TravelWe are experiencing a higher-than-normal number of student absences daily due to extended vacations. Please note, these days are unexcused, and as such, teachers do not send work to "make up" for the loss of learning that takes place when a child is not present in school.
If you plan a vacation during school time you can expect to receive the following email:
Thank you for sharing information regarding your upcoming travel plans. I've included Mrs.Tynan, our Assistant Principal, in this email as she is responsible for monitoring the school attendance of our students and our office team. Please remember to submit daily, the absence form, to prevent our school nurse from reaching out to you each day.
Please know as a public school, we cannot and do not approve trips for vacation purposes. The missed school days are considered unexcused by the district and state. I am also required to send along the following information from State/Local policy:
Once your student has reached seven or more unexcused absences in a term, you will receive a letter from the Elmwood office. This letter contains information from MA Gen. Law. 76.1A., which schools are required to share with families when absences exceed seven days within a six-month period of time. These attendance letters do become part of a student's cumulative record, as regular school attendance is required by MA law, and missed instructional time is known to greatly impact student performance in a variety of ways.
In addition, I do need to remind you of the following segment from our Student Handbook (which all families sign off on each year in Hopkinton) regarding trips and requesting assignments:
Family Vacations and NonMedical Absences: Students miss valuable learning experiences when they are not in school. Scheduling vacations, trips, and sporting events during school time makes it difficult for your child when he/she returns. Only a minor segment of the work can be done when not at school because most learning involves discussions, explanations, cooperative group activities, and hands-on science projects, to name a few. Please be aware that introductions to new concepts and instruction will continue while your child is away. For this reason, we strongly discourage nonattendance unless your child is ill. Please do not ask your child’s teacher to prepare assignments prior to your vacation. The pace of instruction is difficult to determine in advance and varies with the composition of the class and the student’s readiness for the concepts taught. There may also be specific tests or assignments that need to be made up once your child returns to school.
As you can read from the HPS School Committee policy and our HPS Elementary Handbook above, we are unable to pass along assignments (especially in advance) during a voluntary absence from school. The nature of elementary school instruction makes this particularly challenging. The responsibility for catching up on missed learning is the responsibility of the family, but there will no doubt be many things that your student may not be able to make up (including assessments) given the extended length of the absence from school. This may also impact report card grades, as teachers are not able to go back and revisit everything a student would miss while out of school.
To avoid loss of learning, the Superintendent recommends that families visit the DESE website to read about the MA frameworks, which will let you know the curricular expectations for students in second and third grades.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please reach out to me.
Mrs. Anne Carver
