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Attendance

Excused Absences

In the case of a necessary absence from school, a student must bring a written excuse from the parent/guardian stating the reason for the absence. Absence notes are submitted in person to the grade level office on the day the student returns to school. or through the ParentVue app.  Report absences in ParentVUE using the instructions on the GCPS website.  

Excuse notes for multiple periods of absence are not allowed. A limit of five parent-generated absent notes are allowed per semester. (DMS Policy)

State Board of Education Rule 160-5-1-.10 defines the following as excused absences:

  1. Personal illness or attendance in school endangers a student’s health or the health of others.
  2. A serious illness or death in the student’s immediate family necessitating absence from school.
  3. A court order or an order by a government agency, including pre-induction physical examinations for service in the armed forces, mandating absence from school.
  4. Observing religious holidays, necessitating absence from school.
  5. Conditions rendering attendance impossible or hazardous to student health or safety (For Gwinnett County Public Schools, the closure of schools for hazardous conditions may only be made by the Superintendent for the purposes of excused absences.)
  6. Local boards of education shall count students present when they are serving as pages for the Georgia General Assembly.
  7. Public school students whose parent or guardian is in military service and who is being sent overseas for active duty or returning from active duty are allowed five excused absences per school year, for the day or days missed from school to visit with his or her parent or legal guardian prior to such deployment or during leave.

 

School Check Outs

  1. Any student needing to leave campus during the day for any reason must check out through the Front Desk near the main office. 
  2. Only adults listed as a contact in Synergy are allowed to check students out.
  3. In order to ensure students have appropriate time to complete assessments and to limit testing room disruptions, students will not be allowed to check out during standardized assessments such as Gateway, Milestones, PSAT, District Assessments, etc., or during final exams. (DMS Procedure)
  4. After ten excused absences documented by the parent (per semester) due to illness, medical documentation is required to excuse subsequent checkouts. Parent notes will no longer be acceptable for all-day absences. (DMS Policy)
  5. Check-outs for formal absences (i.e., medical, court appointments, and funerals) will be classified as unexcused until proper documentation is received. (DMS Procedure)
  6. We do not allow checkouts after 3:30PM; after 3:30PM, you may wait to pick up a student as a car rider. (DMS Procedure)

Attendance Resources