Albemarle High School Attendance Office

Is your student going to be absent, late or leaving early? Please notify the Attendance Office by email at AHSAttendanceOffice@k12albemarle.org or by phone at 434-974-4310 as soon as possible.  This ensures that we have enough time to code your student accordingly and make sure they receive a pass.  If your student is absent and you have not communicated this absence with the Attendance Office, your student will be marked unverified (UNV).  Five (5) unverified/unexcused absences can lead to your child being Truant.

Will you be picking your student up after 3:00 PM and have not communicated with the Attendance Office? You will be required to park in a designated parking spot and come inside the building to check your student out.

What happens if your student leaves campus without a parent/guardian communicating with the Attendance Office? If your student leaves campus without a parent/guardian communicating with the Attendance Office, your student will be marked unverified (UNV) and they could possibly be written up for skipping.

DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM & TRUANCY?

Chronic Absenteeism is defined when your student misses 10 percent or more of the academic year for any reason, including excused absences, unexcused absences and suspensions.  Based on 180 day school year, that means approximately 18 days per year or 2 to 3 days a month.

Chronic Absenteeism - Excused and Unexcused absences

• Tier 1: Students who have missed less than 10% of the school year
  • Teachers and other school administrators will:
    • Establish positive relationships with student and family
    • Recognize improved attendance
    • Monitor absences and set attendance goals
    • Establish a supportive and engaging school climate
    • Weekly attendance data review meetings
• Tier 2: Students who have missed between 10% and 19% of the school year
  • Teachers and other school administrators will:
    • Call home after each absence
    • Establish attendance contracts and support groups
    • Provide incentives for improvement
    • Engage with the family to brainstorm attendance solutions
• Tier 3: Students who have missed more than 20% of the school year
  • Teachers and other school administration will:
    • Hold 1:1 student and family intervention meetings
    • Provide outside referrals and collaborations
    • Establish interdisciplinary team meetings with community agencies
    • In rare cases, the court may become involved in attendance compliance

Truancy is the act of accruing one or more unexcused absences, where the parent is unaware of does not support the students absence, or the parent has not communicated with the Attendance Office.  Five (5) unexcused absences is considered a truancy issue and our Truancy Officer will reach out to parent/guardian to create an Attendance plan.

Truancy - Unexcused absences

• Tier 1: Three (3) Unexcused Absences
  • Teacher calls family to check on student
• Tier 2: Five (5) Unexcused Absences (required by Commonwealth of Virginia)
  • Teacher verifies call to family was made after 3 unexcused absences
  • 5 Day Letter is sent home and Attendance Contract is implemented
• Tier 3: Seven (7) Unexcused Absences (required by Commonwealth of Virginia)
  • Teacher verifies Attendance Contract is on file
  • Parent conference is scheduled and held with family and school attendance team
• Ten (10) Unexcused Absences (required by Commonwealth of Virginia)
  • Contact and schedule an attendance conference with Director of Student and Family Support

What is an Attendance Contract?

Attendance Contract is a document required by state code.  Contracts are developed at each individual school and designed to help schools and families develop a plan to improve a student’s school attendance. Attendance contracts are only developed and completed in cases of truancy. Attendance contracts are not expected to be completed by chronically absent students.

ACPS Credit Recovery

The Credit Recovery Program is an opportunity for students to regain credit for a particular subject due to 10 or more absences in any class. School Board Policy JED-AP states that once a student misses more than ten (10) single class periods of a high school credit-bearing course during the school year, the secondary school principal (middle and high) has the discretion to deny high school credit.  Any decision to deny credit may be appealed to the principal or principal’s designee for restoration under the conditions determined by the principal.

Families wishing to appeal the principal’s decision should contact Dr. Jesse Turner, Director of Student and Family Support, (E-mail:  jturner@k12albemarle.org, Phone:  434-296-5820) to request a second appeal.

To help our students avoid losing academic credit for their classes, all Albemarle County middle and high schools have an option for students in high school credit-bearing courses to participate in a Credit Recovery Program that students may attend to make up a class period missed due to an absence.  If students do not attend the required sessions, they can be denied credit and have to retake those classes. Please contact Tracey Payne, Attendance Coordinator for more information. Tpayne4@k12albemarle.org

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) Flexible, In person Instructional Time Procedures (Attendance Buy Back)

The VDOE continues to support the attendance strategy that allows students to make-up instructional time for when they are absent from school excused and unexcused during regular school hours.  Flexible, in-person instructional time may be used to recover lost time due to student absences outside of the normal school day. It is important to note that this standard for flexible, in-person instructional time is much higher than the standard of pandemic “meaningful interaction” described by the department in 2020 (Superintendent’s Memo #188-20).

The requirements and instructions for conducting flexible, in-person learning outside of school hours has not changed.

To meet this in-person flexible instructional time standard, the school division must ensure the following, including:  

1. Be taught by a licensed teacher.  
2. The flexible, instructional time must be in-person.  
3. Cannot exceed pupil to teacher requirements outlined in the Standards of Quality.  
4. A student must be engaged in instruction tied to Virginia content standards that is consistent with the curriculum the student missed during the regular school day or curriculum areas with which the student has struggled.  
5. Interactions and engagements between teacher and student are consistent with regular school day classrooms interactions, and  
6. Must be outside of normal school hours (before or after the official school day begins/ends or Saturday).   

Again, your efforts to provide flexible, in-person instructional time to recover time lost in the classroom is important.  If a student attends flexible, in-person instructional time, outside of normal school hours, your chronic absenteeism rate will be adjusted by VDOE provided the following conditions are met:    

1. A K-5 elementary student must attend two hours of flexible in-person instructional time and 6-12 secondary students must attend 3 hours of in-person flexible instructional time as outlined above to reduce a traditional day absence by one (1) day.  
2. A student can attend as many flexible instructional hours outside of the normal school day as needed to ensure that learning loss is mitigated.  
3. However, only fifteen (15) flexible instructional days, maximum, will be applied to the Chronic Absenteeism calculation. 
4. When a student is absent, they must be marked absent in your student information system per 8VAC20-110-100.  Flexible in-person instructional hours cannot erase previous absences recorded in your SIS. The VDOE will continue to collect the aggregate days present and aggregate days absent on the end of year student record collection.  The adjustment to the student’s chronic absenteeism calculation by attending flexible, in-person instructional time outside of the regular school day will be adjusted using a unique field in the SRC called Hours of Flexible Instructional Time.   
5. Per 8VAC20-110-130, school divisions must change a student’s status from “enrolled” to “withdrawn” when the student has been absent for 15 or more consecutive days regardless if those days are excused, unexcused, or a combination of both.  
6. Hours of Flexible Instruction Time do not affect Regulations Governing the Collection and Reporting of Truancy-Related Data and Student Attendance Policies (8VAC20-730).  If student absences are unexcused, the mandated intervention process for unexcused absences should be followed. And school divisions should follow its procedure for addressing excused absences with the goal of reengaging the student.  

School divisions must track when students are attending flexible, in-person instructional time outside of the normal school day as they will report those tracked hours in a new data field on the End-of-Year SRC called “Hours of Flexible Instructional Time.” The division will report the time in hours and VDOE will use that data to adjust each participant’s days of absence in the Chronic Absenteeism rate.  For additional clarity, VDOE and not school divisions will run the calculation for how many flexible in person instructional hours equates to a day and will adjust the overall Chronic Absenteeism rate. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to help students recover from lost time during the regular school day.  The table below includes an example of how flexible, in-person instructional time can work regarding the calculation of chronic absenteeism, as well as more technical information for those that will submit your SRC to the VDOE.   

Questions related to the SRC should be directed to the Office of Data Services at resultshelp@doe.virginia.gov.   

For more information on the Chronic Absenteeism Rate contact the Office of Accountability at accountability@doe.virginia.gov.