Attendance Information
As your child's school counselor, there are many ways I can work with you and your child to support positive attendance.
- Conference with caregivers to work on an attendance success plan
- Assisting displaced or homeless families with securing transportation through the McKinney Vento Program
- Brief counseling to assist students dealing with emotional or social issues that lead to school refusal
- Helping students create a plan to be more independent in getting ready for school
- Brainstorming with parents and caregivers to come up with ideas to improve attendance
- Monitor school-wide and individual attendance trends to identify students and families in need of additonal support
In my work supporting families with attendance, I often run into the following questions:
Absences may be excused for the following reasons:
- Personal illness and when attendance in school would endanger their health or the health of others
- A serious illness or death in the immediate family necessitates absences from school
- Absences mandated by other governmental agencies, including pre-induction physical examinations for service in the armed forces, or court ordered
- Observing a religious holiday that necessitates an absence from school
- Conditions that render attendance impossible or hazardous to their health or safety
- Registering to vote or voting, for a period not to exceed one day
- A maximum of five (5) school days per school year may be excused for students whose parent or legal guardian is in military service in the armed forces of the United States or the National Guard in order for the student to visit with his or her parent or legal guardian prior to such parent’s or legal guardian’s deployment overseas to a combat zone or combat support posting or during the parent’s or guardian’s leave from such a deployment. (Note: Students serving as pages for the Georgia General Assembly are counted present on the days serving in the Assembly. In addition, students who are present for at least one-half of the instructional day shall be counted present partial attendance).
Any absence that does not fall into one of those seven categories will be considered unexcused.
Students are marked absent daily by homeroom teachers. This absence is consdered unexcused until an excuse note is submitted.
Front office staff goes through excuse notes daily to change absences from unexcused to excused.
Homeroom teachers, school counselors, and school nurses are not able to change absences to excused.
We accept both parent/ guardian notes as well as official documentation for excused absences.
Official Documentation
- Doctor office, dentist office, etc
- Court documents
- Official documentation may be turned in at any time to excuse an absence
Parent Guardian Notes
- May be handwritten by the parent or guardian
- Ex: "Please excuse my student Jane Doe for her absences on 11/2-11/3. She had a fever."
- Notes from parent/ guardian MUST be turned in within 2 days of return to school and must include all dates your student missed.
- Parent notes turned in after 2 days of return to school will not be accepted.
To ensure that all absences are marked correctly, please check your notes from your doctor to ensure all dates are included! If your child misses multiple days, but only one or some of the days are inluded on the doctor's note, please also write a parent/ guardian note to cover the other days. We can only excuse absences specifically referenced in an excuse note.
You may check your child's attendance on the Parent Portal. You can also see if an absence is marked excused.
If you believe that your child's attendance information is not correct, please reach out to the front office and/or your child's homeroom teacher.
Students who miss 10% or more of instructional days are considered chronically absent regardless of if the absences are excused or unexcused.
There are about 44 instructional days per quarter, so ideally a student misses less than 4 days per quarter.
Missing more than 10% of school is significant. The majority of students at Yargo do not exceed 5% of isntructional days missed.
Georgia Law O.C.G.A. 20-2-690.1 mandates school attendance for students between the ages of 6 and 16. This law also applies to younger children once they enter school. According to O.C.G.A. 20-2-690.1 parents are responsible for enrolling and sending their children to school and the school staff is responsible for enforcing this law. Any student who has more than five unexcused absences in a school year is truant. School days missed as a result of an out of school suspension shall not count for the purpose of determining student truancy. Failure to comply with Georgia’s Compulsory Education Law (O.C.G.A 20-2-690.1) may result in consequences for both students and parent/guardians. Consequences for students include, but are not limited to, detention, Saturday school, and referral to juvenile justice for truancy. Consequences for parents/guardians include a fine of not less than $25.00 and not more than $100.00, imprisonment not to exceed 30 days, community service, or any combination of such penalties at the discretion of the court for each absence. Parents may also be charged with deprivation for failure to comply with this law.
Yargo seeks to work collaboratively with parents and families struggling with attendance. We have several steps in place to work with families before we pursue legal action.
This site provides information using PDF, visit this link to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC software.