Hyde Park Central School District's Comprehensive Attendance Policy

The HPCSD recognizes that a key component of academic success is consistent, full-day attendance. Reduction of missed instruction time will likely improve academic performance, raise student achievement and reduce the number of students not completing high school.

Student attendance will improve where schools are perceived as being a safe, nurturing environment wherein students derive a benefit for attending and a sanction for not attending.

All students of compulsory education age who reside legally within the District must attend school. During the school day, students must be present in their scheduled classes or other programs that have been approved by the teacher of their scheduled class or building administrator for the entirety of the class. Missing the entire class is an absence. Arriving late is tardiness and departing before the end of the class is early departure. The Board of Education determines legal school age and legal residence in accordance with state requirements as set forth in New York State Education Law xx 3202, 3205 to 3208, 3209 to 3210, and x NYCRR x 100.2.

While class attendance will not be considered in determining eligibility for course credit, students have a responsibility to attend their regularly scheduled class or classes and to make up work that is missed for excused reasons.

Parents have a responsibility to encourage their children to attend school and minimize the amount of class time their children miss. Parents are also responsible for notifying the school of the reason(s) for absences, tardiness or early departures that are within the control of the parent.

Teachers have a responsibility for recording and reporting accurate attendance data. Teachers further have the responsibility to provide students the opportunity to make up work that is missed for excused reasons.

The district has the responsibility to maintain accurate attendance data and to notify parents when missed instruction time (regardless of whether it is excused or not) may affect a student's academic performance. The district is also responsible for addressing the factors of excessive absenteeism that are under its control.

Overall objectives

The objectives of this policy are to ensure sufficient pupil attendance at all periods of instruction and study to enable students to succeed in school; to establish a practical mechanism for accounting for the whereabouts of each student throughout the school day; and to maintain adequate records both to satisfy Education Law section 3205 and facilitate detecting trends in the attendance of individual students and groups of students.

Strategies to improve attendance

To accomplish these objectives, it is the intent of the Board of Education to encourage and promote student attendance through a positive school climate and other measures as may be developed by the Building Level Team at each school building. The Board of Education directs the Superintendent to implement a mechanism for the timely collection of attendance data as described below. Furthermore, the Board of Education requires that attendance data be analyzed no less than annually for the purposes of:

· Identifying attendance patterns of individual students and groups of students

· Designing improvement efforts

· Closing gaps in student performance to the extent possible

· Reducing dropout rates to the extent possible

Excused Absences, Tardiness and Early Departures

The following situations constitute excused absences.

· Personal Illness or Injury

· Doctor/Dentist/Health Clinic Visits

· Illness or Death in the Immediate Family

· Weather Conditions at the discretion of the Principal (for tardiness only)

· Religious Observance

· Quarantine

· Required court appearance

· College visits

· Military obligations

· School sponsored events and programs

· Emergency First Response

Students who miss work due to an excused absence will be allowed to make that work up on a schedule established by the teacher assigning the work. Students who miss work due to an unexcused absence will not be allowed to make that work up except for family travel as described below.

All other reasons for absence, tardiness or early departure are unexcused absences. When additional information is received from a student during a student/staff conference that requires corrections to be made to a student's attendance records, such corrections will be made in a timely fashion. Notice of the change will be sent to appropriate school personnel (e.g., homeroom teachers, attendance officer, etc.).

Family travel and/or vacations will be recorded as an unexcused absence. However, a parent or guardian may make a written request to the building principal prior to the absence to obtain permission to make up the work upon return. The principal, after consultation with the teacher(s) involved, will grant or deny the request. If the request is granted, the teacher's normal policy for late work applies. The decision of the principal is final and may not be appealed.

Register of Attendance

Annually each building principal will recommend one of the building secretaries to be designated by the Board of Education as the Building Attendance Officer. The Building Attendance Officer will collect attendance daily and make entries in the Attendance Register. The Building Attendance Officer is required to verify the entries in the Attendance Register by the oath or affirmation. In the event the designated Attendance Officer is unable to make attendance register entries, the building principal or Superintendent may designate an alternate Attendance Officer for a period not to exceed thirty days. The alternate officer must verify the entries made with the same oath or affirmation. The final responsibility for accurate attendance keeping belongs to the building principal. The Attendance Register will include the following information:

1. Name

2. Date of Birth

3. Date of enrollment

4. Parent/Guardian's full name

5. Address where student resides

6. Phone number(s) where parent/Guardian may be contacted

7. ALL absences, tardiness, or early departures during any school day, in whole or in part, excused or unexcused. There will be a unique code for each of the following

· Unexcused full day absence

· Excused full day absence

· Unexcused tardiness with time of arrival

· Excused tardiness with time of arrival

· Unexcused early departure with estimated time of departure

· Excused early departure with time of departure

· In school suspension

· Out of school suspension w/ tutoring

· Unexcused absence from out of school suspension tutoring

· Excused absence from out of school suspension tutoring

· No entry is recorded for full day attendance

An absence, tardiness or early departure will be recorded as unexcused until a satisfactory explanation is received from the parent or guardian. Such explanations are to be delivered to the Building Attendance Officer immediately upon return to class. The building nurse is to be notified of all medical excuses. In the case of quarantine or contagious disease, a note from a doctor is required that indicates it is safe for the student to return to school.

8. Dates of school closings for all or part of the day of scheduled instruction due to extraordinary circumstances, including weather conditions, heating problems, lack of water or fuel, or destruction or damage to a school building.

9. Date a student withdraws from, or, is dropped from enrollment.

10. Grade level

11. Homeroom

12. Dates and duration of suspensions (in-school and out of school)

13. Parent/Guardian contact information (name, phone number, email address)

Attendance Data Collection and Analysis

In elementary schools, the classroom teacher will record attendance once each day. In secondary schools, the classroom teacher will take attendance during each class period, unless a class is self-contained. In these cases, the classroom teacher will record attendance once a day. All attendance information will be compiled at least daily and provided to the Building Attendance Officer for recording in the Attendance Register as described previously.

Annually, the building principal and the building Attendance Officer will analyze the building attendance data for trends or patterns. The Building Level Team will be notified of any patterns or trends detected and will be sent the supporting data. Additionally, the building principal will develop or revise strategies and/or programs to address negative attendance patterns. Such programs or strategies may be targeted at the student body in general, individual students or groups of students.

The Superintendent will develop a schedule for parental notification regarding excessive or chronic absenteeism or missed classes, letters to be sent at defined stages in the schedule and a process for initiating such notification by the Building Attendance Officer. The schedule will be attached as a regulation to this policy and the letters will be attached as exhibits.

The Board Of Education shall annually review attendance records by building to determine improvement or decline and modify the comprehensive attendance policy as necessary.

Incentives

Building principals are directed to recognize exemplary student attendance publicly through certificates, letters or other means deemed appropriate for the culture of the building. Furthermore, the Building Level Team at each building is encouraged to design and promote strategies that will improve attendance at their individual schools.

Sanctions

Penalties for unexcused absences, tardiness or early departure are set in the District Code of Conduct. Additionally, each building principal may develop disciplinary sanctions that are consistent with the District Code of Conduct for chronic or excessive absenteeism, tardiness or early departure. At the secondary level, students who are absent without excuse from one or more classes on twenty days or more in a semester will be prohibited from participating in extracurricular activities, including sporting events, dances and any other activity where participation is limited to students, for the duration of that semester. Any student who misses more than half of a day regardless of excuse will not be allowed to participate in extracurricular activities on that day.

Appeals

A parent or guardian may request a student's attendance record from the building office and the record will be provided by the end of the next school day. Appeals are to be made in writing to the building principal to correct the recorded attendance on one or more days. Appeals to the principal may also be made to consider extenuating circumstances in allowing missed work to be made up. Appeals must be made within twenty (20) school days of the day in question or of the parental notification of chronic or excessive absence. The decision of a building principal may be appealed in writing to the Superintendent or designee within five (5) school days of notice of the principal's decision. The decision of the Superintendent may be appealed to the Board of Education in writing and will be considered at the next Board of Education executive session.

Notification

A plain text copy of the building attendance policy will be distributed to students, parents and staff. The plain text copy will include the summary of the Board policy that is included as an exhibit in this policy and specific building incentives and sanctions. Copies of the HPCSD Comprehensive Attendance Policy will be available in all buildings upon request from any member of the Hyde Park Community.

ADOPTED: April 10, 2003