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Attendance Policy

Attendance is mandatory.Daily attendance is paramount for the academic success of students at Thompson Valley High School. Research indicates that students who have a 95% attendance rate pass all their classes, graduate on time and attend more consecutive semesters in college. Your student’s attendance rate can be found on the summary page on infinite campus.

Parents are requested not to call or text message their son/daughter during instructional time. (See bell schedule). Passing period and lunch are appropriate. In the event of an emergency, please communicate with the attendance office for proper protocol.

If a student is choosing to miss class, and is approached by campus security or administration, they will have a choice to attend their scheduled class or not be on campus.

General absence info:
Attendance Line 970-613-7990.

Only parents and guardians may excuse an absence.

Students enrolled in the district must be in attendance at school for the entire school day in order to participate in any school-sponsored activity that is conducted on that day. A student will not be held out of an activity if they have been opted out of a state assessment by a parent or guardian. If classes or abbreviated classes are held that day, the student must be in attendance for those classes. In cases of emergency or extenuating circumstances, the principal or designee may grant an exception to this limitation. The attendance requirement will not apply to other students since the district cannot effectively monitor their daily attendance.

Excusing Full Days

  • Contact us the day of the absence.
  • If an absence is not excused within 48 hours, it will remain unexcused.
  • Your student may be excused up to ten times without documentation. This total includes unexcused days too.
  • The appropriate documentation from a doctor or a court or government appointment can be faxed, emailed or hand carried to the attendance office.

If your student gets sick during the school day and needs to go home

Students must visit the health office to check out of school.

Incorrectly marked absences by the teacher or sub (Oops slips)

  • It is the student’s responsibility to get a correction form (oops slip) from attendance.
  • The teacher will indicate the correct entry and sign it.
  • The student then takes the oops slip back to attendance.
  • When a sub incorrectly marks an absence or tardy, that student must plead a case to the classroom teacher.

Make up work for absences

  • Students with excused absences must make arrangements with their teachers to make-up work within two days of the absence with a time limit of completion not to exceed two weeks.
  • Opportunities to make up labs, tests, etc. comparable to those given in class will be provided.
  • No student can miss a class in order to make up work for another class.
  • Students with unexcused absences shall not be allowed to make up missed work unless specifically permitted by the principal.

Attendance policy violation consequences

  • After a student has become habitually absent in any one class there will be a conference with the Dean of Students, admin or school interventionist and parents will be notified.
  • If absences continue, the Dean of Students, admin. or school interventionist will schedule a meeting with the student accompanied by a parent. An attendance contract will be issued.
  • If a student is 5 minutes or more late on Mondays or 10 minutes late Tuesday through Friday, they will be marked absent with a note showing their arrival time. This would mean that the student has missed 10% or more of the class.

Long-Term Medical Absences

Medical absences are for students who will miss at least five consecutive days of school. These absences are very rare and require proper documentation from a health care provider, a note from the parent, and approval by the administration.

Truancy

If a student is absent without an excuse signed by the parent/guardian or if the student leaves school or a class without permission of the teacher or administrator in charge, the student shall be considered truant. A “habitual truant” shall be defined as a student of compulsory attendance age who has four unexcused absences from school or from class in any one month or 10 unexcused absences during any school year. Absences due to suspension or expulsion shall not be counted in the total of unexcused absences. Plans can be developed for students who are at risk of being declared habitually truant with the goal of assisting the student to remain in school. When practicable, the student’s parent/guardian or legal custodian shall participate with district employees during the development of the plan. Appropriate school personnel shall make reasonable efforts to meet with the parent/guardian or legal custodian to review and evaluate the reasons for the student’s truancy.

Make-Up Work

Students will have one school day for every day they were absent plus one additional school day to submit make-up work. (For example, if a student has a one-day excused absence from school, they must submit make-up work no later than their second school-day upon return. However it is expected that major projects, reports, papers, etc. for which due dates have been established well in advance, will be submitted on time unless alternative arrangements have been made with the teacher.)

Tardies

All students are expected to be in the classroom when the class begins.
Excused tardy: entering a class late with a written excuse from a TVHS staff member.
Unexcused tardy: all unexcused tardies are subject to expectations established within the culture and work habits of the classroom and learning expectations.

Suspension

Each day of out-of-school suspension, as defined by state law, is a day of absence. The student is responsible for obtaining all missed work during a suspension.

Out-of-school suspensions

Similar to the above section for illness, a student does have one day to make-up work for each day of suspension. Students are expected to utilize google classroom, email, etc. to keep up with classwork.