Attendance
Regular attendance is essential to learning and academic success. We encourage parents and students to make regular attendance a priority and to minimize interruptions in student attendance, wherever possible.
Types of Absences:
- Excused: Absences due to illness, doctor or dental appointment, and death in the immediate family.
- Unexcused: Absences due to truancy, flat tires, running out of gas, missing the bus, oversleeping etc. Absences due to suspension from school will be considered unexcused absences.
Excused Absence(s) Procedures
All students have two (2) school days to clear their absence(s) for the school attendance records, beginning on the day they return to school. Absences not cleared by the second day will become unexcused absences. A student who accumulates three days of unexcused absences is considered a truant by the State of California.
- If your parent/guardian calls the attendance office at 662-3944 each day that you are absent, a written note is not necessary.
- If you have a note from your parent/guardian, bring it to the Attendance Office before 8:20 a.m., during your lunch and/or after school. The note should be signed by your parent/guardian and include your name, date(s) of absence(s), reason for absence(s) and a current phone number where your parent/guardian can be reached.
Early Dismissal/ "Leave of Grounds"
If you have a medical or other appointment that requires you to be released from school early, please follow the process listed below:
- Have your parent/guardian phone the Attendance Office at 662-3944, or bring a note prior to the start of school.
- All parents/students need to sign out in the school office before leaving campus.
- Students identified as having an excessive number of early dismissals will be required to clear future requests.
- A medical verification may be required upon return to school. A medical verification will be required on all excessive leave of grounds (5 or more per term).
Because attendance is so important for student success in school, Gibson Elementary School discourages routine medical or dental appointments made during school hours.
Information about Tardiness
Information about Tardiness![]()
Please be aware that tardiness is unacceptable for a number of reasons:
- Tardiness affects your child's ability to be successful in his/her schoolwork. The total number of missed instructional minutes can add up very quickly.
- Tardiness has a negative impact on your child and his/her teacher to get him/her "caught up" with what was missed.
- Tardiness has a huge negative impact on other students who arrive on time, and who are then distracted while your child gets settled upon his/her arrival.
- Tardiness can be considered defiance of the school's attendance policy and can result in assigning the student consequences, such as detention (especially true for students in grades 7 through 12.)
We do recognize that there may be situations that arise occasionally that may cause students to be late for school, but in some cases it might not be the reasons.
If you feel you have extenuating circumstances that prevent you from bringing your child to school on time, please feel free to set up an appointment with our Attendance Liaison. Otherwise, the school's expectation will be that your child arrive on time, each day. The morning bell rings at 8:15am.
