Attendance

Excused Absences

A parent/guardian MUST excuse any absence within 3 days of the student's return to school or it will be considered unexcused. Students with excessive unexcused absences will be held in violation of the Rules of Student Conduct and will be subject to disciplinary action.

Students with unexcused absences are not entitled to receive credit for makeup work, which directly impacts their grade in a class.  

Excused Absences according to ORS.339.065 are:
• Student illness
• Illness of an immediate family member
• Legal/Court Obligations
• Religious Observation
• Family emergency or bereavement
• School-sponsored Activity
• Medical Appointments
• Suspension

Parents who are excusing their student's absence are to contact the attendance office shhsattendance@sthelens.k12.or.us or leave a message on our 24-hour phone line 503-366-7500.
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Unexcused Absences

Any absence that has not been excused by the Attendance Office per ORS.339.065 will be considered an unexcused absence. Students with unexcused absences will be required to obtain an admission slip before re-entering classes. Some examples may include car trouble, completing homework at home and then coming to school late, hair appointments, job interviews, missing the bus, oversleeping, skipping, and being more than 10 minutes late. Students will not be excused going to work. This is in accordance with state law requiring attendance at school. For those students who work after school, we consider attendance at school a priority. Students who have jobs after school are expected to be in attendance at school during the days that they work. Teachers may elect to give no academic credit for assignments, tests, quizzes, projects, etc. missed during unexcused absences. Excessive unexcused absences will result in meetings with school officials, truancy enforcement, loss of privileges, or other school discipline.

Parent Notification of Unexcused Absences
The school will attempt to contact parents about their student’s unexcused absences through a call-home system as well as personal calls. Successful contact is dependent on up-to-date contact information and school personnel resources.

EXCESSIVE UNEXCUSED ABSENCES
According to ORS 339.020, every person having control of any child between the ages of 7 and 18 years who have not completed the 12th grade is required to send such child to and maintain such child in regular attendance at a public full-time school during the entire school term. [Amended by 1965 c.100 §275; 1969 c.160 §1]. According to the State of Oregon, regular attendance is defined as attending at least 92% of the days school is in session. For the St Helens School District, this translates to students missing no more than 15 days per school year. Failure to maintain regular attendance may lead to detention(s), exemption from extracurricular activities, entry into an alternative setting or attendance contract and/or a possible fine from truancy enforcement officials. Additionally, the Superintendent or School Board may ask the DMV to suspend your driving privileges (Oregon Drivers Manual, 2007)

Letters for compulsory absences will be mailed home appropriately. If the student misses ten (10) consecutive days without notification from parents, that student will be dropped from school. Also, if absences continue to be excessive and disruptive to the student’s education, the school will take the initiative to file a truancy report with the Columbia County Juvenile courts. Parents/guardians of those students with excessive unexcused absences will be notified by phone/mail of their student's excessive absences and required to attend a truancy meeting with school administration and a counselor.