Attendance

OUSD Attendance Policy

Students are expected to be at school each school day unless ill or faced with an unseen family emergency. Chronic absence is defined as missing 10% of the school year at any given point in the school year, including both excused and unexcused absences. For example, if a student misses 2 days of school out of 20 total school days, or 4 days out of 40 total school days, or 18 days out of the entire school year, the student is considered chronically absent. 

In any school year, a student is truant if they are:

• absent more than three (3) days with unexcused absences,
• tardy for 3 days by more than 30 minutes,
• or any combination of the two ways listed above at any point during the school year.

If your child is identified as chronically absent or truant, you will be notified by the district attendance office and may be asked to attend a School Attendance Review Team (SART) meeting. We discourage students from missing school whenever possible. Even if a child is not in danger of falling behind, absences may impact the child, particularly if there is a special event, field trip, or project that is being completed that day. This also can impact the teacher and class. If there is no alternative, then your student will be marked unexcused for those absences. As you may know, school funding is based on daily attendance rates. There is more information about attendance here: Attendance & Discipline Support Services. 

Missing 5 days of school or more

If your child is going to miss five or more consecutive school days, notify your child’s teacher and the attendance clerk in advance about an independent study contract. Students who complete these contracts are marked present. Independent Study Contract paperwork must be completed by the teacher and signed by the parent. You may only have an independent study for a total of 15 days per school year.  

Tardies

Students are expected to be at school on time each school day. Habitual tardiness results in significant loss of instructional time. Being as little as 10 minutes tardy per day for 20 days equals 200 minutes of missed instruction. Students with habitual tardiness and/or absences will be referred to SART.

What should I do if my child is sick or late for school?

If your child is late, walk them to the office to sign them in. If your child is sick, email our attendance specialist, at [email protected]. Any other office request can go to our office manager Mrs. Terrel at [email protected].