School District of Amery - Attendance Policy 20-21

Parents

Attendance Policy 20-21

School District of Amery Attendance Policy Adjustments for 2020-2021

We are committed to being flexible with the attendance of students as we all cope with the circumstances surrounding COVID-19.

The guiding principles of student attendance in the School District of Amery are:

School attendance is the shared responsibility of the student, their parents/guardians, and the school district.
The School District of Amery recognizes the positive relationship between regular school attendance and success in school.
The attendance policy of the School District of Amery seeks to maximize the school attendance of students.

The requirements of school attendance in the School District of Amery are:

Students are required to be at school, each day, all day.
Students are required to be in school by the start time of the building they attend school in.
Students are required to be on time to all classes they are enrolled in during the day.
If not at school, students must be excused through the office by their parent or guardian.
A student may only be parent excused for 10 days of school per school year.
Days which are medically excused are not counted as parent excused.
Students will not be required to get a doctor’s notes for all days out due to sickness.
Any days of school missed due to COVID-19 will be tracked separately for each student.
When a student is not in school and not excused by a parent or guardian, they are truant.
Students who are truant are subject to a school and legal consequence.

Attendance Tracking

Attendance is tracked daily in PowerSchool and is available to you through the online PowerSchool parent portal or through the PowerSchool app. Four common attendance codes you may see in PowerSchool are:

PAR	Parent Excused	Used when you call to excuse your child from school.
EXC	Doctor/Court Excused	Used when student provides a note from a medical provider or a court, or you are contacted by school to pick up your child due to illness.
SIC	Sick Day Used	Used when a student is sick but does not have a doctor’s note.
COV	COVID-19 Day Used	Used when a student misses school due to a COVID-19 related reason.

Attendance Notifications

Attendance Concern	Parent/Guardian Notification
5 Days Absent Overall	Correspondence from school listing all absences
10 Days of Parent Excused Absences	Letter stating you are out of parent excused days A parent meeting will be set up to discuss school attendance
Chronic Absenteeism School administration will contact you in the event of chronic absenteeism

PLEASE NOTE: The Wisconsin Department of Health Services recommends that any individual who travels
outside of Wisconsin (with the exception of Minnesota) go into self-quarantine for 14 days upon return home.

The Value of School Attendance

Absenteeism in the first month of school can predict poor attendance throughout the school year. Half of students who miss 2-4 days in September will miss nearly a month of school.
Poor attendance can influence whether children read proficiently by the end of third grade.
By 6th grade, chronic absence becomes a leading indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
Research shows that missing 10 percent of the school, or about 18 days (2 days per month) negatively affects a student’s academic performance.
When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating.

(Source: “Attendance Works: Advancing Student Success by Reducing Chronic Absence”, 2019)