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September Newsletter

September 2, 2021

September Newsletter September 2, 2021

Parents Can Build the Habit of Good Attendance

Showing up for school has a huge impact on a student’s academic success starting in kindergarten and continuing through high school. Even as children grow older and more independent, families play a key role in making sure students get to school safely every day and understand why attendance is so important for success in school and on the job.

Did You Know?

  • Students should miss no more than 9 days of school each year to stay engaged, successful and on track to graduation.
  • Absences can be a sign that a student is losing interest in school, struggling with school work, dealing with a bully or facing some other potentially serious difficulty.
  • By 6th grade, absenteeism is one of three signs that a student may drop out of high school.
  • By 9th grade, regular and high attendance is a better predictor of graduation rates than 8th grade test scores.
  • Missing 10 percent, or about 18 days, of the school year can drastically affect a student’s academic success.
  • Students can be chronically absent even if they only miss a day or two every few weeks.
  • Attendance is an important life skill that will help your child graduate from college and keep a job.


Throughout the month of September, TCS will raise awareness about the issue by hosting activities at schools, like wearing green on Thursdays in September!

What to Do If Your Child Is Sick?

While student attendance is key to student success, it is important to remember if your child does not feel well, they should be kept home from school. Should your child receive a COVID positive test, please alert your child's school.


Additionally, the Tuscaloosa City Schools has updated its COVID Tracker to include weekly trends among students and employees. This update provides even greater transparency for stakeholders.

Schoology Parent Log In

Schools are sending home codes and information on how parents can create accounts to see their child's work and grades in Schoology. Once you have your child's code, go to www.schoology.com and click Sign Up.


In Schoology, you can monitor your child's attendance, grades, and assignments. Plus, you can connect with your child's teacher. Families should rely on Schoology for timely information on their child's classes.


TCS and all Alabama school districts recently moved from iNOW to PowerSchool-SIS for documenting grades, attendance, etc. On or around September 17 schools will home letters with information for parents on how to access PowerSchool-SIS to view grade and attendance information. Thank you for your patience as we all learn to use this new system.

PROGRESS REPORTS GO HOME SEPTEMBER ON 10.

Share the Love!

With the first month of school behind us, hundreds of parents and caregivers are sharing their appreciation for TCS teachers and staffers. Give a shout out to any teacher or staffer who has helped you and your child start off the school year right!

Senior Timeline Campaign

TCS is committed to supporting students in becoming enrolled (in a post-secondary institution or training program), enlisted (in a branch of the military), or employed (in a career related to their chosen pathway) following high school graduation. Senior year is an important part of this process. To help students and families stay on top of activities and deadlines, we have created the Senior Timeline Campaign.


Each month, look for key actions that seniors and their families should take to secure their future. Information will be shared via Schoology, email, and TCS social media channels.

Taking the Zones Home

This school year, students have been introduced to Zones of Regulation (sometimes referred to simply as "Zones"). It's a program that teaches a variety of social-emotional skills to children and young adults, starting with early emotional skills and advancing on to self-regulation and navigating social situations. Zones accomplishes this through:


  • Identifying emotions: by categorizing feelings into four zones (blue, green, yellow, and red)
  • Self-regulation: achieving the preferred state of alertness (zone) for a situation. This is all about regulating your body and emotional regulation.
  • Identifying triggers: learning what makes you “tick” and why
  • Coping strategies: various techniques and strategies that help achieve emotional regulation and manage strong emotions
  • Size of the problem: introduces the idea that the size of your reaction should match the size of your problem, how to identify the size of your problem, and strategies for problem-solving.
  • Expected behavior vs unexpected behavior: this also covers perspective taking and how your behavior affects the thoughts and feelings of the people around you.


Zones of Regulation is one of many Social-Emotional Learning tools being utilized by TCS this year to help educate our students on emotional wellness. You can learn more about taking the Zones home here!

What Do You Think About Tuscaloosa City Schools?

The Tuscaloosa City Schools, together with our communications partner, Apptegy, Inc., is conducting a survey to improve our connection with our community. Audience participants include TCS district leadership team, teachers and staff, families and the public. The survey will be deployed digitally during the month of September. Our goal is to audit sentiments about the TCS brand and determine where we are excelling and where we need to improve. The results will also provide actionable insights to help us increase the value we provide to our community.


The survey launches tomorrow.

Schools and offices will be closed Monday in observance of Labor Day.

TC
Tuscaloosa City Schools
lbruinto@tusc.k12.al.us

The mission of the Tuscaloosa City Schools is to create and support a culture of high expectations for each and every student to achieve personal, academic and career excellence.

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