As we continue our district focus on improving attendance we are implementing some new procedures that will help make it easier to communicate absences to the school in a timely manner. Beginning on September 9, 2024, any student that is marked absent, or unexcused from one, or more periods throughout the day, will receive an automated call from the SchoolMessenger around 3 PM.
This message will be:
"Hello, this is a message from the attendance office at <<your student’s school>>, calling to inform you that your student <<First Name>> <<Last Name>> was marked absent today <<date>> the following periods <<Periods Missed>>.
Please contact the attendance office of your student's school at, (phone number), to verify the absence, or send a signed note upon <<First name>>'s return to school. If you have already contacted the school office you can disregard this message. If you would like to replay this message, please press the star key. Thank you."
As an added feature, parents will now have the ability to submit their student’s attendance via the PowerSchool Portal. Please follow these directions for more information:
- After logging into PowerSchool, click on the “Attendance Monitor” link on the left-hand navigation list. (It will be towards the bottom of the list).
- Then click the report attendance button. Enter the date the student is, or will be absent. If it is for the current day enter today’s date and leave the second box blank.
- Select a reason for the absences from the list provided.
- Select Yes or No in the “Is the absence for the whole day” drop down. If you select no you must enter a time range of when your student will be absent.
- You must type an explanation in the text box and then click the submit button.
- You will receive an email confirmation of your submission. Please note: you may not report attendance for any previous days, and you can only submit attendance for tomorrow or the current day.
- For the first 9 absences, reporting an absence in PowerSchool would be considered written documentation to excuse the absence. After the first 9 absences additional documentation is still required to excuse additional absences.
As a reminder, a student’s absence from school shall be considered excused if written documentation of the reason for the absence has been submitted within ten school days of the student’s return to school in accordance with Section 10-198b of the Connecticut General Statutes, which defines the following criteria:
- For absences one through nine, a student’s absences from school are considered excused when the student’s parent/guardian approves such absence and submits appropriate documentation; and
- For the tenth absence and all absences thereafter, a student’s absences from school are considered excused for the following reasons:
- Student illness (Note: all student illness absences must be verified by an appropriately licensed medical professional to be deemed excused, regardless of the length of absence
- Student’s observance of a religious holiday; death in the student’s family or other emergency beyond the control of the student’s family
- Mandated court appearance (additional documentation required)
- Lack of transportation that is normally provided by a district other that the one the student attends (no parental documentation is required for this reason)
- Extraordinary educational opportunities pre-approved by district administrators and in accordance with Connecticut State Department of Education guidance.
-
After the first nine, any absences not due to one of the above reasons are considered unexcused.