Attendance Information

  • Early Dismissal

    On the occasions that you need your student to be dismissed from school early, please send in a note stating the time of dismissal with your student.  Students should bring the note into the front office before the school day begins so they can be given an early dismissal pass to leave class at the appointed time.  This limits interruptions to classroom instruction as we do not have to call into the classroom to call students down for early dismissal.  The note must include the date, time of dismissal, and parent signature.  Emails will not be accepted.  Phone calls will only be accepted for emergencies. 

    Attendance Reminders  / Contact Information

    • School Phone (704) 290-1520     
    • School Fax (704) 243-0012
    • Attendance Counselor: Email Melissa King-Pierce or call 704-290-1510, ext. 5314

    Please understand that every parent note may NOT be coded as “excused.” Absences do NOT go away when they are excused, they are just coded to indicate excused.  If your student is not in the building, they are “absent” regardless of the reason. 

    For example, parent notes for car trouble, personal business, family business, family emergencies, family trip (unless preapproved by the designee), no reason listed and sports showcases are NOT excused under county policy.

    • Medical/Dental appointments MUST be documented with an actual dr note from a dr office, in order to be excused under medical.
    • Absences due to court/legal appearances should be documented with a note from the court/lawyer.
    • Absences for a college visit should be documented by a note from the college on the college letterhead or you may forward the email thanking you for attending the tour.  We will NOT take an email confirmation for an upcoming tour. Juniors and seniors are only allowed 2 per academic year. 
    • Absences due to a death in the family need to have either a copy of the obituary, a link to an obituary, a church bulletin or a funeral card along with a parent note. 
    • Parent notes for an illness/injury are excused.  However, can be limited on how they apply to exam exemptions or recovery. 
    • Any educational opportunity must be pre-approved by the school's designee no later than 2 weeks PRIOR to the event.  Approvals are based on attendance and current grades when asked. 
    • Absence notes should be turned in to the front office upon the student’s return to school.  However, per county policy, all notes MUST be turned in within the 6-week grading period in which the absence occurred to be considered excused (we will take medical/dr notes at any time). 
    • Absences will be coded unexcused in PowerSchool until an excuse is received. Please allow 48 hours for excuse notes to be coded in PowerSchool.
    • Attendance in High School is taken in each block, by the teacher of record. If a student misses more than 15 minutes of a block, then he/she is marked ABSENT for that entire block.
    • If you are marked absent but you were “in class”, you must talk to your teacher first. If your teacher made an error, your teacher will need to email Ms. King-Pierce to make the correction.  If you have a substitute, you will still need to talk to your teacher first.

    Exam Exemption Policy applies to teacher-made final exams only and criteria are straight forward. High School students will not be required to take a teacher-made final exam in a course in the following situations: *The student has an average of 90 or above the week prior to the administration of the exam AND has no more than 2 unexcused absences in the class OR *The student has an average of 80 or above the week prior to the administration of the exam AND has no more than 1 unexcused absence in the class.

    Teachers will notify students of their likely exam exemption status at least 4 days prior to the first exam date. The exam exemption status can change up to the first day of exams based on attendance. In order to maintain the likely exemption status at least 4 days prior to the first exam date, students must attend every day up to the first day of exams. 

    Feel free to email Mrs. King-Pierce questions regarding attendance or any legal excuse notes. Every year we receive notes with first names only, notes where we cannot read the writing and notes with no names on them.  Please note that these notes are thrown out as we have no one to attach the excuse note to. 

     

    School Board Policy