Attendance Policies
How to handle absences:
Absences are defined as "Lawful" or "Unlawful"
The district no longer recognizes "excused" or "unexcused" absences.
If a student has more than 10 absences in a course, the student may lose course credit or promotion.
It doesn't matter if the absences are lawful or unlawful: Ten is the limit.
Suspensions now count toward those ten absences.
Student absences due to suspension will be treated as an absence for course credit. Days absent awaiting an expulsion hearing or appeal hearing will not count toward the limit, nor will the absences count toward truancy.
Students will be allowed to make up work they missed for the first 10 absences.
Within 5 days or returning to school, students must make arrangements with the teacher to make up missed work.
Students with more than then absences have the right to appeal to the superintendent's designee.
All absences require official documentation explaining why the student was absent.
This documentation must be turned in within 5 days of the student’s return to school.
Students who enroll after the school year begins are considered absent.
They must provide documentation about why they were absent. This must be presented to the principal for approval.
THIS IS ONLY A SUMMARY OF THE POLICY. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE REVIEW THE COMPLETE POLICY IN THE STUDENT HANDBOOK. THE POLICY CAN ALSO BE FOUND UNDER THE PUBLICATIONS AREA OF THE DARLINGTON COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT'S WEBSITE (http://www.darlington.k12.sc.us)