessary.
   
4. The criteria to be used by the building principal in determining a course of action are:
   1. Pattern of previous attendance and attention to the Compulsory Attendance Laws by the family.
      
   2. The attitude and spirit manifested by the family.
      
   3. The child's success in school in relation to his or her potential.
      
   4. Recommendations of other school personnel.
      

   Intervention Strategy Process

   In order to effectively intervene when an identified pattern of unexcused absences, tardiness or early departures occur, designated District personnel will pursue the following:

   1. Identify specific element(s) of the pattern (e.g., grade level, building, time frame, type of unexcused absences, tardiness, or early departures);
      
   2. Contact the District staff most closely associated with the element. In specific cases where the pattern involves an individual student, the student and parent or person in parental relation will be contacted;
      
   3. Discuss strategies to directly intervene with specific element;
      
   4. Recommend intervention to Superintendent or his or her designee if it relates to change in District policy or procedure;
      
   5. Implement changes, as approved by appropriate administration;
      
   6. Utilize appropriate District and/or community resources to address and help remediate student unexcused absences, tardiness or early departures;
      
   7. Monitor and report short and long term effects of intervention.

   Appeal Process

   A parent or person in parental relation may request a building level review of his or her child's attendance record.

   Building Review of Attendance Records

   The building principal will work in conjunction with the building attendance clerk and other designated staff in reviewing attendance records at the end of each term. This review is conducted to identify individual and group attendance patterns and to initiate appropriate action to address any problem of unexcused ATEDs.

   Annual Review by the Board of Education

   The Board of Education will annually review the building-level student attendance records and if the records show a decline in student attendance, the Board will review this policy and make any revisions considered necessary to improve student attendance.

   Community Awareness

   The Board of Education will promote necessary community awareness of the District's Comprehensive Student Attendance Policy by:

   1. Providing a plain language summary of the policy to parents or persons in parental relation to students at the beginning of each school year and promoting the understanding of the policy to students and their parents or persons in parental relation;
      
   2. Providing each teacher, at the beginning of the school year or upon employment, the location of the policy for review; and
      
   3. Providing copies of the policy to any other member of the community upon request.

   Education Law Sections 3024, 3025, 3202, 3205, 3206, 3210, 3211 and 3213

   8 NYCRR Sections 104.1, 109.2 and 175.6

   NOTE: Refer also to Policy #7131 -- Education of Students in Temporary Housing