Attendance

Every Student, Every Day Attendance Policy and Plan

School Year 2024-25

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Welcome to the 2024-2025 School Year!

We are excited to share P721K’s Every Student, Every Day Attendance Policy and Plan. This policy and plan will hopefully provide you with the information and guidance you need to help you help your child attend and stay in school.

P721K COMMUNITY’S ATTENDANCE GOAL

Attendance matters. Missing a day of school means missing hours of instructional time. Research shows that students who attend regularly achieve greater success in school and in life. This continues to be true—even in in-person or remote learning environments. Our school’s collective goal for attendance remains the same. Whether in-person or remote, we want every child attending school every day or at least 95% of the school year.

ATTENDANCE TAKING

P721K will take attendance each morning from 8:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m., and turn in cards by 9:00 a.m.

DEFINITIONS OF IN-PERSON AND REMOTE LEARNING


Modality	In-person	Remote
Present	A student that is physically present in the classroom/school learning environment for instruction during the scheduled school day.	A student that is virtually present for synchronous1 or asynchronous2 instruction. While all efforts should be made to deliver synchronous instruction to students, there may be cases where this is not possible.

Absent	A student that is not physically present in the classroom school learning environment for instruction during the scheduled school day. The student is in the school building but not attending any classes or not meeting with a guidance counselor or other licensed pedagogue.	Not virtually present for synchronous or asynchronous instruction.
1 Synchronous instruction is defined as live interaction between the teacher and student(s) each day at a scheduled time, communicated in advance to parents and students. For more information, please contact the school. 2 Asynchronous learning refers to instruction and learning opportunities that do not feature students and teachers interacting at the same time. For more information, please contact the school.

COMMUNICATION WITH FAMILIES

P721K uses the following methods to communicate with families about attendance:

Parent letters
Remind app
Robocalls via Operaroo
Emails

Please reference the policy guidance listed in the instructions (i.e., Section “6. Notifications of Absences” in “How to Set Attendance and Lateness Policies”).

It is very important for the school to have families’ up-to-date contact information. To make sure we can reach you, please alert us of any changes to your address or phone number by:

Operaroo or
Send us an email, text, letter with the information you would like updated

ABSENCES

If you know your child is going to miss school on a certain day or will be missing school for an extended period, please notify the school in advance by:

Remind app
Email
Phone the school or classroom teacher

If your child is absent, we will follow up that day by making a positive phone call, text, or email home. This follow-up helps us to ensure that your child is safe, healthy and that your family has what it needs to help your child overcome the barriers to attending school - whether in-person or remote.

While every single absence is equal to missed instructional time, we nonetheless mark absences as excused and unexcused. Please provide us with information on the reason for your child’s absence. Here is what you need to know regarding excused and unexcused absences:

Excused Absence: An excused absence may be excused for reasons including illness, injury, problems accessing technology or getting online, family emergency, religious observation, pre-arranged appointments or school or bus delays or documented MTA delays. In the event any of the following occur, please notify the school of the reason.
Unexcused Absence: An unexcused absence is when too little to no information is provided when a student is marked absent for the day. To prevent this, please notify the school of the reason to document the reason your child is missing school.

LATENESS

Even if a student is late, they are still marked as present. If you know your child is going to be late on a certain day—whether in remote or in-person—please:

Remind app
Email
Phone the school or classroom teacher

Just as with absences, we flag lateness as excused and unexcused. Here is what you need to know regarding excused and unexcused lateness:

Excused Lateness: Lateness may be considered excused for the same reasons provided for absence e.g. Illness/injury, problems with accessing technology or getting online, religious observation, family emergency, pre-arranged appointments, or school or bus delays or documented MTA delays. In the event any of the following occur, please notify the school of the reason.
Unexcused Lateness: Unexcused lateness is when a student is not in their homeroom, if in-person, or online for their morning meeting by 9:15 a.m. and have not provided reasons for lateness. In the event any of the following occur, please notify the school of the reason.

LEAVING EARLY

This section explains our school’s policy for a student’s early departure from the school day in both remote and in-person settings. If your child is going to leave early on a certain day, please notify the school by:

Remind app
Email
Phone the school or classroom teacher

Early Departure: Leaving school early must be arranged in advance. A student can be dismissed from school early to the family or a person who has been identified on the Blue Card. If your child is in high school AND travel trained, he/she can leave the school. Anyone picking up a student must provide a photo ID.

ATTENDANCE AND MAKE-UP WORK

If a child is absent or late, grades, coursework, or exams could be affected. Here is what you need to know regarding our grading policies and how we support our students with make-up work:

Lateness to class may result in the loss of instructional time in activities such as classroom participation, projects, dialogs, speeches, group work, lab work, etc. Students are not required to make up the exact hours of missed instructional time.

Every Student, Every Day Practices

This section shares information regarding our schools’ multi-tiered support plan. It is our hope that through these supports your children have what they need to attend school regularly.

COMMUNICATION

Every day a student is absent we will make a positive phone call home to check in and make sure the student and family are healthy. During parent-teacher conferences, we will share information regarding your child’s attendance and discuss how we as a school community can be most helpful in creating the conditions for your child to attend regularly and thrive in school.

PERSONALIZED SUPPORTS

Students by the end of September who have unexcused absences of more than two days of school will be connected to a Success Mentor. A Success Mentor is a caring adult who serves as a mentor and as an advocate for their mentees. We will leverage the remote learning space to create a personalized enrichment and support plan for each student so that they feel a sense of belonging and excitement about attending school.

CELEBRATIONS

We are dedicated to making sure every child has the positive support they need to not only attend school every day but to succeed. We recognize and celebrate students’ attendance improvement, no matter how small. When a student improves their attendance, we recognize and celebrate their success in our monthly celebrations, awards, gift certificates to the store, bake shop, coffee shop, special events, when they get off the bus, weekly, and as needed.

PARTNERING WITH COMMUNITIES

Common Threads: Cooking for Life – With the support of a Nutritional Educator, students will engage in cooking skills while following nutritional recipes. Students will be able to transfer skills learned in school to home.
Project Search – Preparing our high school students for success in competitive integrated employment.
Students will use skills learn to apply in real-world situations.
Joyce Theater Dance Ed Program – Support dance education for our students including access to live performances.
NY City Council

SCHOOL CALENDAR

To view a calendar of the school’s events, go to:

P721K School Newsletter & Calendar
DOE Calendar

CONTACT INFORMATION

We hope this information is helpful to you! If you have questions about our Every Student, Every Day 2022-2023 Attendance Policy and Plan, please contact us at:

P721K @ Main
64 Avenue X
Brooklyn, NY 11223
Phone: 718.996.8199

P721K @PB
360 36th street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
Parent Coordinator: Vivian Soto
Email: vsoto@schools.nyc.gov
Phone: 347.563.4427

Attendance Teacher:

Theresa Albert
talbert3@schools.nyc.gov

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