Perry County Schools
Attendance Policy
Perry County Schools is committed to student achievement. A vital part of student achievement is satisfactory school attendance. All students are expected to be present for school every day with the exception of: student illness, serious illness or death in the immediate family, parent military deployment, summons to appear in court or recognized religious observances. Any other extenuating circumstances will be judged on a case-by-case basis and decided upon by the principal/supervisor.
Every absence from class causes a student to miss instructional time; therefore absences should only occur when a valid excuse can be submitted for the absence. All absences will be classified as either excused or unexcused as determined by the principal or supervisor. Students/Parents will have three (3) days to submit the necessary documentation to the school office in order to excuse an absence. Students are expected to arrive on time for every school day. Any late arrival or early departure from school is considered a tardy.
Absences that are unexcused will result in a student being referred for truancy action. A student is truant when 5 unexcused full day absences occur. A student that is considered truant will be referred to the district’s tiered intervention process for truancy. Parents and students that do not improve attendance will go through 3 phases of intervention before being petitioned to juvenile court. One tier of intervention is the Perry County Disciplinary Board. This is an option to parents to resolve truancy issues in order to avoid juvenile court petitions. If student attendance cannot be resolved by the Disciplinary Board or if a parent declines to appearbefore the board, a truancy petition will be filed in juvenile court. Teachers are not required to provide make-up work opportunities for students when an absence from class is unexcused. Chronic unexcused absences will also result in the Tennessee Department of Safety revoking a student’s privilege to hold a driver’s license. The principal or supervisor can initiate truancy actions at any time a student exhibits chronic absenteeism.
Absences will be considered excused if documentation is provided to the school office within 3 days of: student illness, serious illness or death in the immediate family, parent military deployment, summons to appear in court or recognized religious observances. Schools will accept 5 parent notes per year as documentation of one of the above listed reasons for excused absence. All documentation submitted for excusing an absence will be reviewed and determined valid or invalid by the principal/designee or supervisor.
Excused absences still result in a student missing valuable instructional time. If a student reaches 8absences, excused or unexcused, he/she will be expected to make up this missed instructional time by staying after school for tutoring. A student who has accumulated 8 or more excused absences will be providedthe opportunity to make up missed assignments in the after school tutoring program.