ATTENDANCE LINE: 970 833-7205
If your student will be away from school, please call our 24 hour
Attendance line: 970 833-7205 to report their absence. Please leave your student's name, date of absence, and reason for absence.
Planned Absences: Students taking 3 or more planned days away from school must fill out a planned absence form (available in our office or click here to print
form) prior to the absence. This form will allow the student to get their assignments from teachers enabling them to keep up with the progress made in class.
Attendance Matters!
Research indicates as much as 15% of the nation’s students are chronically absent.
Chronic Absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year regardless of the reason. Chronic absenteeism begins to rise in middle school and continues climbing through 12th grade. Chronic absence in middle school is one of the best indicators we have that a student will drop out later. Research indicates that students in grades 8-12 that are chronically absent in any year are 7.5 times more likely to drop out of high school (http://bit.ly/1vKDUTy).
Severance Middle Schools and the Weld RE-4 School District have attendance policies in place to ensure that students are sitting in the seat and we are meeting the compulsory attendance laws. These laws help to ensure regular school attendance for children under the age of seventeen years (C.R.S. 22-33-101 et seq). Our attendance policy intervenes with students and parents when a student has missed 10 days of school in the form of a letter. After 20 absences, the district truancy officer is notified and takes over the case.
We need your help to reduce chronic absenteeism at Severance Middle School. Our goal is to have no more than 10% of our students identify as Chronically Absent.
- Avoid scheduling family vacations during school days (including hunting trips)
- Avoid scheduling appointments during school time
- Honor school hours 7:50 am to 3:00pm
- Stay home from school ONLY when the student is truly too ill to come to school
- Do not allow students to miss for non-appropriate reasons
- Reinforce the message that attendance matters, not only in school, but also in life
Even missing a day or two a month adds up to a lifetime of missed academic content, missed skill development in reading, writing, and mathematics. Chronically absent students tend to score lower on standardized tests. To put that in perspective, three days a month over nine months means that a student is missing five weeks of school a year! Your help in reducing absences during the school year will positively impact your child’s student achievement. Please see Mrs. Grable if you have any questions about your student’s attendance at SMS. Also, feel free to contact the District Truancy Officer, Kevin Copher, at WHS with further questions. Thanks for your help!