Attendance Matters

Because regular and punctual attendance is essential to a student’s success in school, staff members work closely with parents/guardians to achieve good student attendance. Parents should notify the school if their child is going to be absent. Messages may be left any time of day or night, seven-days-a-week, by calling the attendance line for the student’s school.

Contact Ms. Rayne Clark, Attendance Specialist.

Phone number: 1-314-493-0206

Email: rclark@normandysc.org 

School start time- 8:10

Tardy to school- 8:25

Late to school- 8:55

School dismissed- 3:20

 

Regular and prompt attendance is one of the most important keys to a student’s academic success at school. Ritenour complies with state laws regarding excessive student absences. Excessive tardiness or absences may be considered educational neglect or truancy and could result in school disciplinary action, intervention by school social workers or school resource officers, a referral to Children’s Division, and/ or a referral to the Juvenile Court System.

Definitions Related to Absenteeism
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), for the purposes of school district accreditation, requires all districts to have 90 percent of students in attendance 90 percent of the school year, whether the absence is excused or unexcused. Referrals are made to Children’s Division when a student accumulates an excess of 10 unexcused absences.

Excused Absence—Below are the only times a student’s absence will be counted as excused:
• Illness/injury; death in the family; health/medical appointment; religious observance; legal situation; and/or participation in a valid educational opportunity and the parent provides documentation supporting the absence.

Unexcused Absence—When a parent does not provide documentation of the illness or injury, death in family, health/medical appointment, religious observance, legal situation and/or participation in a valid educational opportunity, such as a college visit, the absence will be counted as unexcused.

Truancy—Students who are absent from school:
     • without the knowledge and consent of their parents and/or administration
     • students who leave school during any session without the consent of the principal. 

Chronic Truancy (Family Court)—A student who is absent from school without approval for a full day or more, part of a day, or all or part of a class on more than 10 occasions during a school year.

Tardies and Early Dismissals—Students who are tardy to school or leave early disrupt classroom procedures and lose educational time. Tardies and early dismissals will be documented. When tardies and early dismissals equal the time of a full school day, the student will be counted as absent for one full school day.

A student should attend/return to school if the student has a doctor’s appointment during the school day.

All early dismissals end at 2:30 for the school day.