Student Attendance Procedure

Rationale

The Education Act 1989 and the Education (School Attendance) Regulations 1951 impose legal obligations on

school boards of trustees, principals, teachers, and parents that relate to students' enrolment and attendance

at school.

Every person who is required to be enrolled at a registered school must attend the school whenever it is open

unless they are exempted from attendance in accordance with the Act.

The Regulations require that all schools must:

● maintain accurate daily attendance registers for all students enrolled in the school

● use an attendance register in the approved form to record student attendance.

School attendance registers are legal records which may be used in court proceedings. These registers must be

retained for at least seven years from the date of the last entry. After seven years, the attendance registers

may be destroyed with the approval of the board of trustees in the case of state and state integrated schools,

or with the approval of the manager in the case of private schools

Procedure

1. Student attendance will be recorded electronically by the class teacher using the school’s Student

Management System (MUSAC Edge) twice a day, at the beginning of school and straight after lunch.

2. For students who are absent, the class teacher will record the code for the absence, if the reason for

the absence is definitely known, or record the absence as a ‘?’ if the reason is not known. Codes used

will be as per the MOE’s Attendance Codes 2012 explanation document (Appendix 1).

3. The Notes button in MUSAC Edge will be used whenever possible to record the reason for an absence.

4. A hard copy of the class roll will be kept up to date by the classroom teacher. This will be available at

all times in case of:

a. a relieving teacher teaching the class

b. an emergency evacuation

5. In the situation where a relief teacher is teaching a class a hard copy of the class roll will be used. A

note will be sent to the office to inform the Office Manager of any absences. In this circumstance the

Office Manager will complete the attendance register for that class.

6. Whenever possible, parents/caregivers will be encouraged to advise the school of an impending

absence ahead of time. When this is not possible, then parents/caregivers will be asked to inform the

school as soon as possible after the event (eg by phone on the day of a student’s illness, or by note on

the first day when the student returns to school).

7. If parents/caregivers advise the school of an impending absence of five school days or more, and

request work to be provided for the student, then the class teacher will make the work available.

However, work will not normally be provided for absent students under any other circumstances.

8. The following methods of explaining student absences, either before or after the event, will be

accepted from parents/caregivers. These will be recorded in the Notes functionality within MUSAC.

a. a phone call (noted in the school office diary)

b. a face-to-face explanation

c. a note (filed by the class teacher)

d. a text message or email to the school or teacher stating:

i. the student’s name

ii. the date of the absence

iii. and the reason for it

e. a certificate from a health professional (filed by the class teacher)

9. 15 minutes after the start of school, and 15 minutes after the end of lunch, the Office Manager will use

the SMS to identify the students who are absent. In the case of those for whom no explanation has

been received by the school, the Office Manager will contact a parent/caregiver by phone. If an

explanation is received this will be recorded as the reason for the absence in the SMS.

10. If the absence remains unexplained when the student returns to school, the class teacher will seek to

obtain an absence note through the student. If that is unsuccessful after three days, the teacher will

attempt to contact the parents/caregivers by phone. If no satisfactory explanation for an absence has

been received by the school within a week of the student’s return to school, then the class teacher will

record the student as having been truant. (If a satisfactory explanation is subsequently received, then

the coding of the absence will be changed by the class teacher – and the change shown in the register.)

11. When an absence is deemed to be ‘unjustified’, the class teacher will contact the parents/caregivers

within 24 hours, either by phone or by sending a note home (evidence of the receipt of which will be

required in writing). The aim of this contact is to alert parents/caregivers to the fact that the absence

falls outside what is acceptable to the school and that any repetition of this will require further action

by the school or local truancy services.

12. For repeated or ongoing ‘unjustified’ absence in the course of a school term, the class teacher will

refer the matter to the Principal who will contact the parents/caregivers in order to arrange a meeting

with them. The Principal will also contact the local truancy services.

13. The Principal will monitor the school’s attendance/absence statistics and, where there is a concern,

will discuss it with the relevant class teacher, with a view to agreeing on a strategy to deal with the

concern. The principal will also analyse the data in terms of gender, ethnicity, year levels, etc and will

identify any negative patterns that may emerge, together with a proposed strategy on how to address

them. At the end of Terms 1 and 3 the Principal will report to the Board on student attendance.

14. In order to comply with the requirements of a roll audit, class teachers will complete and retain paper

returns for five days around 1 March and 1 July (ie for the two school days prior to the date in question,

on that date, and for the two school days immediately after that date). On these days, in addition to

recording student attendance and absences in the SMS as usual, the class teacher will also record this

information on printed class lists, which (s)he will sign. These lists are to be stored centrally and may

be asked for during a roll audit.

15. In the case of a student who is engaged in learning that is taking place not under the direct supervision

of the school, the Principal will use his/her discretion to decide as to whether the student will be

marked as present or absent from school. Each case will be taken on its merits.

Signed: ……………………......................…. Chairperson Board of Trustees

Date: …………………….........................…. Triennial review date: Feb 2016