Attendance

Students should be in attendance at all times. Ten or more absences in any school year can be considered excessive. Excessive absences will be brought to the attention of the District Attorney’s Abolish Chronic Truancy (ACT) Program and/or the School Attendance Review Board (SARB).

Parents Consequences for Non-Attendance

Parents who fail to send their children to school or who contribute to their child’s absences and/or tardies can be ordered to attend parent education, fined and/or criminally prosecuted.  The fines and penalties can range from $50 to $2,500 plus can be sentenced to a misdemeanor and up to a year in jail.  [E.C. 48291-3, 48453-4 and Penal Codes 272 and 270.1]

Excused Absences

Absences listed below are excused when verified:

1.  A Student illness will be marked "excused" when verified by the school’s health office or doctor's note and  will be marked "absent"  (not truant) when verified by parent/guardian. Absences not verified by doctor nurse or parent will be marked "truant."

 2. Medical, dental, optometrical, or chiropractic appointments:

 a. Please make medical appointments after school hours whenever possible.

 b. Students will be released for appointments only with the written approval of parent/guardian, and to adults listed on their emergency cards.

3. Attending funeral services of a member of the student's immediate family, so long as such absence is not more than one day if the service  is conducted in California and not more than three days if the service is conducted outside of California.

4. For justifiable personal reasons, including, but not limited to, an appearance in court, attendance at a funeral service, observance of a holiday or ceremony of his or her religion, attendance at religious retreats (shall not exceed four hours per semester).

5. For the purpose of spending time with a member of the student’s immediate family, who is an active duty member of the uniformed/military services, and has been called to duty for, is on leave from, or has immediately returned from, deployment to a combat zone or combat support position.

 A student absent from school under this section shall be allowed to complete all assignments and tests missed during the absence that can be reasonably provided and, upon satisfactory completion within a reasonable period of time, shall be given full credit therefore.  The teacher of the class from which a student is absent shall determine which tests and assignments shall be reasonably equivalent to, but not necessarily identical to, the tests and assignments that the student missed during the absence. [BP 5113]

Absence Reporting

All absences not verified by the parent will be considered truant. Any  student subject to compulsory education who is absent without  a valid excuse  more  than  three (3) days  or tardy  in excess  of thirty  (30)  minutes on each of more  than three  days in one school year shall  be classified as a truant and shall  be reported to the Supervisor of Attendance.

Continued absences and/or tardies will result in parent conferences and may result in a referral to one or all of the following:

ACT: Abolish Chronic Truancy Program places hearing officers from the District Attorney’s Office at school sites to meet with parents or guardians of students with attendance concerns.

SART: The Student Attendance Review Team is the last attempt of the school site to try and resolve attendance concerns before the case is referred to SARB. 

SARB: The Student Attendance Review Board summons parents and students who have been unable to resolve attendance concerns at the school site level or who have established a pattern of excessive absences or tardies.  Our goal is to assist families in resolving attendance concerns.  However, failure to adequately improve attendance can result in a citation by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department or criminal prosecution by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Students will not be excused absences due to family vacations, business trips or personal trips unless you make arrangements to place your child on Independent Study with your child’s Principal and your child completes and turns in all assignments.