REVISED 8/2008

CW Truancy Policy and Procedures

(For ES use, if desired, print CW Truancy to discuss with parents)

Truancy Definition

The definition of "truancy" for this charter School is defined in the policy below as a missed appointment/attendance period. This is not the same definition of "truancy" as defined by California Education Code, nor are the practices and procedure below defined by California Education Code, but by this charter school.

Truancy Policy

Charter School students who are truant for two school appointments/attendance periods within the same school year, will be dropped from the school and will not be permitted to re-enroll in the school at a later date.
A school appointment may be defined as learning record meetings, classes, tutoring, any required testing appointments, special education meetings, etc. We are currently applying the truancy policy to the HQT Dept. courses and other CP courses (grades K-12) for the following subjects: English, Math, Science, Social Science, VPA, Foreign Language.
A truant attendance period is defined on the Attendance Roll Sheet as 50% or less attendance during any consecutive school days on the student's calendar track (example: 7 truant school days over a 14 day period, 3 out of 5 days). Full attendance is based on work in the 6 growth areas for a K – 8 student or a high school student attempting a minimum of 25 credits. For allowable variations, consult your ES Advisor.
Please note that the truancies do not have to be consecutive.

Truant Practices

• Some ESs will work with students who consistently fail to appear at scheduled appointments/meetings, such as: they are often late, do not give notice that they will not show, give last minute notice of the need to reschedule, and/or they reschedule several times in one month. They might also have students who do not demonstrate sufficient work in order to give more than 50% attendance for that attendance period. At the first occurrence of one of the above or similar situations, the ES should do everything possible to emphasize the importance of the appointment or Learning Record meetings and what constitutes sufficient work to avoid such a situation in the future. If this situation occurs, the ES should consult their advisor immediately for information and for their assistance. Please do not work with a potentially truant student without your ES Advisor being fully informed of the details of the situation!
• If you are unable to reach the student or parent, then send a letter to them (see sample letter in the ES Handbook), or leave the letter at their door. If they contact you and you are able to meet with them without a truancy, then all is well. (Call your advisor for assistance to determine what would or wouldn't constitute a truancy based on the date that they meet with you). But if they don't meet with you, proceed to do a “first truancy” (see below)—do not delay!
• If a student missed an appointment or did not make enough progress in an attendance period (length of time between meetings with an ES, but no more than 20 days maximum), the ES needs to follow the below procedure.
• The truancy policy applies to Contract Programs courses (including HQT department courses). An unexcused absence will be counted as a truancy.
  -Excused Absence is defined as: The student or parent shall notify the teacher of the absence at least 24 hours* prior to the time the class meets. Students who have notified their teacher that they will be absent due to illness, doctor's appointment, or another reason, MUST complete their assigned make-up work within 48 hours of the regularly scheduled class meeting. If make-up work is not turned in to the teacher within 48 hours, the missing make-up work will affect their grade.
  -Unexcused Absence is defined as:The student or parent shall notify the teacher of the absence at least 24 hours* prior to the time the class meets. If the teacher has not been notified by the student or parent of an absence at least 24 hours* prior to the time the class meets, the student absence will be "unexcused". The student MUST complete their assigned make-up work within 48 hours of the regularly scheduled class meeting. If make-up work is not turned in to the teacher within 48 hours, the missing make-up work will affect their grade.
  Truancy notification: The CP instructor will email the ES and cc the student on the same day that the unexcused absence occurred to notify them that the student was unexcused and therefore truant, and that they must turn in their make up work within 48 hours or it will affect their grade. The ES must follow the truancy policy and mail a truancy letter within 24 hours of the date that the email was sent.
  *If there are extenuating circumstances that do not allow for at least 24 hours, then the teacher must still be notified prior to the start of class; allowances may be made depending on the circumstances. Examples of extenuating circumstances: car accident, sudden illness, etc. .
  .

Truancy Procedure - First Truancy:

1) Truancy Notification:

• Truancy Letter: generate and print a 1st truancy letter directly from ES Webfiles. (Go to View/Active Student, click on the student number and select the 1st truancy letter, enter the date for the truancy letter, enter the number of absences for this truant attendance period.)
• Email studentrecords@ieminc.org, indicating that you mailed a truant letter to (student) on (date). Print and mail immediately to the family (put the IEM address as the return address).

2) Attendance Rollsheet:

• Print a truant rollsheet, marking all 0’s and signing and dating the bottom. This rollsheet can be mailed without a parent’s signature. If the student did some work but not enough to claim more than 50% attendance, then both the parent and ES sign on the rollsheet.  If the parent and ES disagree on the attendance, then the ES does not sign the parent’s rollsheet but creates his/her own rollsheet.  The ES’s rollsheet will only have the ES signature.  Both rollsheets are sent in together.
• Send the truant attendance roll sheet to the office ASAP

3) Learning Record:

• Document on the LR that this is the first truancy with the dates and times you tried to contact the student/parent (i.e. phone calls, missed appointments, etc.) or with the insufficient learning documented, noting that learning was deficient.

4) Follow-up

• If your student has had a first truancy, be sure to set the following meeting date for no more than 5 school days later so that you can be sure the student is getting on track.

Truancy Procedure – Second Truancy:

If the student misses the next appointment or earns only 50% attendance or less, then the ES will:

• Generate and print a 2nd truancy letter directly from ES Webfiles. (Go to View/Active Student, click on the student number and select the 2nd truancy letter, enter the date for the truancy letter, enter the number of absences for this truant attendance period.)
• E-mail studentrecords@ieminc.org again indicating that you mailed a 2nd truant letter to (student) on (date).
• Fills out another truant roll sheet and gets the roll sheet in immediately).
• Document on the LR that this is the second truancy with the dates and times you tried to contact the student/parent (i.e. phone calls, missed appts., etc.) or with the insufficient learning documented and noted as deficient.
• Submit a drop form in WEBfiles and “select” the reason for the truancy from the drop down list. Tdropstatusiem.htmp;must be dropped immediately from the Charter School. Select a drop code from the Drop Status Selection Guidelines: http://www.ieminc.org/handbook/transferdrops/dropstatusiem.htm

Special Education Students Truancy Procedure

If the truant student is an identified Special Education student, do not create the 2^nd truancy letter or submit a drop form until you have communicated by e-mail with the Special Education office (jbrogan@ieminc.org with a cc to Michonne Taylor mtaylor@ieminc.org) or (mday@ieminc.org). Special Ed asks that you carefully document every attempt to contact and work with the family. After receiving their approval, create and mail the 2^nd truancy letter and submit the drop form.

High School Students Truancy Procedure

Truancy guidelines are outlined in the CW Student Enrollment Contract regarding students in high school.

If you work with a High School student (AESS or not) who has not completed any or at least half of their required work after 2 weekly or bi-weekly meetings in a row, consult with your ES Advisor immediately for further direction. Note that this is a REQUIRED consultation with your ES Advisor!

Additional Notes on Truancy

Remember that the ES is the person responsible for submitting a timely drop form for a student who is receiving their second truancy notice. We cannot keep students enrolled who are not making regular educational progress!

Our school Truancy policies apply to Adult students (age 18 and over), except that we do not mail out truancy letters since they are not under compulsory attendance laws. You will need to inform your adult students when they are truant of the consequences if they have a 2nd month of truancy.

Sometimes there are special circumstances when a student's hard copy attendance roll sheet is going to look like a truant attendance form, but they should not receive a truancy letter. In this case, you will need to indicate on the first section of the LR that “this student is not truant”, and give a brief explanation.

Examples:

1. If a student is taking community college classes, and is not attempting to earn a minimum of 20 units (not counting any college credits) in the charter school, then only half attendance credit can be claimed.

(See Community College policy for details)

For further questions about determining whether or not a student is truant, or if you have one of the circumstances above, please consult with your ES Advisor.