Attendance Policy

Attendance
The Board of Education, Administration, and faculty of Blue Valley believe that regular attendance is an important contributing factor to academic success. The board of education, administration, and faculty feel that school attendance is a right and not an imposition, and therefore require regular and punctual attendance of students. Students need to fulfill assigned requirements as scheduled and know that make-up work cannot take the place of being in the classroom during the discussion of the lesson.

Absence
Parents should make every effort to ensure regular attendance. Parents must notify the school attendance center by telephone between 7:30 am and 9:00 am if their child/ren will be absent, and state the nature of the absence, if not the absence will be considered unexcused. Make up work will be provided for students in cases of excused absences. Students will be allowed one day to make up work for every day missed, up to a maximum of 5 days, during an excused absence. Three consecutive unexcused or any five unexcused absences during a semester shall be handled as truancy and must be reported to the County Attorney’s office. After the fourth absence per quarter in the same class, parents will be notified by letter. On the sixth absence per quarter in the same class, parents will be requested to come in for a conference to review the student's attendance history and classroom performance.

Planned Absences
If a student knows of an anticipated absence(s) that will require them to miss more than one period he/she must report to the office to have their planner stamped "Prior" for personal absences only. Since the planned absence is secured prior to the absence, the collection of future work is the responsibility of the student and parents. Each teacher has their own policy for turning in work. It is the student's responsibility to complete and turn all work in on time. No planned absence will be excused during finals (first and second semester).

School Activities
No priors are required. Students are required to make arrangements with individual teachers for turning in assignments.

Excused Absences
The principal will have the final authority to determine whether individual absences will be excused or unexcused. If a student is absent from school, they must report immediately upon their return to the office with a written note from his/her parent or legal guardian and have their planner stamped excused or unexcused. This planner will serve as a permit for the student to return to class and must be presented to the teacher at the beginning of the period. It is the student’s responsibility to present the planner to the teacher and see that all work is made up. If a student fails to present their planner when returning to class, that absence shall be considered unexcused by the teacher.

Examples of Excused Absences
Doctor’s appointments, illness (extended absences of 5 days or more will require a doctor’s note), funerals, and family vacations with one week of prior notification from parents with administrative and teacher approval.

Unexcused Absences
If a student has an unexcused absence, or fails to get a planned absence when required, the student will receive a zero for all class periods missed.

Examples of Unexcused Absences:
Oversleeping, missing your ride, re-occurring car trouble, shopping, paying fines, errands, no notification of absence by 9:00 am the day of absence, and others that the administrator may deem unexcused.

A student will not receive credit for a class if they have been gone from that class twenty days (ten days per semester) of unexcused absences. An appeal may be made. A review committee consisting of a principal, a teacher, and a board member will consider the appeal. They will give their recommendation to the board of education for a final decision.

Truancy
Each building principal is designated as the respective school officer to report cases of truancy to the County Attorney’s office. A child is truant if:

1. The student is subject to the compulsive attendance law but is not enrolled in a public or private school, or
   
2. The student is subject to the compulsory attendance law and has unexcused absences for either three consecutive days or five or more days in any semester.

Leaving School
Students may only leave school grounds when permission is granted by the principal and parents are notified.

Tardy to School
If a student is tardy to school, they will report immediately to the office and will request a tardy admit. This admit will be marked excused or unexcused depending upon the reason for the tardy.

Tardy to Class
If a student is late to class, they will report immediately to that class. All tardies will be recorded in the grade book and each teacher will handle the situation to insure that students are in class on time.

Excessive Tardies
Students with excessive tardies, three or more during any quarter, will be required to serve detentions after school in order to make up the lost time.