Attendance
Attendance
Daily attendance supports academic success. The habit of regular and punctual attendance is a quality that will follow a student throughout life. All U-46 students are expected to arrive on time and be present on all student attendance days.
The 2025-26 calendar has been established by the Board of Education, which consists of 176 instructional days for students, with five emergency days built into the calendar. A full day of attendance for students must be a minimum of five clock hours of instruction for students. On a regular school day, students who receive less than 300 minutes of instruction, but at least 150 minutes of instruction can be claimed for a half-day of attendance. Study halls count toward the instructional time requirement. Lunch hours are considered non-instructional time.
Absence
Parents/guardians are expected to call their child’s school before any absence. Just as concern would be felt if a student did not arrive home after school, the same concern exists if a student does not come to school. In addition to the call, schools may require written follow-up from home following the student’s absence. Parents are asked to follow the individual school requirements on this matter.
Students in any athletic or co-curricular activity who are not in attendance one-half (1/2) or more of their scheduled classes on the day of a practice, event, contest, or competition will be ineligible to participate. If an athlete was absent from school for reasons other than illness, for 14 example, but not limited to: funeral, family emergency, or mental health day, they may participate, but will need approval of the Principal or designee. Students should contact their coach or sponsor on the day of a practice or event to report that they missed part or all of the school day. Contact should occur whether the practice or event is before or after school.
Valid Causes of Absences
● Illness (including mental or behavioral health)
● Exclusion related to an infectious disease as mandated by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) ● Observance of a religious holiday
● Death in the immediate family
● Family emergency
● Circumstances that cause reasonable concern to the parent or guardian for the safety or health of the student.
The reasonableness of the concern shall be subject to evaluation by the principal or principal’s designee, on a case-by-case basis. Excused absences are those with a valid cause and which have been reported to the school by a parent or guardian. Unexcused absences are absences for which there is no legitimate cause.
Truancy
The principal has the responsibility of monitoring student attendance and potential truancy. Truancy is excessive unexcused absences. Chronic truancy refers to a student who is absent without valid cause for 5 percent or more of the previous 180 school days, or approximately 9 unexcused absences. Generally, 10 absences and 15 tardies to school are used as a guideline to establish truancy, generating a warning letter to parents and a parent conference with the principal. If truancy continues, a referral can be made to the Kane County Regional Office of Education for further action and support.
Click below for a PDF format of the attendance policy in English or Spanish.