The State Board of Education considers 180 days as a full school year.  When a student misses more than 9 days in a semester, it is considered 10% of that semester. A doctor's note may be required when a student misses more than 9 days in a semester.  Are nine days per semester too many absences?
Attendance will be taken at 8:20 a.m. and turned in to the office. If a student enters the classroom after 8:20 a.m., the student will be counted tardy unless there is a bus difficulty.  A student who arrives after 8:20 a.m. bell must be signed in at the office by the parent/guardian.  The student must have an admit slip to get into class.  Any student who must leave school during the school day should do so only with the permission of the principal.  In case of emergency, any teacher may give a student permission to go home or leave the building with his/her parents.
 
If you drive your son or daughter to school, please be certain that they arrive by 8:20.  Late arrivals are very disruptive to the class and burden the teacher with additional record keeping.
 
A vacation or family trip taken during the school year gives an unfortunate interruption to a student's classroom work. We realize that an employer may dictate the choice of a vacation time so that the student and parents are faced with a choice between a family trip during the school term and no trip at all.
 
During the school year ONE such trip will be considered an excused absence within the following guidelines:
1.         No more than five school days will be excused.  Days in excess of five will be marked as unexcused;
2.         The office must be given advance notice by the parents of their intention to take such a trip;
3.         Daily work, quizzes, and tests missed must be completed and turned in to the teacher.  The student will have as many days as he/she was absent to complete work missed up to five days.  Work missed on days of unexcused absence will not be allowed to be completed.
 
Please understand that the teacher cannot provide assignments before the trip.
If a child will be absent from school, parents are requested to telephone the school before 9:00 a.m. to notify the office of the absence.  If not notified, the school will attempt to contact the student's parents or guardian to confirm the absence.  This contact may be made by personal visit, by mail, by telephone, or by a visit of the school nurse.    If the student is truant, the county truant officer will be notified.   Truancy is defined as being absent from school without cause for an excused absence and without the knowledge of school authorities.
 Because medical and dental appointments are often difficult to obtain, the principal may give the parent permission to let a student keep such an appointment while counting the student present.  This may only be done for students who arrive at school no later than 9:18 a.m. or who leave no sooner than 2:06 p.m.
Parents are requested to let the school know in advance when students may be absent.  Even though absences are unexcused, the teacher may better plan the work of the child if he/she knows about the intended absence.

Students who regularly attend the Passage program after school must be in attendance for at least ½ day in order to attend.  If your student stays home due to illness he/she must return to school by 11:30 a.m. in order to attend Passage.  In order to return to school after a morning illness students must meet our illness regulations.  This is done to protect other students from potential illness.  Any student too sick to return to school by 11:30 will not be allowed to potentially infect other students.

A student is tardy when he/she is not in his/her assigned seat when the class begins.  Being tardy to school is better than absence for the entire day.  The office will keep track of all tardies.  Chronic tardiness will be dealt with according to the disciplinary guideline list in this handbook. 

 Truancy is missing school for an unacceptable reason.   Truancy is considered an "unexcused" absence from school, and no credit for work missed,  will be given.  Parents will be notified and additional offenses may result in a parent conference,disciplinary actionsand/or referral to the Sangamon County Truency Officer.