HIBBING PUBLIC SCHOOLS
INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 701

BOARD POLICY 503
SERIES: 500 Students
SUBJECT: 503 Student Attendance
ADOPTED:  
REVISED:  


Any child who will be five years of age on or before September 1 will be admitted to kindergarten.  Any child who will be six years of age on or before September 1 will be admitted to grade one.  Any transfer student who was born after September 1 and attended either kindergarten or first grade during the current year or attended kindergarten or other systematically organized and structured educational experiences the past year may make application for admission.  These applications shall receive appropriate review and appraisal.

In all cases of application for admission, a birth certificate shall be required as proof of the child’s age.  The school district shall require that once a child is officially enrolled as a public school student, the child shall be subject to the compulsory attendance provisions provided in state law.

The school district shall enforce the regulations of the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota Compulsory Instruction Law.  Students of the school district are required to attend all assigned classes and/or study halls every day school is in session, unless the student has completed the studies ordinarily required in the tenth grade and has elected not to enroll or has a valid excuse for absence.  The following reasons shall be sufficient to constitute valid absences.  However, other individual school policies may require the student to make up time missed from classes due to these or any other reasons.

1. Illness
2. Serious illness in the student’s immediate family.
3. A death in the student’s immediate family or of a close friend or relative.
4. Medical or dental treatment.
5. Court appearances occasioned by family or personal action.
6. Religious instruction not to exceed three hours in any week.
7. Physical emergency conditions such as fire, flood, storm, etc.
8. Official school field trip or other school-sponsored event.
9. Removal of a student pursuant to a suspension. Suspensions are to be handled as excused absences and students will be permitted to complete make-up work.

The school district shall identify continuing truant students in compliance with Minnesota law as:

1. three days if the child is in elementary school; or
2. three or more class periods on three days if the child is in middle school, junior high school or high school.

A student is not a continuing truant if the child is withdrawn from school by the child’s parents because of a dispute with the school concerning the provision of special education services under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act, or accommodations and modifications under the Americans with Disabilities Act, if the parent makes good faith efforts to provide the child educational services from any other source.

An habitual truant is a child under 16 years of age who is absent from school without a lawful excuse for seven school days, if an elementary school child or for one or more class periods on seven school days if the child is in middles, junior high, or high school.  The school district shall refer a habitual truant child and parents or guardian to appropriate service in compliance with Minnesota law.

The administration may develop additional school building attendance rules.



Legal References:
M.S. 120A.22 (Compulsory Instruction)
M.S. 120A.24 (Reporting)
M.S. 120A.26 (Enforcement and Prosecution)
M.S. 121A.40-121A.56 (Pupil Fair Dismissal Act)
M.S. 260A.02 (Definitions)
M.S. 260A.03 (Notice to Parent or Guardian when a child is Continuing Truant)