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Attendance Notes

 

State laws regarding attendance are very strict for high school.  Students not meeting attendance requirements will not be able to obtain a verification of enrollment for driving form.  Tips are provided below to make sure all attendance credit is earned:

  • Class attendance is extremely important at Westwood High School. Students are allowed 4 absences per class per semester. All absences, EXCUSED or UNEXCUSED, count toward the total allowed absences. ONLY illness or death in the immediate family is considered excused. Out of town trips are unexcused absences. See Student Handbook for more details.
  • If your student is absent, please call the office (464-4015) the morning of the absence to let us know. You will receive a phone call the evening following an absence from the RRISD calling system. If you have called the office that day, please disregard this message. If your student has NOT been absent and you receive this call, please let us know and we will check it out for you. This should be done as soon as possible.  Due to state reporting, a cutoff is required for corrections.  Please make sure you call or check in regarding corrections as soon as possible.  Please utilize Home Access Center  (link here)  to monitor attendance.   
  • Please send a written note, signed by the parent, the day your student returns to school following an absence. Even if you have called the office, we are required to have a note on file. If your student has been to the doctor, please send a doctor note written on the DOCTOR’S STATIONARY. Your student should bring these notes to the office (Room 212) BEFORE 9:00 a.m. in order to get an admit to return to class.   It is very important to turn in Doctor’s notes as soon as you return to school. 
  • If your student has an appointment during the day, please send a note with him/her the morning of the appointment, indicating the time that you will need to pick them up. The student should bring this note to the office BEFORE 9:00 in order to get a pass to leave class in time to meet you. If we have received a note that morning, your student can sign him or herself out in the office, and meet you outside at the “B” entrance. This will save the frustration of finding a parking spot, rushing in and waiting while the office staff sends for your child. When classes are in the library or the computer lab, or if your student is in athletics, etc., it will take more time for the office aides to locate your student. Please allow extra time when coming for your student for an appointment. 
  • If your student has a doctor appointment, make sure that he/she brings a doctor’s note upon returning to school so that the absence can be coded correctly. If a student is present during the day, but misses only a portion of the day due to a doctor appointment, the absence is coded a non-absence IF we receive a doctor note when they return.
  • If your student feels ill during the day, he/she MUST go to the school nurse. We do not allow students to call their parents to pick them up without having seen the nurse first.

Please take time to read the Student/Parent Handbook carefully. Important guidelines and expectations are discussed and it will answer many of your questions.