Attendance

Attendance

Northbrook Middle School will implement the GCPS attendance protocol which is published in the Student & Parent Discipline Handbook, which will be given to each student at the beginning of the school year. State law requirements:

Students may be excused from school under these circumstances (written notes are required):  

• Personal illness or attendance in school endangering the health of other students.  
• A serious illness or death in a student's immediate family.
• A court order or an order by a governmental agency, including pre‐induction physical examinations for service in the armed forces.
• Observing religious holidays.
• Conditions rending attendance impossible or hazardous to student health or safety.  
• A period not to exceed one day is allowed, at the discretion of the local unit of administration, for registering to vote or voting in a public election.  
• Visiting with a parent or legal guardian prior to or during leave from deployment to a combat zone or combat support posting as a member of the armed forces of the United States or the National Guard (maximum of five school days per year).  
• Students will be counted present when they are serving as pages of the Georgia General Assembly.  

Absences shall not penalize student grades if the following conditions are met.  

• Absences are justified and validated for excused reasons. Absences are excused with a written note, signed by a parent or guardian, for one of the reasons listed above.   The absence will be marked unexcused until the homeroom teacher receives notification regarding the absence(s) within three days of returning to school.  
• Make up work for excused absences were completed satisfactorily. Students are responsible for making arrangements and completing make up work within the specified timeline.  
• Work missed will not count for or against the final grade of students who are suspended short term (1‐10 days).

Suspended students shall make up those tests and assignments that the teachers determine will have an impact on the student's final grade and mastery of AKS.

Assignments that the teachers do not require to be made up will not count toward a student's final grade.   Students who are registered in school, but are not attending, and do not have permission to be absent are considered to be truant. Students who have emergencies necessitating their absence from school for a portion of the school day must have been present for the majority of the school day in order to be counted present. To be counted present for the whole day, students must attend for at least the equivalent of half the school day. This does not have to be continuous time. In order to be counted present, students must check in before 12:35 PM. Students who check out before 12:35 PM and do not return to school will be counted absent.  

Attendance Definitions

Truant: Any child who is subject to compulsory attendance who has ten or more unexcused absences during a calendar school year.

Unexcused Absences: Occur when the student fails to attend school, with or without the knowledge of the parent/legal guardian, for reasons other than those specifically outlined as excused absences. 

Early Checkout

Early Checkouts occur when a student is removed from class and leaves school prior to the official end of the school day with a parent or legal guardian.

• To be considered in attendance for a school day, the student must be present for at least one-half of the school day, excluding lunch period.
• At the time the student is released from school, the parent or legal guardian may be required to bring appropriate documentation showing the reason for an early checkout
• If you need to check out your student out of school please do so before 3:30 pm. There will be no student checkouts after 3:30 pm prior to the arrival of our buses or during standardized testing. 

Unexcused Absences

NorthbrookMS will notify the parent/guardian or other person having control of the student when each student has reached 5, 7, and 10 unexcused absences.