YOU COUNT! Attendance Matters
When you miss school, you miss out—not only on academic enrichment, but on fine arts and extracurricular opportunities and camaraderie with fellow students.
Daily attendance in school is a strong indicator of future success. Absences from class may result in serious disruption of a student’s mastery of the instructional materials.
Across the country, more than 8 million students are missing so many days of school that they are academically at risk. Chronic absenteeism is classified as missing 10% of the school year, as few as two days a month! — missing 10 percent or more of school days due to absence for any reason—excused, unexcused absences and suspensions, can translate into third-graders unable to master reading, sixth-graders failing subjects and ninth-graders dropping out of high school. (Source: Attendance Works website).
Let's work together this school year to prioritize attendance and create more opportunities and a brighter future for AISD students!
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Parents and guardians play a very important role regarding their children’s attendance.
Here are a few tips to consider:
- Have your student arrive to school on time and attend every class period, especially the OAT—official attendance-taking period (10:30 AM).
- A student who is tardy to class will be subject to the consequences established at each campus in accordance with the possible consequences in the AISD Student Code of Conduct.
- Commit to limiting absences during the instructional day. Our instructional calendar has several days through the school year that allow students to take care of routine appointments with doctors, dentists, etc. and still maintain a pattern of "great attendance."
- When you receive an absence notification, please follow up with your student and the campus attendance specialist. If you have documentation for your student’s absence, please report the absence as early as possible (it is recommended to submit within 48 hours). If you believe a teacher has marked a student incorrectly, please have your student reach out to the teacher of the marked period.
State law (Texas Education Code Section 25.085) requires that all students aged 6 through 19 to attend school. Compulsory attendance also applies to students who are younger than six who have been voluntarily enrolled in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten. FEA: Compulsory Attendance policy
Students are required to attend school from the time the school day begins until the time the school day ends. A partial day absence occurs when a student is not present for part of the school day. This means that leaving school early or arriving after school begins (tardy), even if the child attended some of the day, may count against the student.
If a student is late to class for more than 50 percent of the class period, the student will be counted absent for that class period. Acceptable reasons for an excused tardy are the same as an excused absence.
Students who violate this law may get referral(s) for court proceedings against the parent, guardian or student to enforce the law.
Violation of the law occurs when students get unexcused absences for 10 or more days or parts of days within a six-month period.
In addition to the Compulsory Attendance Law, there is the “90% Rule,” which states that in order to receive credit for a final grade for a class, a student is required to attend class 90 percent of the days a class is offered regardless of whether the student’s absences are excused or unexcused.
- If a student drops below 90% but attends class at least at 75% of the days the class is offered, the student may earn credit for the class by completing a plan approved by the principal.
- If the student drops below 75% of the days the class is offered, the student may earn credit for the class by completing a plan approved by the Campus Attendance Committee.
The local campus Attendance Committee will review the appeal request for extenuating circumstances and may impose conditions on the receipt of credit. See Austin ISD Board Policies FEC (LEGAL) and FEC (LOCAL).
There will be no remote learning options for attendance funding, per the State of Texas.
It is important to monitor your student’s attendance and stay in communication with the school to ensure that you are informed about your student’s attendance history. Please set up and access Frontline Self-Serve in the Portal.
Parent/guardian should Report an Absence here and any documentation should be submitted as soon as possible (recommended within 48 hours after the absence has occurred). Documentation must support the reason for the absence to be coded correctly.
Note: Phone calls are not required to report an absence in advance, per policy we can’t address absences in advance. Campus CANNOT accept phone calls or voicemail messages as documentation for a student's absence.
Do not falsify documentation. Falsifying documents is a criminal offense. Penalties for falsifying medical records in the state of Texas is a misdemeanor, a sentence up to one year in jail and a fine up to $4000. Penalties for tampering with government records can range from a misdemeanor to a Second Degree Felony offense; up to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.
- Student’s illness or injury;
- Family emergency with administrator approval;
- Death of a family member;
- Partial-day absence: Appointments with licensed healthcare professionals; student must attend school for part of the day;
- Religious holy days;
- Required court appearances—defined as response to a jury summons, subpoena or traffic ticket in the name of a student. Additional examples would be a student’s appearance in court as a plaintiff or defendant or as the subject of a court proceeding, such as an adoption or custody proceeding;
- Taking part in the student’s own US naturalization oath ceremony;
- Visiting an institution of higher education accredited by a generally recognized accrediting organization to determine the student’s interest in attending the institution (grade 11 and 12 only);
- Pursuing enlistment in a branch of the US uniformed services or the Texas Army National Guard (students 17 years old or older);
- Visiting with a parent, stepparent, or legal guardian who is an active duty member of the uniformed services and has been called to duty for, is on leave from, or is immediately returned from continuous deployment of at least four months outside the locality where the parent, stepparent, or guardian regularly resides.
- Visiting a driver’s license office to obtain a driver’s license or learner permit. (Students enrolled in high school and 15 years of age or older)
*Please note: This list does not include all. Additional excused absences are listed here.
Per TEA: The common cold, flu, and COVID, are not considered serious or life-threatening that would allow for the provision of HB 669 unless something progresses and is documented by a physician in Texas where the common cold, flu, or COVID has become serious or life-threatening.
It is important to note that numerous absences, whether excused or unexcused, may jeopardize a student’s ability to receive credit or final grades for classes (see the TEC, §25.092, for requirements related to minimum attendance for class credit or a final grade).
If a student is absent, parents/guardians should always report an absence.
However some reasons for absences may not be considered excused. The official standards are described in TEA's Student Attendance Accounting Handbook (SAAH). 19 TAC 129.1025.
Parent/guardian notes may be used to excuse a total of 8 absences for the school year. If exceeding 8 parent/guardian notes, parent/guardian encouraged to communicate with your campus principal to discuss the reason(s) for absences and whether future parent/guardian notes will be accepted.
Some examples of not excused absences:
- Vacations
- Overslept
- Car trouble
- Attendance at non-school sponsored events
Parents and guardians are notified of absences through:
- AISD Parent Portal: Frontline Self-Serve
- Robo-phone call/email
- School Progress Reports (delivered if there is an academic concern)
- Report Cards
- Attendance Warning letters (delivered each month; indicates 3 or more Unexcused absences)
Review your student’s attendance record. As soon as you notice a problem or if you do not recognize the absence dates listed, please contact your campus attendance specialist immediately. Unexcused absences can lead to a variety of issues including a referral to Truancy Court.
Excessive absences may result in a violation of compulsory attendance laws* and the Student Code of Conduct. Such violations may result in the loss of course/grade credit, court action, and/or monetary fines. 10 to 20 consecutive full-day unexcused absences can lead to withdrawal of your student and filing of “Parent Contributing to Nonattendance.”