Attendance & Punctuality

 CVMS Attendance Policies

School Office Hours Office personnel will generally be available to help you in person or over the phone between the hours of 6:30 AM and 4:00 PM.  However, school meetings may cause these hours to vary occasionally. 

Late to school (Tardy)

Students who arrive at school after 7:40 AM are required to check in at the attendance office in the morning that same day.  If you know your child is going to be late to school, please phone, send a note, or come in to the office with your child.  Please make note of the district’s attendance regulations on acceptable and unacceptable excuses for tardies.  Habitual tardies, even with a call or note from you after a warning, could result in lunch detention and/or further discipline. It's critical that students make every effort to be at school on time as entering a class after it has started can disrupt the learning process for the entire class.  

Tardy Policy  

In order to prevent classroom interruptions, you are required to be inside the classroom before the tardy bell rings. Teachers may exceed this standard but this is the minimum expectation school-wide.  If you come in late to school, you are to have an admittance pass that has been given to you by the attendance secretary.  Your teachers are asked not to admit you without an office admittance pass.  All tardies are unexcused unless the reason is acceptable to the teacher.  The following applies to unexcused tardies: 

• 1st Tardy:  Warning
• 2nd Tardy:  Teacher administered consequence
• 3rd Tardy:  Recommended teacher phone contact with parent
• 4th Tardy:  Upon the 4th tardy, the office will assign lunch detention. An additional day of detention will be assigned for each subsequent tardy.  After the 2nd lunch detention In School Suspension (ISS) will be assigned. 

Attendance

Attendance is related directly to academic success. Students who regularly attend school have better grades than students with numerous absences. We hold high expectations for students’ attendance at Pau-Wa-Lu and carefully monitor student absences.  Your regular attendance, as well as your achievement, is an important factor in determining the successful completion of a school year.  The State Legislature has passed strict laws regulating school attendance.  Tardies are also considered a serious offense.  Parents can be held responsible for students who are classified as habitual truants.  Parents can also be required to attend an attendance hearing and be fined for not taking the responsibility for getting their child or children to school regularly and on time.  To emphasize the importance of regular attendance, the following administrative guidelines will be in effect: 

1.   All absences, whether truancy, illness, or by parent request, will be recorded by the teacher and attendance officer. 
2.   Absences for school-sponsored, approved, or related activities will not count against your attendance record. 
3.   All work missed for absences because of school-sponsored, approved, or related activities must be made up. 
4.   Parents will be notified in writing two times, once when you have accumulated five (5) absences, the second when you have accumulated ten (10) absences. The 10-day letter informs parents that they will be receiving an attendance appeal, which needs to be returned signed by parent/guardian. 
5.   Parents may be asked to have their doctor verify in writing the cause for excessive absences, as students are not expected to come to school when they are ill. 

Student Release from School

Parents are required to sign you out for an early dismissal. The adult will be asked for a picture I.D. This policy is enforced to ensure your safety.  Students are not allowed to leave school with another party unless your parent has made prior arrangements with the office.  If a person shows up at the office without the parent’s note of approval and that person is not listed on the emergency form or in Infinite Campus as a responsible party, the school will not allow you to leave with that person.   

Please note when picking up a student from school:

• We WILL ASK YOU FOR ID.
• YOU MUST be listed as a contact in Infinite Campus to pick up a student. 
• We WILL NOT RELEASE a student to someone who is not listed as a contact in Infinite Campus.
• You can change your contacts in Infinite Campus by either contacting the office or through your Infinite Campus parent portal.

Truancy Policy 

Truancies are unexcused absences for all or part of a school day.  Because students are required by law to attend all classes to which they have been assigned, unexcused or unauthorized absences from school, individual classes, before or after school assignments such as detention or classroom make-up, are considered truancies.  It is illegal to be truant in Nevada (NRS 392.210.)  In addition, students who have 3 or more truancies are considered habitual truants (NRS 392.140[1]).  The following Truancy  Review Board process of notification, consultation and consequences is designed to curtail truancy. 

• 1st Truancy - Parents will be notified in writing of the truancy and provided a copy of this Policy by mail.
• 2nd Truancy - Student will have a conference with the site administrator, counselor, or attendance secretary.  Disciplinary action is possible. Parents will be notified in writing of the truancy and provided a copy of this Policy by mail.
• 3rd Truancy - Student will be considered “Habitual truant” per NRS 392.140. Parents will be notified by certified mail of the truancy and provided a copy of this Policy. This notification will indicate that the next truancy will require that the parent or guardian and student have a School Attendance Review Board Hearing.
• 4th Truancy - Upon the 4th truancy, parent or guardian will be notified through the Douglas County School District’s Dropout Prevention Specialist by certified mail of the time and place of their School Attendance Review Board Hearing.  The School Attendance Review Board Hearing will be conducted by the Dropout Prevention Specialist of the Douglas County School District. 

Requesting Homework 

Requests for homework will only be allowed for students who have or are going to miss more than two days. Requests for homework should be made in the morning.  Homework will be available to be picked up at the main office by 3:00 PM on the day following when the request was made.  Work may be made up for truancies, and the student can receive 75% credit per our makeup work policy. It is the responsibility of the student to ask teachers for missed work and to ensure that it is completed and turned in to the teachers.