Attendance

Covid 19

For the latest updates about absences related to Covid 19, please visit the Health and Wellness page on the San Jose Unified District website. 

When your child does not feel well, it can be difficult to decide whether to send the child to school. For the safety of all, students with any of the symptoms below should not attend school.

Symptoms to keep students home:

For the safety of all, students with any of the following symptoms should not attend school:

• Fever of 100.4° F (38° C) or higher
• Vomiting (2 or more times in 24 hours)
• Diarrhea (liquid stool)
• Severe sore throat (with difficulty breathing or swallowing or drooling)
• Severe cold symptoms (uncontrollable cough, difficulty breathing or trouble catching breath, or wheezing when not controlled by medication (like albuterol).
•  Eye or Ear Irritation (difficulty seeing or hearing, eye injury or pain that cannot be tolerated)
• Rash that is worsening, causing pain, has blisters or is not healing
• Head lice and/or nits (eggs) in the hair

If a student is at school with any of these symptoms and is unable to participate meaningfully in routine activities, a parent/guardian will be called to pick up the student.

Students who have been ill with a fever should stay home if the fever is 100.4° F (38° C) or higher. Student may return if the fever resolves over the night and is gone in the morning without the use of medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen (Tylenol, Advil, or Motrin).

Students experiencing vomiting should stay home if they have had 2 or more vomiting episodes in 24 hours. Student may return to school when vomiting has ended overnight, and your child is able to hold down liquids and foods without vomiting. Frequent handwashing is recommended.

Students experiencing diarrhea should stay home if they have liquid stool and are unlikely to make it to the toilet in time. Student may return to school when diarrhea has improved. Frequent handwashing is recommended.

Under certain circumstances, parents may be asked to consult a physician and provide a written note from that physician indicating that the student may return to school. 

Protocols for illness and outbreaks may change based on directions from the Public Health Department.  For more information, please visit the CDPH guidance page.

Doctor’s Note/Contagious Illness:

• If your student visits the doctor please provide a note with the date of service.
• If your student is absent for 3 consecutive days due to illness, we ask that you provide a doctor’s note.
• If your student was diagnosed with a contagious illness (i.e. pink eye, strep throat, or lice, etc.), please call the school so we can distribute exposure notices.

Illnesses and Injuries at School:

When a student becomes sick or injured at school they will be assessed by the nurse and treated. Parents/guardians will be called to pick them up if necessary. 

For a full list of absences that are excused, unexcused, and warranted please refer to the attendance section of the Parent/Student Handbook.

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Excused Absences:

• Student’s illness
• Student’s medical appointment
• Quarantine: Directed by a county or city health officer
• 1 school day per semester for religious purposes
• Attending the funeral service of an immediate family member* for not more than 5 days per funeral

* Immediate family includes mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, brother, sister, or a person determined by the student’s parent or guardian to be in such close association with the student as to be considered the student’s immediate family. Please refer to CA Education Code 48205.

Unexcused Absences:

• All other absences, including vacation, parent's or sibling's illness or appointments, car trouble, etc. are unexcused.

Warranted Absences:

• Warranted Absences may be excused at principal/principal designee's discretion with advance notice and in accordance with AR 5113.

Students are expected to remain in class until the end of the school day, however, if your child has to leave early for any reason, please let the teacher know and call or email the school in advance. When you come into the office to sign the student out, you must show your picture ID.* Give yourself a few extra minutes, especially if you are picking up during recess, lunch, or PE. See the Bell Schedule.

*NOTE: Only parents/guardians and people on the student’s emergency list may sign a student out during the school day, unless permission is provided in writing in advance or by phone call (email: Terrell@sjusd.org). To update your student's emergency contact list, visit the Parent Portal.

It is the responsibility of the parent(s)/guardian(s) to ensure that their child/children are in school on time every day (7:55am walking to class and in their class by 7:57am). Please call or email when your child will be arriving late. Let us know:

• student’s first and last name
• teacher's name
• the reason for the tardy
• the approximate time they will arrive

Student(s) who are not in class by 7:57am will need to go to the office to receive a tardy pass before going to class.Morning Schedule

7:27am	Earliest time students may arrive on campus. *No supervision available before 7:27am.
7:55am	Warning bell rings: students start making their way to class.
7:57am	School start bell rings: Students should be in class.
7:58am-8:26am	Students are tardy. Late students must come to the office for a tardy pass.
8:27am or later	Students are tardy. Lateness due to unexcused reasons are recorded as Truant Tardy (see Truancy section below). Students must come to the office for a tardy pass.

 

Excused Tardies:

• Student’s illness or injury.
• Student’s medical appointments.
• Student's legal appointments.

Unexcused Tardies:

• All other reasons, including losing track of time, eating, bathing, using the restroom, oversleeping, car trouble, traffic, parent fault, and sibling fault, etc. are unexcused.

Truant Tardies:

• Students arriving 30 or more minutes late (8:27am or later) are truant. After 3 truancies, the family will receive a truancy letter from the district. See Truancy section below.

 

Truancy

SJUSD welcomes our obligation to educate our students to the best of our ability. To do this, students need to be on campus on time and attend school regularly. Studies have shown that missing even five days of school in a year can be detrimental to learning. Because of this, State law requires that all children ages 6-18 be enrolled in full-time education. A student who misses three (3) or more days of school or is 30 or more minutes late to school without an approved excuse will be subject to our truancy process. Parents of students who miss five (5) or more days of school, even if excused, will be contacted by school site personnel so that San José Unified may work in partnership with families to help our students get back to school and engaged in their own learning.

• 3 absences will result in a reminder from the district.
• 3 unexcused absences or 3 tardies of more than 30 minutes (or any combination thereof): the student is legally truant. A First Time Truancy letter will be sent from the district.
• 2 additional unexcused absences or tardies more than 30 minutes, totaling 5 or more, will result in a Habitual Truancy letter and a meeting with a Student Support Counselor.

Chronic Absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism counts excused and unexcused absences and is defined as students who have missed 10% or more of the school days in the school year. Attendance matters...every school day counts!