ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES
All the following information can be found on our website and on Canvas, and it is available to download.

ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES
Parents are encouraged to notify the attendance office in advance in one of the following ways, listed in order of preference: 

• • Use your ParentVue app to report a full day absence (works ONLY for full-day absences)

  • Email [email protected]

  • Call 239-3401 or 239-3400 and select option 1

PERMIT TO LEAVE SCHOOL
Students who need to leave school for an excusable reason must have ADVANCE parental verification. Phone contact should be made early in the day to the attendance office. A pass to the attendance office will be delivered to the student. The student will show the pass to the teacher at the beginning of class. The student will report to the attendance office and sign out before leaving the building. If the student returns to school on the same day, he/she must sign in with the attendance office. A parental request in advance through the attendance office is required for any student who leaves the building.

ILLNESS OR EMERGENCY AT SCHOOL
If a student is too ill to be in school, the nurse will contact a parent and issue a permit to leave school. Students leaving without checking out through the nurse or an administrator will be unexcused and disciplined appropriately.

UNEXCUSED ABSENCES

Unexcused absences are those absences which do not meet the criteria for excused absences as listed above. Consequences may include detentions, lunch detentions, in-school or out-of-school detentions, and/or a truancy filing.

TRUANCY
According to the Johnson County Juvenile Court a student will be reported truant if he or she is unexcused three consecutive days or five days in one semester or seven days in a school year. Automatic referral to the Court is required. Classroom credit may not be given for unexcused absences. Upon return to school a student without verification will be unexcused until absence verification occurs. It is the responsibility of the student and his/her parent to see that such verification is made through the attendance office within 48 hours.

ATTENDANCE PHILOSOPHY
A student’s attendance is essential to learning—learning that includes not only factual subject matter but also attendance habits, work habits, attitudes, and ideals. Students are expected to attend class. Reading the material and performing satisfactorily on tests does not compensate for the loss of insight gained during class discussion, explanation, or supervised practice. Furthermore, every student contributes to every other student’s learning; therefore, a student who is absent short-changes those students who are present.

Every absence, whether excused or not, interrupts the student’s understanding of the material being presented and weakens his/her interest in the continuing program. Research shows that educational achievement is directly related to attendance.

A student absent from school due to home emergencies, family vacation, medical appointments and/or procedures, and/or personal matters is allowed seven (7) excused absences per class period per school year.  Additional excused absences may require documentation/verification from a parent/guardian (i.e.; medical excuse from doctor for illness and/or hospitalization).

Students are expected to attend all classes in which they are enrolled unless there is a reasonable excuse not to be in attendance. If a student arrives to school after the first hour class, it is no longer considered tardy, it is considered an absence.  The State of Kansas delegates to the Board of Education the responsibility of determining reasons for an excused absence.  The following are reasons for an excused absence (makeup required, credit received according to the provisions of building guidelines):

• Personal illness;

• Illness or death in the family (mother, father, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, death of a friend);

• Necessary appointments that cannot be made outside the school day;

• Emergencies requiring a student’s service or presence at home;

• Obligatory religious observances of the student’s own faith;

• Family vacations arranged in advance with the school administration;

• Participation in a school approved student activity, a Kansas State High School Activities Association sanctioned activity, a district approved function, or an equivalent outside activity approved in advance by a school administrator e.g., athletic competitions which are not school sponsored, community or professional theater or music, and the like, which provide substantially the same benefits to students as those activities which are sponsored or approved by the school;

• Personal matters.
  
  
  

TARDY PROCEDURE
Students are expected to be in their classrooms ready to begin classroom activities when the final bell rings. The teacher will determine the acceptability of excuses offered by the student when late to class.

The following progression of consequences will be observed each semester:

• 5th tardy..................... 30 minute detention

• 6th tardy .....................60 minute detention

• 7th tardy …………….1 hour 30 minute detention

• 8th tardy……………..2 hour detention

• 9th tardy……………..In-School Suspension (ISS)

• 10 or more……………Administration Action

*NOTE: Tardy count starts over at the beginning of 2nd semester