Attendance Policy and Expectations

Students who attend school regularly have been shown to achieve at higher levels than students who do not have regular attendance. Attending school regularly is essential for students to gain the academic, social and emotional skills they need to thrive. Chronic absence, no matter its cause, has real-life consequences for students, families and society as a whole. Reducing absenteeism is an essential, but often overlooked strategy for responding strategically to the academic and social-emotional loss experienced by millions of students. Chronic absenteeism can be significantly reduced when schools, families and community partners work together to monitor data, nurture a culture of engagement, promote regular attendance and routines, and address hurdles that keep children from getting to school every day, such as lack of access to food, clothing and health care; unhealthy environmental conditions; unreliable transportation; housing instability; or the lack of safe paths to school.

Daily attendance and engagement in learning is essential to student success at all grade levels.  Colorado law directly connected to attendance focuses on compulsory school attendance, truancy and school finance. Important student attendance definition of rates and terms include:

Truancy: Truancy is defined as an unexcused absence.  The rate is calculated by dividing the reported Total Student Days Unexcused Absences by the Total Student Days Possible.

Habitually Truant (Student Count): A student is counted as habitually truant if the student has four unexcused absences in one month and/or 10 absences in one school year.

Chronically Absent: A student absent 10 percent or more of the days enrolled during the school year is chronically absent. All absences are included – unexcused, excused and suspensions.  The rate is the percentage of students enrolled who are chronically absent.

To help our PANTHERS improve their attendance at DMLK, we will be adding attendance requirements to many aspects of the student’s everyday life.  By the start of the 2025-2026 school-year our goal is to improve attendance to 92% overall in the middle school and 90% overall in the high school. To help achieve our 25-26 goals, our targets for the 24-25 school year are 90% in the middle school and 85% in the high school. 

Attendance Goals and Expectations:

Middle School:

• In order to participate in after-school activities, athletics, field trips, dances and continuation students must meet our goal of 90% attendance.  Attendance will be pulled the Friday prior to the event for eligibility. 
• During athletics if your student’s attendance drops below 90% they will be ineligible to participate in games / matches until the minimum attendance requirement is met. Additionally, if you are absent the day of an athletic event you will not be eligible to participate in the event. 
• Attendance rates will be pulled the Friday before a field trip is scheduled and if student attendance falls below 90% they will not be eligible to attend the events. Additionally, if a student is caught skipping class more than 3 times they will no longer be eligible to attend field trips. 
• Tardy: Teachers will be expected to mark students tardy when they arrive late to class. Teachers will also be expected to mark the time, in the comments section, the student arrived at class. 

High School:

• In order to participate in after-school activities, athletics, field trips, homecoming dance, prom and walk at graduation students must meet our goal of 85% attendance. Attendance will be pulled the Friday prior to the event for eligibility. 
• During athletics if your student’s attendance drops below 85% they will be ineligible to participate in games / matches until the minimum attendance requirement is met. Additionally, if you are absent the day of an athletic event you will not be eligible to participate in the event. 
• Attendance rates will be pulled the Friday before a field trip is scheduled and if student attendance falls below 85% they will not be eligible to attend the events. 
• Tardy: Teachers will be expected to mark students tardy when they arrive late to class. Teachers will also be expected to mark the time, in the comments section, the student arrived at class. 

We appreciate your support in our efforts to ensure our students attend school every day. Together, we can create an environment where every student has the opportunity to succeed and thrive.