Menlo Park City School District is committed to offering students the very finest education and our families and community the highest performing schools. Beginning 2015-16, due to changes in school ranking calculation, we are obligated to make changes to our attendance practices. School attendance will be used this year as one of the indicators of a school’s performance and ranking.
Consequently, the only excused absences are for student illness, student medical appointments, exclusion for failing to meet immunization requirements, student attendance at a funeral of one’s immediate family, religious observance, court appearance, and shadow days. All other absences will be marked “unexcused.” We realize that many parents take their children on educationally related trips and out of school for other enriching experiences, and therefore, in the past parents had the option of reporting a parent excused (P) for their child’s absence. This is no longer the case.
Menlo Park City School District is now pleased to offer an Independent Study Program uniquely tailored to your child's educational program. This will allow your child to be away from school equipped with appropriate educational curriculum and materials. Students in Independent Study will only have an "unexcused" absence should he/she not complete the assigned Independent Study Program assignments. Otherwise Independent Study will not have an impact on your child's attendance record. To arrange an Independent Study Program for your child, please contact the school office 5 days prior to your child's absence.
Our aim is to have our overall attendance at 98%. You can help us reach this goal by seeing that your child attends school everyday and working with your child’s teacher and school administration when your child must be absent. Thank you in advance for supporting our schools and continuing to make education your child’s number one priority.
