Regulation 5140-1

Admission

Reporting and Responding to Excessive Absenteeism

Reviewed and affirmed by the Board: 
Last Revision: 
Original publish date: 07/07/2014
Related policies & regulations:  
Legal references:  Neb. Rev. Stat. ยงยง79-201 and 79-209

 

Any administrator, teacher or member of the Lincoln Board of Education who knows of any failure on the part of any child of mandatory attendance age to attend school regularly without lawful reason, shall within three days report such violation to the Superintendent or the director of student services, or their administrative assistant. The Superintendent or the director of student services, or their administrative assistant, shall immediately cause an investigation of the case to be made by the attendance officers. When of their personal knowledge, by report or complaint from any resident of the District, or by report or complaint as provided above, the attendance officer believes there is a violation of the compulsory attendance laws, he or she shall immediately investigate such alleged violation. The school shall render all services in its power to compel such child to attend some public, private, denominational or parochial school, which the person having control of the child shall designate, in an attempt to address the problem of excessive absenteeism.

Attendance and Absences

  1. Circumstances of Absences – Definitions. The circumstances for all absences from school will be identified as School Excused absences or Not School Excused absences. Absences should be cleared through the principal’s office in advance whenever possible. All absences, except for illness and/or death in the family, require advance approval.
    • School Excused. Any of the following circumstances that lead to an absence will be identified as a School Excused absence, provided the required attendance procedures have been followed:
      • Impossible or impracticable barriers outside the control of the parent or child prevent a student from attending school. The parent must provide the school with documentation to demonstrate the absence was beyond the control of the parent or child. This could include, but is not limited to, documented illness (including physical or mental illness), court, death of a family member or suspension.
      • Other absences as determined by the principal or the principal’s designee.
    • Not School Excused. Absences that are not school excused may result in a report to the county attorney and may be classified as follows:
      • Parent Acknowledged are those in which the parent communicates with the school in the prescribed manner that the child is absent and is the parent’s responsibility for the extent of the school day. This includes, but is not limited to, illness, vacations and medical appointments.
      • Other absences are those in which the parent has not communicated a reason for the student’s absence.
  2. Absence Procedure
    • In its Student Information System, the District may identify many different codes that provide greater definition to the circumstances of a child’s absence, but all of the codes need to be identified to parents and students as fitting into one of the above defined absence circumstances.

Excessive Absences

Students who accumulate five (5) absences in a quarter which are not School Excused shall be deemed to have “excessive absences.” Such absences shall be determined on a per-day (or hourly equivalent) basis for elementary students and on a per-class basis for secondary students. When a student has excessive absences, school officials will have verbal or written communication with the person or persons who have legal or actual charge or control of any child.

When a student continues thereafter to have absences of at least twenty days which are Not School Excused and the absences are of concern due to the effect of the absences on the student’s academics, the student’s attendance history, the time of the school year, the reasons for the absences or other circumstances, one or more meetings will be held between the school (a school attendance officer, a school social worker and/or a school administrator or their designee), the child’s parent or guardian and the child, when appropriate, to address the barriers to attendance. The result of the meeting or meetings shall be to develop a collaborative plan to reduce barriers identified to improve regular attendance. The plan shall include, if agreed to by the person who is responsible for making educational decisions on behalf of the student, an educational evaluation to determine whether any intellectual, academic, physical, or social-emotional barriers are contributing factors to the lack of attendance. The plan shall also consider, but not be limited to:

  1. The physical, mental or behavioral health of the child;
  2. Educational counseling;
  3. Referral to community agencies for economic services;
  4. Family or individual counseling; and
  5. Assisting the family in working with other community services.
  6. Referral to restorative justice practices or services.

Unexcused absences and tardiness are a violation of school rules. The services to be provided in response to unexcused absences and tardiness may also include disciplinary measures including, without limitation, restriction of extracurricular and other activities, additional work assignments before, during or after regular school hours, removal from a particular class or classes and mandatory reassignment. Suspension (short-term or long- term) or expulsion from school may be imposed for unexcused absences or tardiness, provided that alternatives to such action have been used or determined by the director of student services or their administrative assistant to be inappropriate under the circumstances.

Reporting to the County Attorney

The school may report to the county attorney of the county in which the person having control of the student resides when the school has documented its efforts to address excessive absences, the collaborative plan to reduce barriers to improve regular attendance has not been successful and the student has accumulated more than 20 absences per school year. The school shall notify the child’s family in writing prior to making the referral to the county attorney. Illness (including physical or mental illness) that makes attendance impossible or impracticable shall not be the basis for referral to the county attorney.

A report to the county attorney may also be made when a student otherwise accrues excessive absences as herein defined.