4.3 Attendance and Tardies

4.3 Attendance and Tardies: School Policies and Services

(LCS Policy 5.5)

Regular attendance is important to ensure achievement in school; thus, we discourage vacations, trips, doctor appointments, and other non-illness related absences when school is in session.  When that is unavoidable, students are responsible for any make-up work during their absence.  Assignments that are not made up, according to the time restrictions set by the teacher and school, will be reflected in their grades.  It is helpful to both student and teacher to make prior arrangements to meet that requirement.  Our goal is to maintain a student attendance rate of no less than 95%. 

Liberty Elementary School starts promptly at 8:00 AM Arrival time is 7:30-7:55 AM 

Colorado State Attendance law states, in part, that “Every elementary child who attained the age of 6 and under the age of 16 years….shall attend public school for at least 968 instructional hours during the school year, and every junior high child shall attend public school for at least 1150 instructional hours during the school year.” 

The State of Colorado and Poudre School District’s goal for attendance is 95%, as is Liberty Common School’s.  In order to attain this goal, a student cannot miss more than 10 days during the entire school year.  Any student missing more than 10 days of school, for reasons other than illness, will require a parent conference and the student may be required to make up the missing days after school or on weekends.

An EXCUSED ABSENCE/TARDY includes but is not limited to absence due to doctor appointment, dentist appointment, medical problems, or illness, involvement in a traffic accident, traffic problem occurring with multiple families arriving late, or when numerous carpools are affected, family emergency, death, or extreme weather.

An UNEXCUSED ABSENCE/TARDY includes but is not limited to time taken to attend family trips, late carpool, sleeping in late, lunch out from school, or professional sporting events.  If a student is absent during the day, he or she may not attend Liberty social functions that same night.

It is necessary that students be in class each day to fully benefit from Liberty’s rigorous academic program.  It is reasonable that students will occasionally miss class due to illness, doctor appointments, or family emergencies.  Such absences will be excused with a call from a parent.  In these instances, students will be allowed to make up tests and quizzes without penalty.  The teacher will determine appropriate adjustments, if any, to due dates for late or missed assignments.

If parents are planning an unexcused absence (e.g., vacation, absence for special events), they must make advance arrangements with their child’s teacher(s) to complete any work that will be missed.  In the case of an unexcused absence, make-up tests/quizzes and adjustments to assignment due dates may be allowed at the discretion of the teacher.

Recurring or routine absences from school are discouraged, however individual cases may be allowed at the discretion of the administration.  In all instances the student and teacher(s) must agree on a plan to ensure that the student remains current with all class requirements.

Absences Due to Illness

If your child is absent because of illness or an appointment for which we have not been notified previously, please call to make us aware of the situation before 8:30 AM  Please call each day your child is to be away from school and state the reason for the absence on the Absence Line for your child’s campus.

It is critical to student safety that we know where students are on school days. The office staff must place calls daily to parents who have not contacted the Absence Line.  Parents will be notified that an absentee call was not received by the telephone broadcast system, School Reach.  To minimize these calls, please make sure to inform the school of your student’s absence.    

Extended Absences

Extended absences should be discussed with your child’s teacher in advance.  Make-up work, alternative assignments, and the schedule for their completion, can then be devised to minimize negative impacts on academic learning. 

Late Arrival (Tardy)

Tardiness is a form of absence and interferes with student learning.  Late arrivals interrupt the learning environment and the daily procedures and will be handled in a serious manner.  Promptly at 8:00 AM, the bell rings, doors to classrooms are closed, and the academic day begins.  Students arriving after the bell rings will be considered tardy and must be checked in at the front desk by a parent or guardian.  After five tardies in a quarter, students in grades 4 through 6 will serve a lunch detention.  Every tardy until nine will also result in a lunch detention for that quarter.  The 10th tardy will result in an after-school detention that will be held from 3:00 to 4:00.  Parents will be given warning emails and will be notified if a student reaches this many tardies.  If the tardies continue to occur on a frequent basis, a meeting may result between the parent/student/teacher/Principal.  Loss of privileges for extracurricular activities may result.  This policy will reset each quarter giving students and parents an opportunity to improve.

Students may NOT be taken from classroom, halls or playground without prior acknowledgement by teacher, AND official sign in or out by parent in the front office, and notification to teacher(s) concerned.   Parents should not pull siblings from their classroom to attend classroom events such as classroom open houses.  On a fieldtrip, students taken by parents (or representative) from the field trip must check out with the teacher who has oversight of field trip students.