Q: What is regular attendance? 

A: regular attendance is an attendance rate of 90% or higher. This can be estimated at less than one absence every two weeks or less than two absences every month. 

Q: Do sick days, pre-arranged absences, and other excused absences affect attendance?

A: Yes! Every day that your student misses school they are missing instruction, practice, and connection to their classroom community. Every time a student is absent it is included in their overall attendance rate. 

Q: Does attendance matter for Pre-School and Kindergarten?

A: Yes it does! Research shows that students with the highest attendance rates in Pre-School and Kindergarten are the students who are the most likely to achieve in their later grades. If you want your child to be successful in all of their years of schooling, start early by ensuring regular attendance in their pre-school and kindergarten years. 

Q: How do tardies affect attendance?

A: Tardies are documented when students are late to school (elementary) or for each class (middle and high school). If they are tardy beyond specific standards they will be marked as ½ day absent (elementary) or absent for that class period (middle and high school). Tardies are not included in the calculation of attendance rates. 

Q: Why is the district concerned with tardies?

A: There are a lot of answers here. Tardies affect your student’s learning, especially if they miss the beginning of their day, when lots of information is given out about the coming day and days to come. Tardies also affect peers as teachers may need to spend time assisting tardy students in catching up with the class. Tardies also tend to go hand in hand with attendance issues and so getting rid of tardies is a way that we, the school, attempt to help your student to acquire and practice the life skills that will help them the most in life. 

Q: What are the standards to use when determining if your child is too sick to come to school?

A: There are a lot of answers here and not all situations can be appropriately addressed on a web page. If you have questions, always feel comfortable calling your student’s school and ask for the health assistant. They will guide you in the decision making process.

Basic guidelines:

Students are expected to stay home and will be listed as sick if they have any of the following conditions:

• A fever of 101 or higher
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting

In any of these circumstances, students are expected to stay home until those symptoms have been gone for 24 hours. 

There are many other elements to consider when determining if your child should stay home. Here are some (but not all) of them:

• Does your child have some medical or mental health need or condition that might be included in the decision making process?
• Are the symptoms you are seeing an expression of some other issue or concern? This might be fatigue, stress, peer issues, or discouragement. 
• Has your student or family faced any challenges, complicated experiences or trauma recently? 
• Are complicated life circumstances contributing to the challenge of being in school?

In any of these cases we want to work with you to help you address potential underlying issues. Getting exhausted and sick are normal and common reactions to many of the issues referenced above.