ATTENDANCE

Absence Line - (403) 938-6116 Ext. #8

Email - FCHSAttendance@fsd38.ab.ca

What To Expect When A Student Misses A Class?

Please phone or email the school if your child is going to be absent, late, or leaves school early.  Please also advise your child to check in at the office when they arrive/leave so that we can timestamp their attendance (this is necessary for security reasons).

If we don’t hear from a parent or guardian, it is considered an unexcused absence and will trigger an automated phone call to the primary phone number twice a day, morning and afternoon.

When a student is late for class, we encourage them to speak to their teacher to ensure that they are marked “Late” rather than “Absent” (late attendance does not trigger a phone call from School Messenger).

School Messenger is our automated phone/email message system that gets its information from our attendance records, including parental input.

Protocols for Confirming Absences

For Students

• Please stop at the office to let us know when you are leaving or if you are returning to school
• Please have your parent or guardian contact us to confirm your absence
• If you are late, please discuss your attendance with your teacher at the END of class to ensure that your attendance is marked late, not absent – when you check in/out at the office, we only check you in/out of school…your teacher checks you in/out of class.

For Parents

• Please contact the office (phone or email) to confirm your child’s absence, as well as letting us know how long they will be away.
• When you call to excuse your child from school, it is for us to confirm that you are aware of the absence. While it is possible to change an Absence to an Excused Absence, Alberta Education doesn’t distinguish between this status – an ‘excused’ absence is still an absence and reflects accordingly on your student’s permanent attendance record.

The Office

We keep track of a student’s attendance electronically, via Maplewood/Edsembli. We record:

• The timestamp for when a student leaves/returns to/from appointments, and
• Parental confirmation of a student’s absence

School Messenger is automatically populated with the information we receive from students and their parents. The information gathered by the office determines who receives a phone call in the morning and the afternoon.