Truancy at VAAC
Our Policy on Absenteeism- Finalized 10/12/2020
Attendance is an integral component in a student's education. Learning takes place in collaboration with VAAC teachers and engagement with the VAAC curriculum. Regular attendance/engagement is always essential for doing your best work in school. Employers will be interested in your attendance record some day. Students who are under the age of eighteen are required to attend school under the State Compulsory Attendance Law.
For a student to obtain credit and to keep parents informed of student absenteeism, school personnel have set up a minimum standard of attendance. Every effort should be made by students and parents to see that absences are limited to reasons of personal illness or a grave, family emergency.
Students in grades K-12 are required to participate in at minimum 2 two-way contacts per week with their mentor or classroom teacher. Parents and Students in grades K-5 can work collaboratively with the VAAC mentor teacher to accomplish the 2 two-way via zoom, email, or phone call. This means, the teacher initiates contact (via Seesaw (K-5), Remind (6-12), Google Classroom (6-12), Zoom, email, text message or phone call) and the student responds, then the teacher responds (teacher-student-teacher). These two-ways will be logged, and two per week must be completed for a student to have positive attendance marked. Students & parents need to be on the watch for contacts by their mentor and respond to all contacts.
Students will submit an assignment every Wednesday.
Students will login regularly to the appropriate Edmentum platform (Calvert, Exact Path, Courseware) and be working toward completion of their coursework.
Unexcused Absence: Child misses both 2 way communications in a week. If so, we check to see if they submitted a Wednesday assignment and if the child has logged in regularly over the course of the week, Wednesday to Tuesday.
VAAC Truancy Procedure:
Student has 1 unexcused absence
Virtual Academy Administrator or designee checks in with the child’s teacher/mentor regarding Wednesday assignments and checks login history in Edmentum (Courseware, Calvert, Exact Path) or Seesaw. Communication is sent to the child’s parent/guardian about the requirements for virtual learners at VAAC and communicates with local district support personnel about the unexcused absence.
Student has 2 unexcused absences
Virtual Academy Administrator or designee sends an email/letter to the family. The truancy support at the local district is notified.
Student has 3 unexcused absences
Virtual Academy Administrator or designee sends a second email/letter to the family. Virtual Academy Administrator or designee schedules a meeting with the family. The truancy support at the local district is notified and notifies our Allegan County safety officer, Craig Gardiner.
Student has 4 unexcused absences
The student is dropped from VAAC and sent back to the local district. A parent meeting is scheduled with the local district regarding truancy and paperwork is completed for documentation.
*These are for sequential weekly absences, non-sequential absences are tracked and documented but discretion will be used in determining next steps for truancy.