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DPS and school-by-school attendance policies

Published May 19, 2005 at midnight

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Denver Public Schools has a districtwide attendance policy, and individual high schools also have their own rules. These are the district and high school rules for all the high schools that responded to the Rocky Mountain News request for information.

DPS policy

I. DEFINITIONS

A. An excused absence will be absence with permission of the parent/guardian and school principal. Such absences include those that are the result of temporary illness or injury or physical, mental or emotional disability or condition.

B. An unexcused absence will include those that are the result of suspension and expulsion, except as provided in Sections II-B, II-B 4, II-B 5 and II-C below, or those that are with permission of the parent/guardian but without permission of the school principal

C. A truancy will be absence without the permission of the parent/guardian and the school principal

D. A habitually truant student is defined as a pupil who has four unexcused absences or truancies in any month or 10 unexcused absences or truancies during any school year and is between the ages of 7 or 16, if enrolled in the first grade or above; for the purpose of defining a habitually truant student, absences due to suspension or expulsion will be considered excused

E. A school service absence will include those pupils who are participating in school activities authorized and pre-approved by the school administration; pupils will be counted as present in the school regardless of the location of the activity

II. PROCEDURES TO ENCOURAGE DAILY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

A. Each school and teacher is responsible for keeping accurate records of student absences, tardies, and truancies.

B. School procedures and rules will include, but need not be limited to, the following:

1. Notification to the parents/guardians of each enrolled child, annually at the beginning of each school year or upon enrollment, of the following:

a. That it is the obligation of the parent/guardian and child to ensure that the child attends school daily and complies with school attendance rules in order to receive an appropriate education

b. School rules and procedures regarding attendance

2. A method for notifying the parent/guardian of the child's absence from school if the school has received no indication that the child's parent is aware of such absence; notification will be by telephone on the day of absence, if possible, in writing, or by some other method

3. Consequences for truancies, unexcused absences, and unexcused tardies that may include lower grades or loss of academic credit

4. Providing for development of a plan, which may be in writing, to assist the habitually truant student in remaining in school; such procedures must provide opportunities for the full participation of the parent/guardian in the plan's development; the plan, at a minimum, must identify the reasons for the absences and measures to overcome them.

Initiation of judicial proceedings, which will be according to the professional judgment of the school principal and staff, except that such proceedings must be initiated if the student has more than 30 truancies or unexcused absences during a school year; for the purpose of this subsection, absences due to suspension or expulsion will be counted as excused

5. Provision of make-up work for suspended students upon the request of the parent/guardian or student, which may include the granting of full or partial credit for such work, if satisfactorily completed in a timely manner

6. A means to ensure that rules are consistently applied to all students

C. Withdrawal, in a timely manner, of pupils over 16 years of age if' they have been absent for 20 consecutive school days and absences are unexcused or truancies; for the purpose of this section, absences due to suspension will be considered as excused, provided, however, that no student shall be withdrawn after 20 consecutive school days until the school has made a substantial effort to contact the pupil and/or parent by telephone or home visit for the purpose of identifying the reasons for non-attendance and developing strategies to address them; appropriate school personnel, including the social worker and counselor, should be involved in this effort.This requirement does not prevent withdrawal of a student who has been absent for less than 20 consecutive school days

III. PUPIL AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE PLANS

A. The district will develop a model plan to improve the attendance of students who are identified as habitually truant

B. The district will develop a model attendance ladder that may be adopted by schools as part of a plan to encourage daily attendance

STUDENT ATTENDANCE

Daily school attendance is essential to our children and youth acquiring the knowledge, skills, and values to become self-sufficient citizens. Parents/ guardians and students are responsible for ensuring daily attendance. Schools will develop and implement plans consistent with district procedures to encourage daily student attendance.

Individual High School Attendance Policies

These are schools' responses to an e-mail questionnaire or interviews with principals by the Rocky Mountain News.

Abraham Lincoln High School

Attendance policy: Six absences or more can result in a failing grade.



Campus open or closed: Open.



Methods for reducing missed classes or school: Only two doors are unlocked. Administrators and security patrol the perimeter. Two para-professionals are dedicated to attendance contracts and home visits.

Career Education Center Middle College of Denver

Attendance Policy: To receive full credit and a satisfactory grade for a class, a student must meet or exceed 90 percent attendance in each class for each grading period. This means there are no more than nine absences per semester or four to five absences per six weeks. The parent or guardian should call the school on the day of a student's absence. Teachers will call home regarding a student's lack of attendance when no communication has been made. If a student is to have an extended absence, the student must notify one of the following offices immediately so the student has the opportunity to make up course work: Extended absences outside of the normal DPS calendar are highly discouraged and may result in reduced credit, a reduced grade, or removal from the Scholars and/Career Programs. Students who need to leave the school early are to see the attendance clerk for a partial absence slip. The attendance secretary will verify this absence with the student's parent/guardian. The person contacted must be listed on student's emergency information card. The leave request will be denied if parents/guardians cannot be reached to verify the leave. Student will be expected to return to class and will be considered truant if they leave without a "partial."

Campus open or closed: Closed for ninth- and 10th-grade students. Eleventh- and 12th- grade students have off-campus lunch privileges. Off-campus lunch privileges are granted to full-time juniors and seniors during their scheduled lunch period. Privileges will be taken away if the student is consistently tardy to the next class or if inappropriate behavior is reported while students are off campus. All freshmen, sophomores and part-time students are expected to stay on campus throughout the day.

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: Administrative staff, security staff, teachers and support staff monitor and report if students are suspected of leaving campus without permission. Students come and go to the CEC for a variety of reasons, including: attend classes at our Community of College of Denver campus, Emily Griffith Opportunity School, or to return to their home high school (part-time students). Therefore, we rely on our attendance policy to monitor abuse of the modified open campus policy.

Denver School of the Arts

Attendance policy: District policy.

Campus open or closed: Open for high school, closed for middle school

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: Teacher referrals / open referrals. Followed with the discipline ladder for truancies



East High School



Attendance policy: Three unexcused absences affect student grades each grading period. Six unexcused absences require a referral to the social worker who sends a letter home. Students under 15 1/2 are filed with truancy court. Home visits are sometimes done by the social worker in extreme cases.

Campus open or closed: Open

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: We have an attendance review committee. Counselors call homes. Attendance contracts are signed by students and parents. More severe absentees are referred to a Community/School Assistance Team composed of the school psychologist and teachers. They provide a holistic intervention with parents and students who need extra support. Teachers as a whole were asked to adopt a student at risk and to encourage attendance.

Emily Griffith High School

Attendance policy: District policy

Campus open or closed: open

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: Small classroom teacher to student ratios. Roving security. Counselor monitoring. Students do not want to be dropped from a class. They really want to graduate.

Florence Crittenton School for teen mothers

Attendance policy: If a student misses a class five times, she gets a warning notice. The

notice is also mailed home and a copy given to the students counselor. If a student misses a class more than eight times, she gets a class failure due to attendance notice, which also is mailed home and copied to the counselor.

The student has the opportunity to do an appeal to change the grade from an "F" to a passing grade. If she completes the appeal form, has legitimate reasons for the absences, has made up the work, has a passing grade and has made positive effort in the class, her grade will change

from an "F" to a passing grade.

Campus open or closed: We have closed campus Monday through Wednesday and open campus Thursday and Friday.

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: There is only one door that is unlocked during the school day for entrance/exit, so it is easy to monitor who comes and goes. Students cannot leave the building during the school day without parental/guardian permission. We do all-school attendance awards assemblies every two to three weeks to recognize students who have good attendance. They earn certificates which are redeemable at the "Baby Bucks" Store. We have an attendance committee that meets every one to two weeks to monitor attendance. The counseling staff and school social worker call the girls who've not been attending to find out why. The school is just completing a research project which focused on student attendance at Florence Crittenton. We did a survey to get the student perspective on why they attend/why they miss. With the information gained through the survey and lit review, we will adjust our current policy in an effort to improve attendance.

George Washington High School



Attendance policy: Offers parents and students a general policy statement, supported by a set of procedures that address attendance, tardies and partial absences. Beyond the routine procedures, GW teachers are given flexibility in how they motivate students. Students must attend class to learn and excel, so it becomes the responsibility of the teacher to make the necessary "nterventions" (i.e. parent contacts, social worker services, administrative support, conferences, etc.) that will encourage good attendance. Parents and students share a responsibility to support the learning environment by following the expectations of any given teacher.



Campus open or closed: Open during lunchtime and excused periods.



Methods for reducing missed classes or school: It is the responsibility of the school to provide a safe and respectful learning environment for all students. A student identified as having habitualabsences is counseled and often placed on an attendance contract that is signed by parents and monitored by the school. Ongoing interventions (as mentioned in #1 above) will encourage student and family "buy in" to the importance of education.

John F. Kennedy High School

Attendance policy: We don't have an "attendance policy" per se, just the expectation that students attend on a daily basis. We do have a strict policy about excusing students who don't follow check-out procedures and then wish to be excused later. Teachers must give make-up work if the absence is excused.

Campus open or closed: Open.

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: We have a truancy reduction program ninth-graders to monitor attendance and contact parents. We also utilize our home dialer method to have daily calls for those students who are absent. We also use security to help monitor the halls, etc. Teachers are in the halls between classes to assist with moving kids along. We expect teachers and counselors to help us contact homes if students are absent. Our social worker and psychologist help with the under age students

Manual Arts and Cultural Studies High School

Attendance policy: Parents are called the day after the absence. Students may be assigned to Saturday school if absences are habitual. Other consequences of skipping school are lunch detention, after-school detention and parent conferences.

Campus open or closed: Open.

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: Security guards.



Manual Leadership High School

Attendance Policy: Manual Leadership has a 10 per semester absence policy. Ten days equals an automatic "F" unless the student files for an appeal. The appeal is a meeting of the student, parent(s) teachers and our parent liaison person. Usually a contract is agreed upon and the student must abide by the contract until the end of the semester.

Campus open or closed: Open for lunch. We have about 50 doors and are trying to institute a rule for a closed campus would be futile, because we don't have the staff to man these doors.

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: We teach leadership skills and try to instill in students that attending school is their responsibility. Two parent liaison workers call home every day and make home visits. We ask parents to help us monitor their student's attendance. This works better than anything else we have tried.

Manual Millennium Quest High School

Attendance policy: Aligned with district policy.

Campus open or closed: Open.

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: Teachers from our Discipline Committee monitor the halls.

Montbello High School

Did not respond to repeated e-mails and phone requests for attendance information.

North High School

Attendance policy: Students are required to attend all classes.

1. Definitions:

Excused Absence — absence with permission of parent/guardian AND school principal. Make-up work must be done within two days upon returning from absence.

Truancy — absence without permission of principal and parent/guardian.

Unexcused Absence — absence without permission of principal.

Unverified Absence — unexcused absence or truancy

Absence Due to Suspension —

a. Is an unexcused except for "C" below

b. Make-up work must be allowed if requested

c. Is considered an excused absence with judicial proceedings

School Service Absence — (activity/school excursion) pupil absence due to participating in school activities authorized and pre-approved by school administration and if necessary period teacher.

Unexcused Tardy — tardy without permission of the principal. Make-up work is allowed; it must be done within two days of unexcused tardy.

Habitually Truant Student — pupil under 16 years of age who has four unexcused absences in any month or 10 unexcused absences during the school year.

2. NHS will collaborate with students and parents/guardians to develop a plan to assist the habitually truant student remaining in school. (DPS policy states that counselor and/or social worker be involved).

3. For students under 16 years of age, NHS may initiate judicial proceedings when a student has 10 or more unexcused absences during the school year. For students over 16 years of age, NHS may withdraw a student when the student acquires 20 unexcused absences or truancies.

4. NHS Procedures for parents/guardians/students for reporting excused absences. If a student is absent for legitimate reasons, the following procedure should be followed:

a. The parent/guardian must verbally notify the attendance office (303) 964-2752 of the student absence or on the same day of the absence (preferably either before or on the day of the absence, AND at maximum within two days of the absence.)

b. Upon returning to school, the student must bring a note excusing the student that includes the reason for the absence, a parent/guardian signature and a telephone number for verification. The attendance secretary will stamp/verify the note. The student must bring the note within two days of his/her absence. The student may bring the note to the attendance office prior to the absence in order to prearrange an excused absence.

c. The student must show the verified note to all of his/her teachers, the student must return the note to the main office, where a basket with "verified excuse notes" is located.

NOTE: The teacher's record is considered the official legal document.

5. Extended Absence policy (absences of five or more consecutive school days): extended absences must be pre-approved by a school administrator. In the case of severe illness, the school must be immediately informed and a medical excuse must be provided. If approval is granted, then the student/parent/guardian must provide verification to the appropriate grade level counselor who will arrange for the homework. If approval is denied, and the student is absent for more than five consecutive school days, the absence will be considered unexcused, and the student may fail all classes.



B. This is to be included, beginning January 2002, in every teacher's semester course syllabus:

North High School Attendance Information

1. NHS Attendance Policy- "NHS students are required to attend all classes." According to DPS policy, "Consequences for truancies, unexcused absences and unexcused tardies may include lower grades or loss of academic credit."

2. For more information regarding attendance, refer to your student's period 4 course syllabus.

3. For procedures on reporting absences, refer to your student's period 4 course syllabus.

C. Please note that there is to be no mention equating a number of absences to a failing grade for a class in any course syllabus. Failure ("due to absences") should be inherent in the individual student's performance in class, on assignments, on quizzes/tests, etc?

NORTH HIGH SCHOOL ATTENDANCE PROCEDURES

1. Teachers log all students absences on SASI (computer system).

2. The automated phone dialer will call the home of a student who is absent or tardy at least one period during a given day.

3. Students/Parents/Guardians MUST follow the North High School Unexcused Absence Reporting Procedure (See North High School Attendance Information, student planner Fall 2002, or period 4 course syllabus).

4. Attendance secretary logs excused absences on SASI.

5. Teachers log school service/school excursion absences on SASI as "ACT".

6. Students serving in-school tardy detention will be logged on SASI as "OUT".

7. Students serving out-of-school suspensions will be logged on SASI as "SUS".

8. Students serving in-school suspensions will be logged on SASI as "INS".

9. A staff member is responsible for Student Unverified Absence Parent/Guardian Notification Record/Referral. (See attached form.)



A. Definitions:

Notification — documented notification of one or more unverified absences by speaking with a parent/guardian or reliable adult who will relay information to parent/guardian. This is also known as a Verbal Message to a responsible Adult (VMA).

Last Resort Notification — documented notification of one or more unverified absences by U.S. Mail after documentation of at least three unsuccessful attempts at verbal notification.

B. Responsibilities of Staff:

A staff member is responsible for student unverified absence notification. S/he will make notification (at minimum) within 24 hours of a student's third date of an unexcused absence/truancy.

A staff member is responsible for a student unverified absence notification. S/he will make notification at minimum within 24 hours of a student's fifth date of an unexcused absence/truancy.

Clarification: Therefore, a staff shall make two notifications at minimum total regarding a student's first five unverified absences during a given semester.

? Each regular classroom Period 4 teacher is responsible for notification of students' unverified absences to parent/guardians for all classes/periods of each student in his/her period 4 class.

? Regular classroom teachers with no period 4 classes are assigned to pair up/help the teachers with the largest class loads. It is the responsibility of the regular classroom teacher who is not assigned to teach a period 4 class to come to an agreement with the assigned/paired up period 4 teacher who does have a class for handling absence notification.

? Each Special Education Teacher is responsible for notification of students' unverified absences to parents/guardians for all of the periods of students on his/her caseload.

? Counselors are responsible for notification to parents/guardians of students unassigned to a period 4 class for all of that period 4 students' classes for that semester. Counselors are responsible for (1) providing all students unassigned to a period 4 class "North High School Attendance Information" and (2) obtaining a parent/guardian signature indicating s/he has received and read the information.



Campus open or closed: Closed except for seniors in good academic standing

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: Teachers have supervision duties in the halls during class. Four security people patrol the campus. Students are made fully aware of tardy and attendance policies. Chronically absent students face attendance contracts and parental conferences. A social worker makes home visits to truant kids, especially if kids are under 16 with over 10 absences.

*Source is Assistant Principal John de la Garza. Source for question one is official attendance policy

Thomas Jefferson High School

Attendance policy: We have no formal attendance policy, except following state statute with students withdrawn after consecutive absences.

Campus open or closed: Open

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: My social worker is a crackerjack, working with poor attenders under the age of 16. We file on them with the court if the problem is excessive. Assistant principal Terry Manassee is vigilant with poor attenders over 16. She puts them on attendance contracts after meeting with them and their parents. She monitors daily attendance and will counsel them to an alternative high school if they break the contract. I also have an excellent attendance clerk, Betty Van Nordon, who monitors attendance and calls parents a great deal. Our main problem is Jefferson Park, next door to the school. Although this technically is not our property, my student advisers and school security go over to round up students and bring them back to class. We lock most all of the doors, but that is for trying to be aware of outsiders coming in to the building. The best antidote to poor attendance is for teachers to be offering meaningful assignments, caring for the welfare of the students, and having parents that work with us to encourage students to be successful.

West High School

Attendance policy: If students have eight absences in a semester, it may lower their grades or they can fail the class. It's up to the teacher. Students with poor attendance are put on attendance or behavior contracts.

Campus open or closed: Open.

Methods for reducing missed classes or school: Teachers and campus security monitor the halls. Administrators monitor the halls and look for truants outside the school and in the park across the street. The school social worker pursues truancy cases and makes home visits, if necessary.