Student Attendance Procedurekumeroa.school.nz/.../2012/05/StudentAttendanceProcedure.pdf ·...
Transcript of Student Attendance Procedurekumeroa.school.nz/.../2012/05/StudentAttendanceProcedure.pdf ·...
Student Attendance Procedure
Rationale
The Education Act 1989 and the Education (School Attendance) Regulations 1951 impose legal obligations on
school boards of trustees, principals, teachers, and parents that relate to students' enrolment and attendance
at school.
Every person who is required to be enrolled at a registered school must attend the school whenever it is open
unless they are exempted from attendance in accordance with the Act.
The Regulations require that all schools must:
● maintain accurate daily attendance registers for all students enrolled in the school
● use an attendance register in the approved form to record student attendance.
School attendance registers are legal records which may be used in court proceedings. These registers must be
retained for at least seven years from the date of the last entry. After seven years, the attendance registers
may be destroyed with the approval of the board of trustees in the case of state and state integrated schools,
or with the approval of the manager in the case of private schools
Procedure
1. Student attendance will be recorded electronically by the class teacher using the school’s Student
Management System (MUSAC Edge) twice a day, at the beginning of school and straight after lunch.
2. For students who are absent, the class teacher will record the code for the absence, if the reason for
the absence is definitely known, or record the absence as a ‘?’ if the reason is not known. Codes used
will be as per the MOE’s Attendance Codes 2012 explanation document (Appendix 1).
3. The Notes button in MUSAC Edge will be used whenever possible to record the reason for an absence.
4. A hard copy of the class roll will be kept up to date by the classroom teacher. This will be available at
all times in case of:
a. a relieving teacher teaching the class
b. an emergency evacuation
5. In the situation where a relief teacher is teaching a class a hard copy of the class roll will be used. A
note will be sent to the office to inform the Office Manager of any absences. In this circumstance the
Office Manager will complete the attendance register for that class.
6. Whenever possible, parents/caregivers will be encouraged to advise the school of an impending
absence ahead of time. When this is not possible, then parents/caregivers will be asked to inform the
school as soon as possible after the event (eg by phone on the day of a student’s illness, or by note on
the first day when the student returns to school).
7. If parents/caregivers advise the school of an impending absence of five school days or more, and
request work to be provided for the student, then the class teacher will make the work available.
However, work will not normally be provided for absent students under any other circumstances.
8. The following methods of explaining student absences, either before or after the event, will be
accepted from parents/caregivers. These will be recorded in the Notes functionality within MUSAC.
a. a phone call (noted in the school office diary)
b. a face-to-face explanation
c. a note (filed by the class teacher)
d. a text message or email to the school or teacher stating:
i. the student’s name
ii. the date of the absence
iii. and the reason for it
e. a certificate from a health professional (filed by the class teacher)
9. 15 minutes after the start of school, and 15 minutes after the end of lunch, the Office Manager will use
the SMS to identify the students who are absent. In the case of those for whom no explanation has
been received by the school, the Office Manager will contact a parent/caregiver by phone. If an
explanation is received this will be recorded as the reason for the absence in the SMS.
10. If the absence remains unexplained when the student returns to school, the class teacher will seek to
obtain an absence note through the student. If that is unsuccessful after three days, the teacher will
attempt to contact the parents/caregivers by phone. If no satisfactory explanation for an absence has
been received by the school within a week of the student’s return to school, then the class teacher will
record the student as having been truant. (If a satisfactory explanation is subsequently received, then
the coding of the absence will be changed by the class teacher – and the change shown in the register.)
11. When an absence is deemed to be ‘unjustified’, the class teacher will contact the parents/caregivers
within 24 hours, either by phone or by sending a note home (evidence of the receipt of which will be
required in writing). The aim of this contact is to alert parents/caregivers to the fact that the absence
falls outside what is acceptable to the school and that any repetition of this will require further action
by the school or local truancy services.
12. For repeated or ongoing ‘unjustified’ absence in the course of a school term, the class teacher will
refer the matter to the Principal who will contact the parents/caregivers in order to arrange a meeting
with them. The Principal will also contact the local truancy services.
13. The Principal will monitor the school’s attendance/absence statistics and, where there is a concern,
will discuss it with the relevant class teacher, with a view to agreeing on a strategy to deal with the
concern. The principal will also analyse the data in terms of gender, ethnicity, year levels, etc and will
identify any negative patterns that may emerge, together with a proposed strategy on how to address
them. At the end of Terms 1 and 3 the Principal will report to the Board on student attendance.
14. In order to comply with the requirements of a roll audit, class teachers will complete and retain paper
returns for five days around 1 March and 1 July (ie for the two school days prior to the date in question,
on that date, and for the two school days immediately after that date). On these days, in addition to
recording student attendance and absences in the SMS as usual, the class teacher will also record this
information on printed class lists, which (s)he will sign. These lists are to be stored centrally and may
be asked for during a roll audit.
15. In the case of a student who is engaged in learning that is taking place not under the direct supervision
of the school, the Principal will use his/her discretion to decide as to whether the student will be
marked as present or absent from school. Each case will be taken on its merits.
Signed: ……………………......................…. Chairperson Board of Trustees
Date: …………………….........................…. Triennial review date: Feb 2016