District Attendance Policy

Lansingburgh School District Attendance Policy

Below is the official Lansingburgh Central School District attendance policy as it is written in the Board of Education District Policies.

I. Purpose/Statement of Objectives:
Student attendance is an important component of the educational process.  The program offered by the Lansingburgh Central School District is predicated upon student presence and requires continuity of instruction and classroom participation.  The Board of Education attendance policy has been developed and will be implemented to ensure the maintenance of an adequate record verifying the attendance of all students in school, and in classes, in accordance with Education Law Sections 3205 and 3210 and establishes a mechanism for which student attendance patterns can be examined.  This information will be used to develop intervention strategies for improving student school attendance.

II. Strategies to be Employed:
The District will employ the following strategies to ensure positive attendance patterns of students:
a. Development and periodic review of this policy and appropriate record-keeping mechanisms to ensure that the attendance of all students is tracked and analyzed.
b. Development of intervention strategies when student attendance is in need of improvement.
c.  Designated school personnel will contact Child Protective Services (CPS) if it is suspected that a student's lack of attendance is educational neglect.
d. Development of programs to encourage student attendance at school.
e. The Board of Education will annually review summative student attendance data for each building.  If this review indicates a decline in student attendance, this attendance policy will be revised in a manner as deemed necessary.

III. Excused and Unexcused Absences:
The following are to be considered excused absences and tardiness from school.  The Student and her/his parent or person in parental relation are responsible for providing written notification of the reasons for such absences upon the student's return to school, within three days of the student's return to school.  Also, student absence or tardiness for reasons other than those listed will be considered unexcused.

1. Personal illness
2. Sickness or death in the family
3. Impassable roads or weather making travel unsafe
4. Religious observance
5. Medical appointment
6. Approved school-sponsored trips and projects
7. Quarantine
8. Required court appearance
9. Approved cooperative work program
10. Military obligation
11. Pre-approved college visits
12. Scheduled driver road test
13. Other family and/or emergency obligations or circumstances, (for example travel, child care, parent work issues).

Record-keeping:
a. Student attendance will be taken and recorded at the elementary schools, that are non-departmentalized, each morning at the commencement of the school day.  Each classroom teacher shall record the student's presence or absence in a classroom record and shall report all absence or tardiness to the building office on an approved report form.  If students leave the school grounds at any time during the school day, such as for a field trip, student attendance will again be taken.
b. At Knickerbacker Middle School and Lansingburgh High School, that are departmentalized, attendance will be taken at the beginning of each school day and again at the beginning of each period of scheduled instruction.  Each classroom teacher shall record the student's presence or absence in a classroom record and shall report all absence and tardiness to the school main office on an approved attendance report form.
c. The coding system for entries into the official student attendance record will be that which is utilized by the BOCES Regional Information Services, from whom the district contracts for computerized student records.
d. Content of District Attendance Records: the district maintains a permanent record of attendance for all students enrolled in the Lansingburgh Schools.  The attendance record of each student will be maintained by the building principal or other employee designated by the Board of Education. The record shall include the following information for each student: Name, date of birth, names of parents or persons in parental relation, address where student resides, phone numbers where the parents or persons in parental relation can be contacted, date of enrollment, a record of the student's attendance on each day of scheduled instruction, and if applicable, the date of student withdrawal from enrollment.  Also, recorded will be a record of each scheduled day of instruction during which the school is closed for all or part of the day because of extraordinary circumstances (including such events as insufficient water supply, shortage of fuel, destruction of or damage to a school building or such other causes that may be found satisfactory by the Commissioner of Education).
e. Contacting parents: In the event the student is absent from school without previous notification to the attendance office or the building principal, the school will call the student's home to confirm the student's absence.

IV. Student Attendance Record Review:
The Board of Education shall designate the principal or another designee to supervise maintenance of student registers of attendance.  Entries in the register of attendance shall be verified by oath or affirmation of the person making the register entries. The principal and/or the individual designated by the Board of Education at each school will regularly review student attendance records for the purpose of initiating appropriate action to address unexcused student absence and tardiness on a daily basis at all school buildings.  Commencing no later than the 2003-04 school year, this review will also be conducted on a departmentalized basis (period by period) at the middle school and high school.

V. Distribution and Public Awareness:
a. Public Meeting.  This Policy shall be adopted after it has been presented at a public meeting of the Board of Education, duly noticed, that provides for the participation of school personnel, parents, students, and any other interested persons.
b. Plain Language Summary.  The Superintendent shall create a plain language summary of this Policy which shall be distributed to parents and persons in parental relationship to all District students at the beginning of each school year.
c. Distribution to Staff.  Each teacher and administrator shall be provided with a copy of this policy upon adoption or subsequent amendment.
d. This policy shall be made available to any member of the community upon request.