Woodbury and IUSD take student attendance very seriously. We believe that student success begins with daily attendance. As a result, we take steps to ensure that students attend school daily and that each student complies with school attendance laws and stipulations outlined in the California Education Code. The two basic attendance laws are:
- All persons 6 through 18 years of age are required by California State Law to attend school. Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure their child’s attendance. (Education Code Section 48200)
- A pupil is considered truant if he/she is absent for more than 3 full days in one school year without a valid excuse; tardy or absent for more than a 30-minute period during the school day without valid excuse on 3 occasions in one school year, or any combination thereof. (Education Code Section 48260)
As parents of elementary school children, you bear the primary responsibility of ensuring that your children are in school daily, arrive on time, and remain in school the entire day. With that in mind, I encourage you to take a pro-active approach in establishing positive attendance patterns and avoiding chronic truancy. This will assist your children in reaching their highest potential. By law, absences or tardies are only excused if the child is ill, is attending a funeral for an immediate family member, or involved in religious observance. In each case, documentation or proof may be required. Unless it is an emergency, it is recommended that medical and dental appointments be scheduled after school.
In order to establish positive attendance patterns, it is recommended that you teach your children the following:
- Follow all district and school attendance policies.Make education their top priority.
- Emphasize to them that to get the best start in life, they need a good education.
- Remind them if they do not go to school, they will fall behind other students and they can’t get the grades needed to graduate.
- Explain to them that students who miss school are often victims or perpetrators of crimes.
- Understand that tardies and leaving school early should be an exception, not a norm.
The majority of students who have accumulated more than three unexcused absences from school or tardies at Woodbury are not considered habitual/chronic truants, but would be categorized as soft truants.
Soft Truancy includes, but is not limited to:
- Bringing a child late to school (less than 30 minutes).
- Picking up your child early for family outings, vacations, frequent medical appointments or business, or even trying to avoid traffic.
- Excusing a student as ill more than 10 days without medical verification.
- Frequent excused absences.Keeping an older child home to baby-sit.
- Keeping an older child home to work.
- Irregular attendance.
- Taking vacation during school.