Attendance and Behavior Expectations :::
ATTENDANCE
Lyons Township High School is committed to forming a partnership with parents to improve student attendance and to prepare students for work/career expectations. Lyons Township High School is committed to the philosophy that every student should attend all of his or her classes every day. Regular attendance and promptness in all classes are expected as essential for good performance. Each student should be aware that attendance is part of his or her evaluation in each class and should understand that excessive absences drastically affect the class grade and may result in loss of class credit.
Lyons Township High School must enforce the State of Illinois law regarding compulsory attendance. The law is specific that parents have the obligation to see that their children are in regular attendance. In order to comply with Illinois School Code, the school reserves the rights to determine if an absence is unexcused and a truancy. The attendance system for Lyons Township High School is as follows:
A. EXCUSED ABSENCES DUE TO ILLNESS
It is the parents' responsibility to call the Lyons Township High School Assistant Principals' Office. Calls not received on the day of the absence will not be accepted and the absence will be considered unexcused. Only calls from parents or legal guardians will be recognized. Only Emancipated students are allowed to call themselves in. Turning 18 does not grant that authority.
Students with excused absences have the responsibility to take the initiative to make up work they have missed. Regular attendance is essential for good performance and LTHS has a limit of 7 absences from a class per semester. When a student has 7 absences in any class, the school may require written documentation for any subsequent absences, such as a doctor’s note, doctor’s prescription, court receipt, or death notice immediately upon returning to school or the absences may be considered unexcused and the student may be dropped from the class.
ABSENCE REPORTING: SC - 579-6528 / NC - 354-4700
B. UNEXCUSED ABSENCES
If the Assistant Principals' Office has not received a phone call from the student's parent on the day of the absence, the student's absence will be considered unexcused. Students may be dropped from any class in which they have three unexcused absences per semester. Unexcused absences are subject to disciplinary action as follows:
1. First Unexcused Absence : The Assistant Principals' Office will contact the student's parent and the student will be assigned an hour of detention for each unexcused class period. No make up privileges are allowed for the class(es) in which the unexcused absence(s) occurred.
2. Second Unexcused Absence : The Assistant Principals' Office will contact the student's parent; and the student will be assigned a Saturday detention. No make up privileges are allowed for the class(es) in which the unexcused absence(s) occurred.
3. Third Unexcused Absence : The Assistant Principals' Office will contact the parent and the student may be dropped from the class with a withdrawn failing (WF) grade. This WF grade will appear on the student's permanent transcript. The student will be assigned a study hall in lieu of the dropped class (North Campus 10 th hour early release would not be an option).
Note: The school will not accept a parent phone call to excuse a student for oversleeping, missing the school bus, car trouble, shopping, missing one class to prepare for another class, giving rides to the airport, or transportation problems.
C. ABSENCES OTHER THAN ILLNESS
Since regular attendance is crucial to a student's learning, the school discourages any absence other than those due to illness. Nevertheless, we recognize that on some occasions it may be necessary for a student to miss school for other reasons such as illness or death in the student's immediate family, doctor’s appointments, religious observances, and court appearances.. In those situations when a parent is aware that a student must be absent from school, the absence will be considered excused if a parent notifies the Assistant Principals' Office prior to the absence. The student must take the initiative to make prior arrangements to do assignments and make up tests for the classes to be missed.
1. Partial Day Absence : When leaving the building during the school day, a parent must call to inform the attendance office of the time the student is to leave PRIOR to that time. The student then must check out in the assistant Principal’s Office before leaving the building or it will not be excused. When returning from appointments, the student then must check back in at the Assistant Principal’s Office. The school reserves the right to contact doctor’s offices to confirm appointments and/or documentation from court appearances. The student must take the initiative to make arrangements to do assignments and make up test for the classes to be missed.
2. Multiple Day Absence: : In the event a student must be absent from school for two or more days, , the parent must call the Assistant Principals' Office and the student must obtain a planned absence form. This form must be completed and signed by the student's parent. It is the student's responsibility to take the completed planned absence form to each of his/her teachers for their signatures and to return the completed form to the Assistant Principals' Office.
3. Illness during the School Day : If a student should become ill during the school day, he/she must obtain a pass from a classroom teacher to the Nurse's Office. Students should not contact parents directly but rather see the nurse for medical attention. The nurse will assess the student contact the parent if it is determined that the student need to go home. Students who violate this policy will be considered unexcused for all class periods missed.
Note: If more than 10 minutes of a class are missed, this will count as an absence and may impact students qualifying for the Final Exam Exemption.
TARDY PROCEDURES
Lyons Township High School is committed to forming a partnership with parents to
improve student attendance and to prepare students for work/career expectations. Individual
classroom teachers will be involved early in the intervention process so that they can be proactive
in encouraging their students to be in class ready to work promptly at the beginning of each
class.
In order to maximize instructional time, students are expected to arrive to all classes and study halls by the time the tardy bell rings. All tardies will be unexcused except those involving very serious problems. Oversleeping, family errands, baby-sitting, missing the bus, or car trouble are UNACCEPTABLE. Students who are more than 10 minutes late will be marked absent (unexcused) from that class.
POLICY RELATED TO CHRONIC TRUANTS
This policy applies to the occasional truant as well as the chronic or habitual
truant. Pursuant to Board Policy 5.03.3, the Assistant Principal or designee will assure that
available supportive services and other resources have been provided to a student who has missed
10% or more of the previous 180 days, before such student is dropped from a class with a withdrawn
failing (WF) grade.
POSITIVE INCENTIVES TO IMPROVE STUDENT ATTENDANCE
Students who have no more than three (3) absences in all of their classes are
eligible to be excused from the semester final examination in one (1) class of their choice
(NOTE: the access to 1 final exam exemption is not eligible to 7th or 8th grade students who
are taking one of LT’s math or foreign language courses). Or the student may choose to take
the final exam in this class to try to raise his/her grade, but will not be penalized if his/her
score on the final exam would lower his/her grade. Students will be required to earn a grade
of C- or better in a course in order to be exempted from the final exam in that course.
Students must have a parent or guardian sign and date a Final Exam Exemption form notifying parents or guardians that their student will not be in school at the time of the assigned exam. Absences due to field trips, school-sponsored activities, religious holidays, or deaths in the family will not count as absences for the purposes of the exemption, provided the school is informed in advance.
BEHAVIOR
STUDENTS MAY EXPECT TO BE GIVEN:
1. The right to be treated with dignity.
2. The opportunity to understand and adhere to reasonable rules and
regulations established by the Board of Education and implemented by school administrators and
faculty and to respect the right and individuality of others.
3. The responsibility not to affront public morality or to disrupt
the educational process.
B. VIOLATION OF REGULATIONS
Actions, which will subject a student to discipline, include but are not limited to
the following:
Arson, otherwise starting a fire or possessing any fire-starting/explosive materials
Behavior, which may be injurious to persons or property (skateboarding, throwing snowballs)
Behavior, which substantially and materially may disrupt the educational process or discipline in the school
Inappropriate Behavior on Bus
Bomb threats, false fire alarm, and false 911 calls
Bullying
Cheating; plagiarism
Confrontation – verbal or physical
Damaging school property; other acts of vandalism
Excessive tardies
Extortion or gambling
Failure to follow schedule
Failure to report to an LTHS employee a known act of misconduct which violates any policy or procedure of the School District that has been committed or threatened by another student
Failure to report to detention
Fighting
Forgery/using forged or stolen school documents
Fundraising or Solicitation
Gang/secret society member or representation
Gross disrespect
Harassment
Hazing
Inappropriate behavior
Inappropriate language/profanity
Inappropriate displays of affection
Inciting mob action
Insubordination (defiance of authority)
Intent to do bodily harm
Intimidation
Locker abuse
Off-campus without permission
Physical Assault
Possession of sound media-radios, beepers, cell phones, etc.
Possession of stolen property
Possession/use/distribution/sale of alcohol, drugs/controlled substances, drug paraphernalia, look-alike drugs, tobacco, marijuana
Possession/use/delivery/distribution/sale of weapons to include any firearm, knife, gun, rifle, air or spring gun, revolver, pistol, switch blade, pocket knife, brass knuckles, fireworks, ammunition, explosives, or any look-alike for any variety of weapons
Refusal to identify self/failure to carry school identification
Theft; Robbery
Verbal Abuse