Good Day, Sky View Family.
This is an important time for regular school attendance and a focus on academic progress: you can’t learn if you’re not here! ATTENDANCE MATTERS!
As with all public schools in Massachusetts, Sky View does not set the rules for student attendance, nor are we able to determine what absences are “excused” or not - these rules and regulations are set by State law. We must be compliant to these laws in our regular reporting to the State for attendance. So, please keep in mind:
Chronic Absenteeism is defined as a student being absent for 10% of available school days. That’s a total of 18 days for an entire school year, regardless of the reasons for those absences.
The State expects us to take action to avoid Chronically Absent students, which includes referring families to Juvenile Court in the hopes of finding support from the State.
We just passed our 60th school day on the calendar. This means that if your student has been absent for 6 or more school days, your student is already Chronically Absent.
Vacations are not considered “excused” absences by the State, so they are not excused at Sky View.
Sky View can excuse an absence for illness or for medical appointments, but only with documentation from a medical office. Simply informing us that your student will be absent does not make an absence excused.
In order to support our families, the Sky View Attendance Initiative has been in place since September.
As part of this Initiative, Teaching staff will contact a family when a student has been absent for 3 days in a Term, and then again after 5 days of absence in the Term. This is done to help families keep track of absences and avoid higher numbers in that Term.
When a student is absent for a 7th day in a Term, families will be contacted by a Guidance Counsellor in the hopes that we can help avoid further missed school. This is repeated at the 10th absence, which may require a meeting at the school for the family and the student.
When a student reaches an 11th absence, or more, our Dean of Students will contact the family and determine what is in the best interest of the child. A referral to Juvenile Court is one of the potential results and, again, is actually expected of us by the State in such instances.
We all want your student to attend school regularly. A student who misses even 6 days of school has missed over 30 hours of direct instruction….this cannot be replaced by assignments at home.
Please maintain communication with your student’s teachers and the Sky View support staff so we can all help your student be present in school and receive the education every student deserves.
Thank you.
-Doug
Calendar items:
Monday, December 4, 5:30-6:30 pm - Sky View School Council meeting
Wednesday, December 6 - Early Release Day - Dismissal at 10:50 am
Tuesday, December 12 - Term 2 Progress Reports posted to Aspen.
Wednesday, December 13 - PTO presents The Elf Shoppe!!
Students can shop for family gifts during the school day.
Thursday, December 14, 4-6 pm - Elementary Elf Shoppe
More details coming soon!
December 25 - January 1: Winter Break (No School)