Legacy School of the Arts - 19K907

Welcome to the 2024-25 School Year! 
We are excited to share our school’s Attendance policy and plan. This policy and plan will hopefully provide you with the information and guidance you need to help you help your child attend and stay in school.

OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY’S ATTENDANCE GOAL

Attendance matters. Missing a day of school means missing hours of instructional time. Research shows that students who attend regularly achieve greater success in school and in life. Our school’s collective goal for attendance remains the same. Whether in-person or remote, we want every child attending school every day or at least 95% of the school year.

ATTENDANCE TAKING

Our School will take Attendance:
‍Each morning during the first period of instruction from 8:00 a.m. – 8:55 a.m. 

ATTENDANCE DEFINITIONS

^{1 Synchronous instruction is defined as live interaction between the teacher and student(s) each day at a scheduled time, communicated in advance to parents and students. For more information, please contact the school.}

^{2 Asynchronous learning refers to instruction and learning opportunities that are not centered on students and teachers interacting at the same time. Asynchronous learning activities enable students to work at their own pace so they can learn the same material at different times independently.}

COMMUNICATION WITH FAMILIES

Our school uses the following methods to communicate with families about attendance:
It is very important for the school to have families’ up-to-date contact information. To make sure we can reach you, please alert us of any changes to your address or phone number by:

1. Calling the school at (929) 397-2967
2. Emailing the parent coordinator - Ms. D. Brown at dbrown138@schools.nyc.gov

Absences

If you know your child is going to miss school on a certain day or will be missing school for an extended period, please notify the school in advance by:

1. Calling the school at (929) 397-2967
2. Emailing the parent coordinator - Ms. D. Brown at dbrown138@schools.nyc.gov
3. Sending a letter to the office staff

If your child is absent, we will follow up by making a positive phone call, text, or email home. This follow-up helps us to ensure that your child is safe, healthy and that your family has what it needs to help your child overcome the barriers to attending school.

While every single absence is equal to missed instructional time, we nonetheless mark absences as excused and unexcused. Please provide us with information on the reason for your child’s absence. Here is what you need to know regarding excused and unexcused absences:

1. Excused Absence:
   An excused absence may be excused for reasons including illness, injury, problems accessing technology or getting online during a snow emergency day, family emergency, religious observation, pre-arranged appointments. In the event your child needs to be absent, please contact the school office or parent coordinator.
2. Unexcused Absence: 
   An unexcused absence is when too little to no information is provided when a student is marked absent for the day.

LATENESS

Even if a student is late, they are still marked as present as long as they attend for at least one instructional period. If you know your child is going to be late on a certain day please:

1. Calling the school at (929) 397-2967
2. Emailing the parent coordinator - Ms. D. Brown at dbrown138@schools.nyc.gov
3. Sending a letter to the office staff

Just as with absences, we flag lateness as excused and unexcused. Here is what you need to know regarding excused and unexcused lateness: 

1. Excused Lateness:
   Lateness may be considered excused for the same reasons provided for absence e.g. Illness/injury, problems with accessing technology or getting online, religious observation, family emergency, pre-arranged appointments, or school or bus delays or documented MTA delays. In the event your child needs to be late, please contact the school office or parent coordinator.
2. Unexcused Absence: 
   Unexcused lateness is when a student is not in their homeroom, if in-person, or online for their morning meeting by 8:00 a.m. and has not provided reasons for lateness, such as a doctor’s appointment or family emergency.

Leaving Early

This section explains our school’s policy for a student’s early departure from the school day in both remote and in-person settings. Even if a student leaves school before the end of the school day, they are still marked as present as long as they attend for at least one instructional period. If your child is going to leave early on a certain day, please notify the school by:

• Calling the school at (929) 397-2967
• Emailing the parent coordinator - Ms. D. Brown at dbrown138@schools.nyc.gov
• Sending a letter to the office staff
• Early Departure:
  Leaving school early must be arranged in advance. A student can be dismissed from school early to the family or a person who has been identified on the Blue Card. Anyone picking up a student must come to the office and provide a photo ID. We prefer that students are picked up before 12:30 if the checkout is before lunch or after 1:30, when the lunch period is over.  However, we will facilitate early pickup during lunch if it is absolutely necessary.  

Just as with absences, we flag lateness as excused and unexcused. Here is what you need to know regarding excused and unexcused lateness: 

1. Excused Lateness:
   Lateness may be considered excused for the same reasons provided for absence e.g. Illness/injury, problems with accessing technology or getting online, religious observation, family emergency, pre-arranged appointments, or school or bus delays or documented MTA delays. In the event your child needs to be late, please contact the school office or parent coordinator.
2. Unexcused Absence: 
   Unexcused lateness is when a student is not in their homeroom, if in-person, or online for their morning meeting by 8:00 a.m. and has not provided reasons for lateness, such as a doctor’s appointment or family emergency.

ATTENDANCE AND MAKE-UP WORK

If a child is absent or late, grades, coursework, or exams could be affected. Here is what you need to know regarding our grading policies and how we support our students with make-up work:

Lateness to class may result in a lower class average due to the loss of instructional time in activities such as classroom participation, examinations (Quizzes/full period exams), dialogs, speeches, group work, lab work, etc. Students are not required to make up the exact hours of missed instructional time. If students master course content and satisfactorily meet expectations outlined in the syllabus, they will receive credit for the course.

How Can We Help?

This section shares information regarding our schools’ multi-tiered support plan. It is our hope that through these supports your children have what they need to attend school regularly.

COMMUNICATION

Every day a student is absent we will make a positive phone call home to check
in and make sure the student and family are healthy. During parent-teacher conferences, we will share information regarding your child’s attendance and discuss how we as a school community can be most helpful in creating the conditions for your child to attend regularly and thrive in school.  We use teacher and success mentor phone calls, Jupiter messages, letters, and emails to contact families about attendance related concerns and issues.

PERSONALIZED SUPPORTS

Students may also receive the following personalized supports:

• Students will be assigned an Attendance Team member that will provide outreach and support to families. Team members will work closely with students and families to address sources of absences and provide support and referrals to community resources when needed.
• Assigned team members will continuously track student’s attendance and determine appropriate Tier Interventions.
• Assigned team member will email Attendance Letter #1 to parent and “backpack” letter home with students.

Chronically Absent Students - students missing an average of 2 or more days per month will receive the following:

• Students who have by the end of September missed more than two days of school will be connected to a Success Mentor., A Success Mentor is a caring adult who serves as a mentor and as an advocate for their mentees. Success Mentors will provide a more therapeutic and incentive-based approach to monitoring attendance.
• Students will also be assigned to Guidance Team/Parent Coordinator who will send Attendance Letter #2 to the home which requests a school conference or home visit.

CELEBRATIONS

We are dedicated to making sure every child has the support needed to attend school every day and succeed academically. We recognize and celebrate students’ attendance improvement, no matter how small. When a student improves their attendance, we recognize and celebrate their success with daily celebrations, weekly shoutouts, monthly award assemblies, and in our end-of-year award ceremony. 

PARTNERING WITH COMMUNITIES

• YMCA - After school program
• Goya Cares - Youth mentoring and assemblies
• Harlem Magic Masters - Pep Rally and Respect for All
• PFLAG

CONTACT INFORMATION

We hope this information is helpful to you! If you have questions about our attendance plan, please contact us at:
Attendance Coordinator: Linden Hislop
Phone Number: (929) 397-2967
Email: Lhislop@schools.nyc.gov.