Attendance
Attendance
Daily attendance at school is not only an expectation, but also a net benefit to your future success.
Education is often sequential, where each lesson builds directly on the previous one. Missing just two days a month adds up to 10% of the school year (also known as chronic absenteeism). When you miss a lesson, you don't just miss facts; you miss the foundational concept needed to understand the next week of material. Catching up while trying to keep up with new material creates double the stress.
School isn't just about memorizing facts; it’s a sandbox for life skills. Show-up rate is the #1 predictor of future job reliability. The soft skills of punctuality, routine, adaptability, and working with people you didn't choose to be around are skills practiced every day in a school building. Navigating deadlines and daily expectations builds psychological stamina that employers actively look for.
School is where social networks are formed. Being present keeps you plugged into peer groups, sports, clubs, and mentor relationships with teachers or counselors who can write recommendations and open doors for future jobs or college applications.
Daily attendance at school is not only an expectation, but also a net benefit to your future success.
Education is often sequential, where each lesson builds directly on the previous one. Missing just two days a month adds up to 10% of the school year (also known as chronic absenteeism). When you miss a lesson, you don't just miss facts; you miss the foundational concept needed to understand the next week of material. Catching up while trying to keep up with new material creates double the stress.
School isn't just about memorizing facts; it’s a sandbox for life skills. Show-up rate is the #1 predictor of future job reliability. The soft skills of punctuality, routine, adaptability, and working with people you didn't choose to be around are skills practiced every day in a school building. Navigating deadlines and daily expectations builds psychological stamina that employers actively look for.
School is where social networks are formed. Being present keeps you plugged into peer groups, sports, clubs, and mentor relationships with teachers or counselors who can write recommendations and open doors for future jobs or college applications.
Attendance Policies
Students are expected to attend school 90% of each semester. Absences in excess of nine days per semester may result in loss of credit.
- Parents must call the school to excuse an absence. Please call the 24-hour attendance recorder at 208-854-6114. An absence which is not excused after two days may result in a truancy. A truancy is an absence which has not been excused by the student’s parent/guardian or when a student has whereabouts unknown.
- Students who arrive at school after 8:00 am are to report to the main office to obtain a pass to class.
- If a student has an appointment (doctor, dentist, orthodontist, etc.), they must obtain a permit to leave (PTL) to leave the school premises. PTLs are available in the office. Students who leave campus without a PTL will be considered truant.
- Students may not be on campus before 7:00 am and must leave campus by 2:45 pm unless involved in a supervised activity. South Junior High doors open at 7:00 am.
Tardies
Students are tardy if they are not in the assigned classroom when the bell rings. Students who miss 20 minutes or more of any class or intentionally avoid going to class will receive an absence and may be marked as truant for the class.
Students who are habitually tardy and fail to complete the teacher’s consequences are considered insubordinate. Students may be referred to the assistant principal for disciplinary action, which may include lunch detention, afternoon detention/school, loss of credit, and/or removal from class for the remainder of the semester. Disciplinary action is at the discretion of the administrator.
Consequences
- 1st tardy: warning by teacher, automatic phone notification
- 2nd tardy: warning from the teacher and automatic phone notification
- 3rd tardy: warning and automatic phone notification
- 4th tardy: student referred to the detention monitor, assigned one day lunch detention, and automatic phone notification
- 5th tardy: student will be referred to the detention monitor, assigned one day lunch detention, and automatic phone notification
- 6th tardy: student may be referred to the assistant principal, an after school detention or 3 days lunch detention may be assigned, and automatic phone notification
More than six tardies may result in additional after school detention and/or Saturday School, and possible loss of credit. Tardies are accumulated for each semester (quarter 1 and 2 are semester 1 and quarters 3 and 4 are semester 2). Tardies are reset at each new semester. Refusal to serve tardy detention becomes a Major Infraction for noncompliance and consequences may include ISS and OSS.