Attendance Line: 403-777-8070 ext. 1

Telephone for Safety

If your child is going to be away from school, please call the attendance and leave the following details:

•  Child’s first and last name
•  Teacher’s name
•  Reason for the absence

This helps us to ensure that all children are safe and accounted for. If the school does not receive a call, our automated phone service will call out in the evening. An absence is only excused for illness or appointments, and only when the school has been notified in advance.

We will contact parent/guardian through our automated School Messenger system when a child is absent, and if we have not heard from a parent/guardian prior to 10:00am we will mark the absence as “unexcused”.

Please note that we will NOT disclose whether or not a child is at school over the telephone as we can never be sure who is really calling.

On Time | School Attendance

At this time of the year, the most important thing that families can help us with is to make sure that children are at school each day and on time. By ensuring that your child comes to school on time each and every day, you send the message that school is important and is to be taken seriously. You are also helping to create healthy lifelong habits.

Please remember that the Alberta School Act states that children must attend school regularly and punctually. Schools are required to monitor attendance on a regular basis, report concerns to the CBE Attendance Officer and Alberta Education, and work through attendance improvement plans that can include legal actions. Please help us to avoid these issues and teach children the values of responsibility, punctuality and accountability.

Administration has already met with the CBE Attendance Officer to review expectations and provincial regulations. We learned:

• Alberta Education identifies absences of 10% or more as excessive. This means that, if a child misses 18 days of school, they are considered significant attendance concerns.
• Friday attendance is just as important as any other school day. In fact, much of our project work is completed on Fridays, and if a child misses Fridays, they are missing 20% of their week.
• Alberta Education and CBE are working on early intervention strategies, meaning that there will be an increased focus on attendance at elementary years. For us to be compliant with this, we will then be increasing our focus on attendance.