Attendance

Regular attendance is essential if students are to be successful in school. Chronic absences interrupt the education of your child. School personnel will make every effort to encourage regular attendance, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the students and their parents/guardians. The complete Attendance Policy is available for your review at your school and the District Office.

If your child will be absent, arriving late or leaving early, please call the school attendance line OR report the absence on the Campus Portal. If your child is not at school, and the school has not received notice of absence, the school will call the parent or guardian. If a valid reason for the absence is not provided, the absence will be coded as unexcused.

You may call 24 hours a day and leave a message at 763-241-3555. When reporting an absence, please include the following information:

• Child’s name
• Date of absence
• Reason for absence
• Name of person reporting the absence

OR

Visit Campus Portal and use the top left Menu button to access  More > Absence Requests 

1. Select the student(s) you are reporting being absent.
2. Use the Excuse dropdown list to choose the reason the student(s) will be absent.
3. Choose an Absence Type for a full day, arrive late, or leave early.
4. Enter the absence Day and Time. If a full day, enter the first and last day the student will not be at school (can be the same day).
5. Enter Comments about the reason for absence.

Choose the Submit button at the bottom when finished.

• A student is considered tardy if he/she arrives within 90 minutes after the start of the school day.
• A student is considered absent for half a day if he/she misses more than 90 minutes at the start or end of a school day.
• A student is considered absent for a full day if he/she misses four or more hours of the school day.
• A student is also considered absent for a full day if he/she arrives at school but is picked up within 90 minutes.
• A doctor’s note will be required for absences that extend beyond three consecutive days or ten total absences due to medical reasons. If a doctor’s note is not provided within three days of the request, the absences will be considered unexcused.

• There are consequences when students are continually absent from school without a valid excuse. If an elementary student is absent three days within a single school year without a lawful excuse, that student is considered “continuing truant,” according to state law (statute 260A.02). The school is required to notify a parent when a child is a continuing truant. If the child continues to be truant, schools are mandated to report the truant behavior to the county. A student is considered “habitually truant” if he/she is absent from school seven or more days without lawful excuse. The complete Attendance Policy is available for your review at your school and the District Office. See attendance interventions at the bottom of the page.

Please follow these guidelines when you need to have your student excused early from school:

• The school will accept a phone call (with verification of identity), a note from home, or the parent/guardian coming in when excusing students early.
• In all cases, students must be signed out of the office by the person picking up the child.
• If the school is unsure of who is signing the child out, questions need to be asked of the adult and/or student to verify the legitimacy, i.e., child's birth date, child's middle initial,child telling the school who the adult is, showing an I.D., etc.
• Students may not be picked up from the classroom, they must be picked up from the office.

• Early dismissals are discouraged.
• Students leaving a few minutes early often miss important last minute instructions and/or reminders.
• Interrupting classes to call students to the office also distracts other students and interrupts the end of the day classroom routines.
• Early dismissals should occur only in rare circumstances.
• Please make every effort to schedule appointments outside of school hours.
• Students leaving early will be marked as early out.
• This is considered the same as a tardy.

• Students will only be released to persons listed on the emergency form unless a note is given to the office from the parent- verbal requests and phone calls for someone other than those listed on the emergency form cannot be honored. If a student arrives late or leaves early, parents must sign their students in or out at the office.

• When a student has been tardy and/or has early releases from school five times without a valid excuse, a letter will be sent home from the school as notification that the school is concerned with the student arriving late/leaving early.

• When a student has missed ten days of school due to illness, a letter will be sent home from school as notification that there is a concern and any future absences will require a doctor’s note. 
• When a student has missed three full unexcused days of school, a letter will be sent home from the school as notification that the student is considered to be “Continuing Truant”.
• When a student has missed five full unexcused days of school, a letter will be sent home from the school as notification that the student is nearing the possibility of Educational Neglect.
• When a student misses seven full unexcused days of school, a letter will be sent home from the school as notification that the student is considered to be “Educationally Neglected”. At this time, the school will file an educational neglect petition with county social services.