Attendance

Attendance Policy

There is probably no more important factor in a child's education than maintaining regular attendance. The only excused absences according to California State law are illness, quarantine, medical or dental appointments, attendance at a funeral of one's immediate family, or exclusion for failing to meet immunization requirements. All other absences will be marked "unexcused." ALL ABSENCES, EXCUSED OR UNEXCUSED CAUSE THE SCHOOL TO LOSE FUNDING OF APPROXIMATELY $45 PER DAY.

Parents are urged to notify the school by phone for all student absences, as all absences must be cleared. PLEASE CALL (562) 799-4571 the morning of your child's absence. This phone line is on 24 hours a day so you may call as early as you would like. We verify all absences every day and appreciate your calling us with this information. For this reason, we prefer you call on the morning of the absence rather than sending a note. This procedure is necessary to meet state attendance requirements for all grade levels. A pattern of excessive absences, as well as tardiness, will be referred to the School Attendance Review Board for possible legal actions.

Because school ends at 2:20 P.M., parents are urged to schedule doctor and dentist appointments for after 2:25 P.M. PLEASE DO NOT SCHEDULE VACATIONS DURING SCHOOL. Not only is it detrimental to your children's educational programs, but they could be missing very important instructional units that are included on the CAASPP exams that are administered in the spring. Perfect attendance certificates are given to students with NO absences, tardies or early release.

California attendance laws changed a few years ago in regard to how absences are handled. Now, any absent student, whether ill (excused) or on a trip (unexcused) results in a loss of revenue to the district. School districts are no longer funded according to total student enrollment, but on student attendance. Students who are obviously ill (i.e. fever in last 24 hours or vomiting) need to stay home. But families that are considering keeping their students out of school for other reasons need to take into consideration both the loss of academic instruction for their children, and also the financial impact on the school and district.

Attendance/Family Vacations

Students are to attend school each day unless they are ill (fever, vomiting or rash). Every effort should be made to schedule doctor's appointments after school hours. When that is not possible, please schedule near the end of the school day or have your child return to school after the visit with a written note from the doctor. Family vacations should be scheduled during school breaks. There are multiple problems resulting from vacations that cause students to miss instruction: 1) Independent Study Contracts are approved on a case-by-case basis and must be developed well in advance of the trip by the classroom teacher, 2) failure to follow through with a contract results in loss of funding to the district, 3) your child will miss the instruction and collaboration that cannot be replaced with vacation homework, 4) requirements of the I.S. contract are that the child do an equal type and amount of class works as the students remaining at school, reducing the pleasure of the trip 5) the classroom teacher is required to complete additional paperwork on top of an already hectic schedule.