Attendance & Policies

Academic Honesty Policy

Attendance Policies & Procedures

Attendance Matters!

Students who attend school regularly are more likely to meet their academic goals, graduate, and go on to college. We want you here!

Students are expected to:

Attend class every day, every period, whenever possible.
Attend each class period on time.
Make up missed assignments promptly.

Parents/guardians are expected to:

Ensure your student attends school every day
Report all absences to the school within 2 school days (48 hours)
Provide a doctor’s note for absences related to medical appointments whenever possible, and for illnesses lasting longer than 3 school days
Reach out to an assistant principal or counselor if you need support getting your student to school

Reporting an Absence

The best way to report an absence is online via Reach My Teach.

If parent(s)/guardian(s) are unable to report their student’s absence online, they may call the attendance office at 408-366-7372 (full day absence) or 408-366-7320 (partial day absence).

Absences must be reported by a parent/guardian, within 2 school days (48 hours). (Note that 18-year-old students may not excuse their own absences unless they have an Adult Status form approved by an Assistant Principal.)

Full Day Absence

Report full day absences 24 hours in advance or as soon as possible via Reach My Teach.

If the parent/guardian is unable to report their student’s absence online, they may call the attendance office full day absence line at 408-366-7372. When reporting an absence by phone, be sure to provide the following information:

Spell the student’s first and last name
Student ID number
Grade
Date(s) of absence
Reason for the absence (if no reason is provided or the type of appointment is not specified, the absence will be marked unexcused)
Your name, phone number, and relationship to the student

Partial Day Absence

Arriving on campus after school has started or leaving school prior to the end of the schoolday requires parent/guardian permission. If your student needs to arrive late to campus or leave school early, report the partial day absence 24 hours in advance or as soon as possible. See below for details.

Arriving Late (after school has started)

CHS is a closed campus, except during lunch. Students arriving on campus after school has started must check in at the attendance office to get a pass to class. It is recommended that students provide a doctor’s note for all medical appointments.

Parents/guardians should report late arrival at school online via Reach My Teach 24 hours in advance or as soon as possible.

If the parent/guardian is unable to report their student’s absence online, they may call the attendance office partial day absence line at 408-366-7320. When reporting an absence by phone, be sure to provide the following information:

Student ID number
Spell the student’s first and last name
Grade
Date of partial absence
Time student will arrive at school
Reason for the late arrival
Parent/guardian’s name, phone number, and relationship to the student

Leaving Early (before the end of the schoolday)

Students leaving school during class, brunch, or tutorial for any reason must have an Off Campus Pass from the attendance office. Students may leave campus without an Off Campus Pass during lunch only.

Parents/guardians should report leaving early from school online via Reach My Teach 24 hours in advance or as soon as possible.

Student ID number
Spell the student’s first and last name
Grade
Date of partial absence
Exact time student is to be excused from class
Reason for the early dismissal
Parent/guardian’s name, phone number, and relationship to the student

Tardiness

Students are expected to be on time to class. If a student is more than 30 minutes late to class, or if they are returning to school from an appointment, they must report to the attendance office to get a pass to class.

Students with excessive tardies (10+ per month) may receive interventions including, but not limited to, detention, Saturday School, and/or meeting with an Assistant Principal.

Illness or Injury at School

If a student becomes ill or is injured at school and needs to go home, they must check out in the office. If we cannot reach a parent/guardian or one of the student’s emergency contacts, the student will have to wait in the school office until we make contact.

Same-Day Pickups

In order to minimize disruptions to instructional time, we discourage calling students out of class. Parents/guardians should report the absence 24 hours in advance or as soon as possible. It is the student’s responsibility to pick up an Off Campus Pass before class or during brunch or lunch. If a parent/guardian forgets to report the absence or something comes up during the day and a student needs to be picked up without prior notification, parent/guardian should come into the office to request their student be released. Please understand that it can take 15-20 minutes or longer to call a student out of class.

Excused vs. Unexcused Absences

While there are many reasons why a parent/guardian may choose to have their student miss school, California law (CA Ed Code Section 48205) provides guidance to schools as to which absences we may excuse.

Common excused absences include:

Illness
- After 3 consecutive days of illness, a doctor’s note is recommended to excuse continued absences
Medical appointment (including dental, chiropractic, mental health appointments)
- It is recommended that students provide a doctor’s note whenever missing school for a medical appointment
Attendance at the funeral services of an immediate family member
School activity (such as a sports game)
Court or probation appointments
Religious/cultural activities

Common unexcused absences include:

Caring for a younger sibling or other family member
College visit
DMV appointment
Non-CHS extracurricular activity
Senior “Ditch Day”
Vacation, travel for other reasons (including visa renewal)

If a student misses class and there is no contact with the attendance office, then the absence will be marked “UKA” (unknown absence). This is an unexcused absence.

Absence Notifications and Attendance Reports

If a student is absent from school for one or more periods in a school day without any contact from a parent/guardian, our system will notify the parent(s)/guardian(s) by email and text. These notifications will include a link to report the absence immediately online via Reach My Teach so that it can be cleared. Please be sure to keep parent/guardian phone numbers and email addresses updated with the school office so we can reach you with these important attendance notifications.

Parents/guardians may also view their students’ full attendance report via the Infinite Campus Portal.

Attendance, truancy, and chronic absenteeism are NOT reported on transcripts or to colleges, jobs, etc.

Attendance Errors/Discrepancies

If a student is marked absent by mistake, it is the student’s responsibility to contact the teacher to correct the error. The student should email the teacher and CC the attendance office at christina_orozco@fuhsd.org. That way the teacher can ‘reply all’ to correct the attendance. Only the teacher can verify a student’s attendance and allow the attendance office to mark the student present.

Extended Absences

CHS strongly encourages families to make their plans for extended travel during school breaks. Extended absences during class days negatively impact the student, the teacher, and the class environment as a whole. Vacation/travel for any reason (including visa renewal) is considered an unexcused absence. Teachers are not obligated to provide makeup work for unexcused absences.

FUHSD does not offer an independent study program for extended absences.

An absence of 30 days or more will result in the student being disenrolled from school. Families may of course re-enroll when they return to the area. This can, however, have a significant impact on student academic success.

Making Up Work

It is the student’s responsibility to contact each teacher whose class they missed, and/or review Schoology, to get the work they need to make up for a missed class or arrange a time to make up a missed test or quiz.

Teachers are not required to provide make-up work for unexcused absences.

School Activities and Privileges

Participation in sports, school activities, extracurriculars, and other school privileges may be tied to attendance. FUHSD Board Policy states that students must be in attendance at school on the day of the activity in order to participate.

Chronic Absenteeism

Students who miss 10% or more of the schooldays in a given school year are considered chronically absent and will receive interventions to help return them to attending school regularly. These include:

A letter notifying the parent(s)/guardian(s) of the student’s status as chronically absent
A second letter notifying the student and family of their chronic absences
An attendance check-in with the student by a caring adult at school (Administrator, counselor, teacher, etc.)
Referral to the District Attendance Meeting
Referral to the School Attendance Review Team
Referral to the District School Attendance Review Board

If you have questions or concerns about the Chronic Absenteeism Intervention program, feel free to contact your CHS attendance team (below), Alison Coy, Director of Educational Options, at alison_coy@fuhsd.org or Amanda Evans, Educational Options Support Specialist, at amanda_evans@fuhsd.org.

Need More Information?

Attendance Office: Tina Orozco, 408-366-7372 or christina_orozco@fuhsd.org

Attendance Administrator: Assistant Principal Steven Puccinelli, 408-366-7374 or steven_puccinelli@fuhsd.org

Bullying Policy

Annual Notifications

Student Technology Use Policy

Statement of Educational Purpose

The District's network system has been established for a limited educational purpose. The term educational purpose is used in the context of instruction-related activities, including but not limited to classroom-based projects and student works, college and career explorations, and high-quality, academically-enriching research. Recognizing the value of the Internet, the District supports teachers and students being engaged in an online environment that allows them to discuss, collaborate, communicate, create, and share in a safe, ethical, and responsible manner.

With that educational purpose in mind, we want to emphasize that the District's network system has not been established as a public access service or a public forum. The District has the right to place reasonable restrictions on the material you access or post through the system. You may not use the District's network system for commercial purposes. This means you may not offer, provide, or purchase products or services through the District's network system.

You are expected to follow the rules set forth in this policy, the student disciplinary code, and the law in your use of the District's network system. Teachers and/or other staff members will provide instruction and guidance to students regarding the appropriate use of and access to the District's network system.

Access to Online Materials

The material you access through the District’s network system should be for class assignments or for research on subjects similar to what you might study in a class or in the school library. You are not to post non-academic messages to others within the network system.

Use of the District’s network system for entertainment purposes (e.g., accessing social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube) is not allowed.

If you mistakenly access inappropriate information, you should immediately report this access to a teacher or an administrator. This will protect you against a claim that you have intentionally violated this policy.

The District has taken reasonable steps to restrict access to materials it considers harmful and to materials that do not support or conform to accepted educational objectives. These steps include the District installing filtering software to protect against access to inappropriate material in accordance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000.

You will not use the District’s network system to access the following: material that is obscene; child pornography; material that depicts, or describes in an offensive way, violence, nudity, sex, death, or bodily functions; material that has been designated as for adults only; material that promotes or advocates illegal activities; material that promotes the use of alcohol or tobacco, school cheating, or weapons; or material that advocates participation in hate groups or other potentially dangerous groups.

If you feel that the filtering software is blocking your access to an appropriate site, report this to your school librarian, computer lab coordinator, teacher, or an administrator.

You will not seek to bypass the filtering software by using a proxy site or some other technology, such as USB flash drives or discs.

The use of the District’s network system is a revocable privilege for all users.

Communication Safety Expectations

“Personal contact information” includes your full name, together with other information that would allow an individual to locate you, including your family name, your home address or location, your work address or location, or your phone number.

You may disclose personal contact information to educational institutions, companies or other entities for college/career exploration purposes, or with specific staff approval.

You will not disclose names, personal contact information, or any other private or personal information about other students. You will not forward a message that was sent to you privately without permission of the person who sent you the message.

You will promptly disclose to your teacher or other school staff any message you receive that is inappropriate or makes you feel uncomfortable. You should not delete such messages until instructed to do so by a staff member.

Unlawful, Unethical, Unauthorized and Inappropriate Uses and Activities

Unlawful Activities

You will not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the District’s network system, or to any other computer system, or go beyond your authorized access. This includes attempting to log in through another person’s account or to access another person’s files.
You will not make deliberate attempts to disrupt the District’s network system or any other computer system or destroy data by spreading computer viruses or by any other means.
You will not vandalize the District’s computer equipment by disassembling or disconnecting any computer components or peripherals.
You will not engage in any conduct that modifies, harms, or destroys any computer or network hardware, such as mice, keyboards, and components that reboot computers.
You will not use the District’s Internet system to engage in any other unlawful hacking activities such as arranging for a drug sale or the purchase of alcohol, engaging in criminal gang activity, or threatening the safety of any person (including public officials).

Inappropriate Language and Unauthorized/Unethical Activities

Restrictions against inappropriate language apply to all speech communicated through the District’s network system, including public messages, private messages, and material posted on Web pages.
You will not use obscene, profane, lewd, sexually oriented, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, threatening, or disrespectful language.
You will not use, access, transmit, or download information that is hate-motivated, fraudulent, abusive, or racially offensive.
You will not knowingly or recklessly post false or defamatory information that could cause damage or a disruption to your school or any other organization or person.
You will not use a camera phone to record or take pictures of students or staff anywhere on campus and post on the Internet (e.g., YouTube) without the school’s permission.
You will not engage in personal attacks, including prejudicial or discriminatory attacks, or harass or bully another person.
You will not use, access, transmit, or download information that relates to or encourages the illegal use of controlled substances or other criminal conduct.
You will promptly disclose to your teacher or another school employee any message you receive from any other student that is in violation of the restrictions on inappropriate language and unauthorized activities.

Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

You will not plagiarize works that you find on the Internet. Plagiarism is taking the ideas, graphics, or writings of others and presenting them as if they were yours without adequate and accurate citation.
You will respect the rights of copyright owners in your use of materials found on, disseminated through, or posted to the Internet. Copyright infringement occurs when you reproduce a work that is protected by a copyright without explicit permission from the copyright holder or outside the limitations of copyright law.
You will not use peer-to-peer filesharing programs, such as “BitTorrent” or “Limewire,” to download or share copyrighted movies, music, or games.

System Security and Resource Limits

System Security

You are responsible for your individual account and should take all reasonable precautions to prevent others from being able to use your account. Under no conditions should you provide your password to another person. Protect your files and account by logging out of your account and regularly backing up your personal files.
You will immediately notify a teacher or an administrator if you have identified a possible security problem. However, do not go looking for security problems, because this may be construed as an unlawful attempt to gain access.
You will avoid the inadvertent spread of computer viruses by following the District virus protection procedures.
You will not engage in any conduct or activities that could disrupt the use of the system for others, including installing programs or files, deleting programs or files, modifying settings, changing passwords, or reconfiguring the system.

Resource Limits

You will use the system only for educational and college/career exploration activities and limited, high-quality research.
You will not download large files unless absolutely necessary. If necessary, you will download the file at a time when the system is not being heavily used and immediately remove the file from the system computer.
You will not misuse District, school, or personal distribution lists or discussion groups for sending irrelevant messages.

Rights and Privacy Limits

Free Speech

Your right to free speech and access to information applies to your use of the Internet. The District may restrict access to materials for valid educational reasons. The District may also restrict your speech for valid educational reasons.

Copyright

You own the copyright to works that you create in school or for a class assignment. If the work is created by a group, each student will share joint ownership of the copyright. You and your parent or guardian must agree before your work will be posted on the District Web site. Your work should be posted with your copyright notice.

Privacy Limits

The District computer system, equipment, and the associated user accounts are the District’s property. Student do not have any right of privacy as to their usage or any information or files maintained in or on the District’s network system or equipment and should understand that there is no expectation that any communication or materials they send, access, view, or receive will be private. All student use of the Internet will be supervised and monitored. The District’s monitoring of Internet usage can reveal all activities you engage in using the District’s network system. For purposes of inspecting or investigating a student’s use of the District’s network system or the student’s files or documents maintained on the network system, the District may override any applicable passwords, codes, etc. Student accounts are erased (expunged) annually.
Routine maintenance and monitoring of the District’s network system may lead to discovery that you have violated this policy, the student disciplinary code, or the law.
Your parents have the right to request to see the contents of your computer files at any time.

Consequences for Violations

Inappropriate, unauthorized, unethical, and unlawful use of the District’s network system can result in termination of the student’s user privileges, liability for damages, disciplinary action (suspension/expulsion), and/or legal action in accordance with the law and District policy. Depending on the circumstances, criminal charges against a violator may be filed by the District Attorney. If you are 18 years old, these charges become part of your permanent record.

Consequences are applied to student misconduct on-campus, in school vehicles, and at school-sponsored activities.

Consequences are applied to student misconduct off-campus when it is determined that such misconduct creates a hostile environment or threatens substantial disruption at school or interference with the rights of students to be secure.

Consequences are applied to student misconduct that involves the use of the following technologies: cell/camera phones, Bluetooth devices, iPods, computers/Notebooks, pagers, or other tools. These personal technologies that are used inappropriately in and out of classrooms without permission will be confiscated and held until picked up by a parent or guardian.

The District will comply with applicable law and will cooperate with local, state, or federal officials (FBI, DEA, ATF) in an investigation related to any unlawful activities conducted through the District’s network system.

Limitation of District Liability

The District will not guarantee that the functions or services provided through the District’s network service will be without error. The District will not be responsible for any damage you may suffer, including but not limited to loss of data, interruptions of service, or exposure to inappropriate material or people. The District will not be responsible for the accuracy or quality of the information obtained through the system. The District will not be responsible for financial obligations arising through the unauthorized use of the system. Your parents can be held financially responsible for any harm that may result from your intentional misuse of the system. You may use the system only if your parents have signed a disclaimer of claims for damages against the District (see “Acceptable Use of Technology Agreement”).