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Attendance Policy

We expect every child to attend school everyday, on time and ready to learn! Academic success requires daily and punctual attendance. The Bella Vista faculty will do our best to support families in ensuring students are in school regularly and on time. Our Bella Vista Attendance Specialist is Leticia Castaneda, or Ms. Letty, and she can be reached: on ParentSquare, at (510) 879-2102 ext. 1028005 or email leticia.canstaneda@ousd.org.

ATTENDANCE RECOGNITION

We celebrate families and students who show excellent attendance! Throughout the year we will host attendance raffles for students that come to school on time and ready to learn. Every month, we will highlight students that had perfect and most improved attendance. At the end of the year we will give special recognition to students who have perfect and satisfactory attendance for the entire year. 

SATISFACTORY ATTENDANCE

We want to see our students in school daily! Students need to have 8 or less absences to have satisfactory attendance for the school year. That’s about one absence a month. Students with 10 or more absences (that’s two weeks of school!) are at risk of falling behind academically due to missed learning. Missing a day here or there may not seem like a problem. Absences add up quickly, and these missed school days can have a big impact on your child's learning. 

EXCUSED ABSENCES

Parents can verify absences by: calling the office, reporting in the office with our attendance specialist, messaging our attendance specialist on ParentSquare or emailing our attendance specialist on the day of an absence to provide the reason and/or required documentation to excuse the absence. We understand that there are life circumstances when it is necessary to keep your child at home. Four types of absences can be excused: 

  1. Illness of child: a doctor’s note is required after 3 consecutive absences.

  2. Health or dental appointment: an appointment slip is required. 

  3. Death of an immediate family member.

  4. Religious observance.

UNEXCUSED ABSENCES

All other absences are considered unexcused, for example: family vacations, family emergencies, over sleeping or parent illness. If the parent or guardian does not call or visit the office to provide an excusable reason or documentation, the absence will be marked unexcused. Students with 3 or more unexcused absences will be considered truant and will need to have a meeting with our attendance specialist to develop and attendance plan.

TARDIES

School starts at 8:30am. Students are allowed on campus beginning at 8:15am. When a student is late, she or he misses important instructional time. Students who arrive after 8:40am will be marked tardy.  Tardies may be excused with a doctor’s note or appointment slip. Otherwise, the tardy will be unexcused. Three thirty-minute tardies will convert to one unexcused absence. Please note that traffic and over sleeping  is not an excusable tardy.

EARLY RELEASE

When a student is picked up early, she or he misses important instructional time. If students need to be released early for appointments, please sign them out in the main office. If you are early for regular dismissal, please follow dismissal procedures and wait until dismissal time. Please do not pick up from the classroom prior to dismissal as it is disruptive to teachers and other students. To minimize class disruptions, there is no early pick up after 2:15pm.

TRUANCY

Three unexcused absences or ‘More than 30 minutes tardy’ will render a student TRUANT. Parents will be required to attend a Student Attendance Review Team (SART) meeting to create a contract for regular attendance. If the contract is broken and/or unexcused absences continue, the parent or guardian will be referred to the district level School Attendance Review Board (SARB). The parent or guardian may be referred to the District Attorney and required to appear in court for legal consequences.