Student Absences & Late Arrival

  • Early Dismissal for student drivers only!

    Regular attendance and punctuality are important from the beginning of the school year until the last day. Frequent absences and tardies interfere with your child's progress toward learning the necessary basic skills.  Please allow up to 48 hours for your child’s attendance to be updated in the system. 

    *Form is for student drivers only. Note that there will be no dismissal of students after 1:45pm.  

    Early Release Form*

     

    If you are reporting a student absence using the link on the Hough HS main page (link is also below), please allow NO LESS THAN 72 HOURS for the absence to be reflected in PowerSchool. Please do not submit multiple requests.

    Reporting a student absence:  https://schools2.cms.k12.nc.us/Pages/absence.aspx?sid=312

     

    Excused Absences

    • Personal illness (please state type of illness)

    • Medical appointments (must provide a doctor’s note)

    • Death in family

    • Religious holidays

    • Approved Educational Leave (Submit 5 days in advance)

    • CMS Approved Religious holidays (Submit 2 weeks in advance)

    • Court or Administrative proceedings

    NOTE: Parents can no longer call the office to report a student absence; they must send a note or email to the school in order for the absence to be excused.  Until a note is received by the attendance office, all absences above are unexcused. Please attempt to make all elective medical and dental appointments for times before or after school.

    Unexcused Absences

    • Inclement weather

    • Car trouble

    • Missing the bus

    • Oversleeping

    • No written excuse or email

    • Class cutting

    • Work

    Student Absence Recovery Plan

    High School students accumulating more than 10 absences, excused or unexcused per class will receive a grade of “F” for the course, according to state policy. It is the responsibility of the teacher to monitor and enforce the recovery policy. Once a student has missed more than 10 days in your class, they may begin making up their seat time. Each class over 10 requires 90 minutes of recovery. Students are expected to do work while doing recovery. Teachers may provide students with alternate assignments instead of doing seat time. This is a teacher's decision.

    It is the teacher’s responsibility to make sure that the student and the parent are aware of the need for Recovery. It is strongly recommended that you obtain signatures indicating that the student and parent are aware of this need.

    Students should obtain a Recovery Log Sheet in Student Services  to record their recovery efforts. Forms are also available on our website.  Teachers must sign the Recovery Log sheet when a student makes up time with them.Students are not to do recovery with other teachers.

    Recovery Appeal Process

    There is an appeals process where parents can provide medical or court documentation if there are unusual circumstances surrounding the excessive absences. This form is available in Student Services and requires documentation from the appropriate professionals in order to substantiate the claim of unusual circumstances. A committee will review the documentation and will provide a recommendation to the Principal for approval on whether or not the attendance requirement will be waived.  Students are strongly encouraged to make up for missing time and not rely on the appeals process.

    There will be an established deadline each semester for the completion of Recovery hour and for the submission of a Recovery Waiver Request for consideration by the Appeals Committee.  Information is available by contacting Student Services.

    Policy on Late Arrival / Tardy

    When a student is tardy, they must report to Room C218. The ISS teacher will log the tardy and provide them with a pass to class. Students receive 2 free tardies per semester (These should be reserved for emergencies). Any subsequent tardy thereafter, the following will apply:

    3rd Tardy = 30 minutes ASD

    4th tardy = 45 minutes ASD

    5th tardy = 1 hour ASD

    6th tardy = 1 day ISS; parking pass revoked for the semester*

    7th tardy = 2 days ISS

    8th tardy+ = 3 days ISS

    9th tardy = 1 day OSS

    10th tardy = 2 days OSS

    11th tardy = 3 days OSS

    +Any tardy accumulated after the 8th tardy will be considered insubordination and will result in OSS. 

    *Students who drive to school will lose their parking privilege on their 6th tardy. This will result in their losing the privilege to drive to school for the rest of the semester. These students will have to apply second semester and go on the waiting list for a parking spot if one becomes available. There is no guarantee of receiving a space the next semester.

    Truancy

    Students between ages 7 and 16 are required by law to attend school. In addition to the consequences outlined in Rule 1, the student will be required to make up the work missed and may be subject to the district’s recovery procedures. For students with more than 10 unexcused absences, the student and/or parent may be referred for prosecution.


    Rule 1 ATTENDANCE (Citizenship/Responsibility): A student must attend every class every day unless there is a lawful reason for the absence. Students who are tardy, cut school or class or have excessive unexcused absences (more than 10) are in violation of this rule. In addition to any administrative response, students with excessive absences may be required to comply with the district’s recovery procedures. Repeated violations of this rule may also result in Tier II consequences, with the condition that any out-of-school suspension imposed for conduct related solely to violation of this rule is limited to two days per violation. (Students who engage in insubordinate behavior towards an authorized staff member attempting to enforce this rule may also be in violation of Rule 7 and may be punished accordingly, without the two-day limitation on out-of-school suspensions.)