Attendance Policy Updates
Attendance Changes
2025-2026 vs. 2024-25
To receive the best possible education, it is imperative that students attend school. While we know there are days when a student cannot attend school, it is the expectation of HCS that when a student is absent from school, they must make up all missed classwork and assignments.
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Note: Information in bold is an SCDE requirement.
Attendance FAQs
- If a student has not used all their parent excuses, can he/she change a medical absence to a parent note?
- How can students make up the seat time? Will teachers be paid to stay after school with students to make up assignments?
- Will parent notes be accepted during state testing?
- Can we change the number of accepted medical notes from 8 to 10?
- Is there a time limit for parents to provide medical notes or parent-excused notes?
- Will there be any changes to absences related to religious holidays?
- How will “blanket excuses” that cover multiple days be handled? In the past, sometimes notes were not excused, and parents were not notified.
- How will HCS handle a student who attends school on a day they were supposed to be excused?
- If I have a child who has regularly scheduled medical/psychiatric appointments during school hours, how will this be handled under the new policy?
- What about students with braces? Not all appointments can be scheduled outside of the school day. How will the new policy affect students in this situation?
- What is the reason for limiting the number of medical excuses?
- Were any medical professionals a part of the policy revision process?
- What about students who must leave school for outside medical services?
- What if the school nurse sends the child home sick?
- How will this new policy affect court and bereavement absences?
- How will the changes to attendance policies affect children with chronic illnesses (such as sickle cell, seizures, etc.)?
- How will this new policy affect college visit days?
- When a child is self-harming and we do a crisis protocol and need to send the student home, how should it be coded?