1. School attendance is essential to successful school progress. Students who are in class, on time, every day are more likely to do well in school and on the tests required for graduation.
2. By state statute, parents are responsible for making sure their children attend school. Students may lose driving privileges and other rights due to excessive absences. A student who has fifteen unexcused absences within ninety calendar days is considered truant.
3. When a student is absent, (s)he should bring a note signed by a parent or guardian or other documentation explaining his/her absence the day (s)he returns to school. The student is responsible for turning in their note to Michelle Honeycutt in the Guidance Office.
4. Teachers will give students with excused absences an appropriate amount of time to make up missed work. It is the student’s responsibility to make arrangements with the teacher to make up missed assignments due to an excused absence. No student may make up assignments missed due to an unexcused absence except for a nine weeks or semester exam.
5. Excused absences include the following: 
   1. Up to six days of absences excused with a note signed by the student’s parent or guardian;* 
   2. Documented appointments with health care professionals;
   3. Documented absences for religious instruction or religious holidays;
   4. Absences due to participation in an academic class or school-sponsored activity approved in advance by the principal or assistant principal
   5. Documented court appearances.
6. To have an absence excused by a teacher, a student must bring in a parent note or other documentation within two days of the absence. After six days of absences in an eighteen-week semester are excused with parent notes, the student must bring other documentation to have an absence marked excused, regardless of the reason. Absences not documented will be considered unexcused, and the student will not be able to make up missed assignments. An out-of-school suspension is an unexcused absence.
7. Any student who has more than six days of unexcused absences during a semester will not receive credit unless the student shows mastery of the course content by
   1. earning a passing grade for the semester, AND
   2. earning a passing grade on a comprehensive semester exam.
8. TARDY - It is important to be at school on time. If you arrive late, you will miss class time and may disrupt the learning of others. You are tardy if you come to school after the beginning of the school day or if you are not in your classroom when the tardy bell rings.
   1. If you are tardy to school, you or your parent must sign in at the front office or the attendance office.  The principal will decide whether to excuse your tardiness to school. The principal will not accept the following reasons for being tardy: heavy traffic; oversleeping; returning home for forgotten items; and non-educational appointments other than doctor/dentist.

Six (6) unexcused tardies to school or unexcused early releases from school will result in one absence for purposes of determining truancy.

*Please note that parents may write notes to excuse only six days of absences per semester. Once six days have been excused with parent notes, other documentation will be needed to excuse an absence -- regardless of the reason. Students may make up work only for excused absences.

 For more information on attendance visit our district site.