Regular attendance is critical to your child’s education. Disruptions to your child’s school attendance can have a significant impact on his or her academic performance.
Both the California Administration Code and the Education Code state that every pupil must attend school regularly. Attendance Letters will be mailed home each month starting in October. When a child is excessively absent, a principal-teacher-parent-student conference will be held. If the problem continues, the excessive absences will result in a referral to the School Attendance Review Board (SARB).
Your child should attend school consistently and should be absent only for illness or emergencies. Please do not schedule extended family vacations during school time.
Fill out the ‘Report an Absence Online’ form here and hit “submit”. That’s it! This is the easiest and most efficient way to report your child’s absence.
Let us know if your child has a contagious disease, confirmed by your child’s physician, such as chicken pox, measles, mumps, or strep throat. Letters will go home via email or hard copy in your child’s backpack.
Please provide the Health Office with a note from your physician indicating the diagnosis and releasing your child to return to school.
A child who was absent due to a fever, rash, vomiting, diarrhea must be symptom free for 24 hours before returning to school.
If your child has been absent due to a lice outbreak, please have him/her meet with Mrs. Donna Kim, health technician, before returning to class.
Please notify the school of any anticipated absence due to out-of-town trips, family emergencies or medical or dental appointments.
Every day your child is absent, the District loses $45! To report an absence online, click here. The state funds that we receive for students’ daily attendance will NOT be paid for either excused or unexcused absences. Please see that your child attends school every day. If your child does need to be out of school, please seriously consider making a contribution of $45 to the Manhattan Beach School District for each day your child has a non-medical absence. You can contribute the $45 per day by leaving a check in the office. Thank you for your consideration.
If your child must be out for part of the day due to illness, medical/dental appointments, bereavement, or on religious holidays, please have your child return for the remainder of the day. Only then does the school district receive funding for that day.
We expect students to arrive at school on time. A student entering class late not only impacts his/her own learning but also disrupts the flow of the classroom and the entire community of learning. Upon arrival, tardy students must check in at the office. If your child has several tardies, the school office will send home a letter. Tardy letters will go home each month starting in October. If you child receives a second tardy letter, a principal-teacher-parent-student conference will be held. If the excessive tardies continue, you will be referred to the Student Attendance Review Board (SARB). Both the California Administration and Education Code state that every pupil must attend school regularly and on time. Please teach your child punctuality.
If you need to take your child out of school before the end of the school day:
Send a note in with your child stating the time your child will be picked up, by whom, and the reason for the early release.
Go to the school office, not the classroom. Sign the yellow release form on the office front counter.
The office staff will call the classroom and your child will meet you in the office. For Kinder parents only- You will be issued a Release Slip and you must pick up your kinder from the classroom. If your child is at lunch, recess or PE, you will be issued a Release Slip to get your child from the playground.
All adults must be prepared to show photo identification.
This simple procedure protects your child. We will not release a student to anyone except the parent, legal guardian, or a person you have authorized to pick up your child. Please list all authorized individuals on the emergency card.
Independent study contracts are available if an important family trip will cause your child to miss five or more continuous days of school.
Independent study contracts allow the school district to receive State Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funds of approximately $45/day when your child is on a family trip. To obtain an independent study contract, please take the following steps:
Please give the office a minimum of one week’s notice before withdrawing a student from school. We ask parents to verify that all library and textbooks have been returned prior to withdrawal. Please make sure that all outstanding lunch balances are paid in full. The child’s cumulative folder will be sent to the child’s new school when a written request is received from the new school.