Regular attendance and punctuality are considered essential for successful learning at Mother Seton School. All absences and tardiness become a part of a student’s permanent record.
An annual calendar of school days and holidays is distributed prior to the opening of school each year. In order to maintain a high quality of education, the Archdiocesan Division of Catholic Schools requires staff planning and in-service. The dates are indicated on the school calendar.
Parents are requested to schedule family vacations on school holidays and make appointments outside regular school hours.
Irregular attendance and/or extended absence impede a child’s social growth and academic progress. Mother Seton School depends upon parents/guardians to foster habits of regular school attendance in their children.
In accordance with Maryland State Law, parents/guardians are held responsible for their child’s attendance and punctuality. If a child is absent more than 20 days, the administrator has the right to consider retention. Six (6) hours of school missed due to late arrival and/or early dismissal are counted as a day absent.
When a student is absent from school, a parent/legal guardian calls the school office before 9:00 a.m. to report the reason for absence.
Upon returning to school, the student brings a note of excuse to his or her homeroom teacher signed by a parent/legal guardian stating the dates and reason for absence and validated by a doctor, if applicable. Ordinarily a child is not permitted to return to school until well enough to participate in school activities, including recess and physical education classes. Exceptions are granted if a note to this effect is provided by the health care provider.
Teachers will assist students to keep up with their lessons in cases of legally excused extended absence due to hospitalization, serious illness, extreme family emergency, etc.
Parents are encouraged to reinforce the importance of school attendance by authorizing their child to be absent only for reasons of health, death in the family, or other serious family emergencies.
Family vacations and travel are not valid excuses for absence and parents and Mother Seton School cannot approve these as legally excused absences. Parents are accountable for illegal absence or tardiness of children.
Ordinarily requests for assignments to be given a family in advance of a planned unexcused extended absence cannot be honored by faculty.
The bell rings at 8:25 a.m. for students to enter their classrooms and prepare for opening exercises which begin at 8:40 a.m. Students who are not in school by 8:25 a.m. are considered late.
The school discourages early departures and requests that families arrange medical and dental appointments, either after school hours, on Saturdays or during vacation periods. In an emergency situation, if a student must leave school before 2:45 p.m., the student submits a note to the office, signed by the parent/legal guardian, on the day of early dismissal. The note includes the reason for the request and the time the student must leave school. The parent/legal guardian signs the student out in the office log book before the student will be released from the office.
It is the student’s responsibility upon returning from an absence to find out what class and home assignments have been missed and to make up work in the time allotted by the teacher.
This applies to all classes including those held only once or twice weekly: art, music, library, computer, PE, and Spanish. Failure to complete missed work within the time specified by the teacher will be reflected on trimester and final year averages.
For younger students, it is sometimes difficult for parents to replicate at home the instruction involved in class worksheets, etc. Teachers will work with parents as is feasible to help the child catch up with the class |
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