Attendance & High School Credit Courses
HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT
- Student's must be in class 90% of the time the class is in session. (Seat Time)
- Student's cannot have more than 18 absences in a full year course to receive credit.
- Whether an absence is Excused or Unexcused does NOT waive the 90% seat time requirement with accordance to "The Minimum Attendance for Class Credit Law" (section 25.092).
Attendance Recovery (AR), students may attend attendance recovery upon scheduling with the teacher of record. A.R. is offered at the discretion of the teacher of record.
- Students must attend A.R. for absences which exceed the allotted amount, allotted amount is 18 absences. Please note: if a student does not complete the attendance recovery in it's entirety, credit will be denied regardless of a passing grade for the course.
- The student must make arrangements for transportation, (buses will not be available for these circumstances).
- To assist in the monitoring of student attendance you may want to check your child's report card at the end of each grading period to view the total amount of absences in their HS Credited Courses. Also, Parent Connection is a valuable online resource to review attendance and grades, implementation of triggers is also available.
- It is recommended that students with 9 or more absences by the end of semester 1, begin the attendance recovery process.
What To Do When Absent
Is it excused? Send a parent or doctor note (or other approved documentation) within 3 school days to excuse the absences. Do you believe it is a teacher error? Contact the teacher to discuss the absence. The Attendance Office will not remove a teacher attendance code without the proper paperwork submitted by the teacher. How do I contact the teacher? You can always email! The typical email format for NISD employees is firstname.lastname@nisd.net (John Smith's would be john.smith@nisd.net). What if I was at a school event, but was marked absent? Contact the teacher sponsor or coach of the organization you were with on that day. The coach/sponsor can verify your attendance, and notify the Attendance Office. But, why is the school calling parents, and saying that I'm absent when I'm with my organization or team at an event? Teachers are directed to mark a student absent if the student is not in the classroom. If a student is attending an event (field trip, athletic game, etc), the student will be marked absent by the teacher, which triggers an automatic call-out to the parent. Once the Attendance Office receives documentation of student attendance for the event, student attendance will be updated with a School Business, SB, code. This, typically, takes 1-2 school days. What if I was marked absent on a testing day? You will be marked absent by your teacher, but the Attendance Office will update the attendance code to TST once testing rosters are received (usually 1-2 days).Tardy Policy
Tardy - Reporting to class late without an excused pass, up to 15 minutes after the beginning of class (after 15 minutes, the student is absent) Tardiness/Early Pick-ups If a student misses instruction due to an unexcused late arrival to or early removal from campus, it may be considered a partial day absence and a violation of the compulsory attendance law. Arriving late to school... First bell rings at 8:20 a.m. Tardy bell rings at 8:30 a.m., all students should be in their classes by this time. Any student arriving after 8:45 a.m. will be considered absent to 1st period. Continuous Tardies After the 3rd tardy in any class, the following consequences may include, but are not limited to, lunch detention, ISS, overnight suspension for a parent conference, and parent shadowing.Truancy
Truancy - student is absent from one or more classes without a valid excuse, as defined by Texas law; i.e. unexcused absence An AWN, attendance warning notice, is issued to a student and parent/guardian once the student accumulates unexcused absences. A warning notice can be issued as soon as a student has 3 unexcused absences in one or more classes (TEC Sec 25.087), within a four week period. Once a warning notice is issued, all absences must be accompanied by a doctor's note or excused by the campus school administrator (TEC Sec 25.086). Pursuant to TEC Sec. 21.0915, school officials will initiate the development of an individualized attendance plan or behavior improvement plan to address student conduct related to truancy or non-attendance. The continued absence of the student without a doctor's written excuse or an absence excused by the campus school administrator may result in a referral to truancy court for the student and/or the parent/guardian (TEC Sec 25.093 & TFC 65.003).- Below is a non-exhaustive list of requirements that may be included in a student's individualized attendance plan or behavior improvement plan:
- Community Service
- Counseling
- Community or school classes
- School-based community service
- Parenting classes
- Mentoring
- Teen programs/classes
- Attendance Recovery
- Tutoring
