Attendance Guidelines

Attendance Procedures

Absence is one of the primary causes of poor work and academic failure. Students are expected to attend school each day. We recognize that students may occasionally need to miss school due to illness or other unforeseen circumstances.

• Any student absent from school shall present a written excuse when he/she returns before school to the Attendance Office.
• The signed note by the parent or legal guardian explaining the nature of the absence is required within five days of the student returning for the absence to be counted as excused.
• Include in the note the phone number where the parent can be contacted to be verified.
• Missing 20 minutes or more of a class period constitutes an absence. 

Students who have missed:

• Three consecutive days due to illness may be required to provide a doctor's note.
• Students who have missed ten days or more of school within a school year will be required to provide additional verification, including doctor's statements.

Excused Absences

A hold harmless absence that has been documented and relates to one of the following circumstances in accordance with State Board of Education Rule 160-5-1.10 and Georgia State Code, O.C.G.A. 20-2-690.1:

• Personal illness or when attendance in School would be detrimental to the health of the student or others
• A serious illness in the student's immediate family necessitating absence from school
• A death in the student's family necessitating absence from School
• Observance of religious holidays necessitating absence from School
• Compliance with a court order or an order issued by a
• governmental agency mandating an absence from School
• Visitation with an immediate family member who is on leave from or is being deployed to military service
• Important family events/ celebrations for an immediate family member (graduation, wedding, religious ceremony, etc.)
• Compliance with an order for a pre-induction physical examination for service in the armed forces
• An absence for registering to vote or participating as an active voter in a local, state, or federal election
• A verified interview for college admission or a documented college visit
• A specialized, supplemental, or extra-curricular program/event
• Other absences pre-approved by the principal

Unexcused Absences

All other absences not mentioned previously are considered unexcused. Every school day is important; "skip days" are not recognized or condoned by the school administration and are considered unexcused.

Remote Learning Attendance

Students can substitute up to 5 absences per semester (a max of 10 per year) with a remote learning day by meeting the remote learning participation benchmarks (listed below). This would result in the student being counted as present for the day(s) they participate remotely. For security reasons, students who are out of the country may not participate in remote learning.

Students must meet the following participation benchmarks to receive credit for attending in a remote learning setting:

• Must participate in over half of the school day to be given credit for attendance
• Participation in synchronous instruction remotely, •
• or participates asynchronously as defined by the teacher

To be considered absent but present, work that is assigned must be submitted within 2 days of absence. Students may not use a remote learning day on a summative assessment day.