Coyote Families,

The past 25 student learning days this school year have been INCREDIBLE at Diamond Canyon School. Thank you for trusting us with your child’s education and partnering with us to build relationships. I am amazed at what our students engage in daily across campus. If you’d like to see a sneak peak of what happens at Diamond Canyon, please join us on our social media pages - Facebook (Diamond Canyon School - photo has almost 20 students in big photo and A+ in the small photo) or on Twitter - @DiamondCanyonSchool.

I am ecstatic to share that our school has applied for A+ School of Excellence through the Arizona Education Foundation. At our main entrance you will proudly see A++ School of Excellence with a dash next to it. This is due to having the recognition since 2015, however, it requires a new application every four years to maintain this public school recognition. A team of dedicated Coyotes spent hours writing our 40+ page application. We have a beautiful story to write due to the incredible students, staff, and parents.

With Coyote Pride,

Mrs. LeCount

Students are given purple Coyote Code tickets when they are caught following our Coyote Code (Be Responsible, Be Respectful, Be Safe, Be A Learner). Check out our awesome Coyotes that have been recognized the past few weeks.

School attendance is not only a good habit, state law requires it. Arizona State Law (15-802.E, 15-803.) requires every person who has custody of a child between the ages of six and sixteen years shall make sure the child attends school for the full time school is in session unless unable to attend due to illness or another legitimate reason.

To encourage and improve school attendance, Diamond Canyon School has implemented a truancy service in partnership with Maricopa County Juvenile Court. This truancy service is called C.U.T.S. (Court Unified Truancy Suppression). We will be tracking attendance very closely. Your child is expected to be at school every day, unless there is an excused reason not to be. An absence is defined as a minimum of one missed class period per day. An unexcused absence will count as a truant day as defined by law. A student is “habitually truant” if he/she has five or more unexcused absences from school. A student that is absent more than ten percent (18 days) of the required number of school days per year is considered to have “excessive absences” whether the absence is excused or unexcused.

When a student has five or more unexcused absences or 19 excessive absences (excused OR unexcused), the student can be cited and will have to attend a hearing through the Juvenile Court. A parent or legal guardian must be present with the student at the time of the hearing. Consequences at the hearing may include the following: required attendance of the parent and the child at an education class, community service hours assigned to the child, counseling, etc. The parent will be assessed a $50 Diversion fee. Failure to complete these consequences may result in suspension of your child’s driver’s license, or inability to get a driver’s license until their 18th birthday. It is the parent /guardian’s responsibility to ensure their child’s attendance in an approved academic setting. If you fail to take the necessary steps to provide your child with appropriate education you may receive a citation. If convicted, it is a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable by jail time and/or fine.

The education of your child is extremely important to us. This service is another way that Diamond Canyon is working with the community to ensure a quality education for all students. Please note that the school also reserves the right to have a CUTS Officer speak at Orientations and Assemblies, as well as to individual groups of students regarding the importance of school. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Diamond Canyon at 623-445-8000.

Every month the PTA hosts a luncheon for the DC staff— it is one of the highlights of the month for our teachers! In the past, these luncheons were entirely provided by contributions from DC families… casseroles, homemade brownies, etc. This year we are continuing to do that, but mixing it up a bit. Every other month we are going to cater the meal through a local restaurant and look for business sponsors to help fund that. This way we are still able to express our appreciation to the DC staff without having parents provide all the food. It is off to a great start! September’s meal will be generously sponsored by Better Vision Eyecare, then in October families will be able to bring food to share.

Thank you for your continued support!

DC PTA