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Attendance Policy

Attendance Office: (248) 956-3512 | Attendance Hotline: (248) 956-3510

Please call the attendance hotline before 9:00 a.m. every morning your student is absent or late.

Note: Notifying a teacher or counselor of your child’s absence does not replace calling the attendance office. For a student’s absence to be “excused” you must call the absence/tardy within 48 hours. A student’s absence a cannot be “excused” if it is called in after the 48 hour deadline.

Arriving Late

Please call the attendance office or attendance hotline if you know your child will be tardy. However, this does not excuse them from being late. If a tardy occurs due to a doctor's appointment, a doctor’s note must be presented to excuse the tardy.

In general, if a student is tardy for more than half the class period, it will be considered an absence. We encourage families to monitor their child’s attendance using the Skyward Family Access attendance module.

In circumstances when tardies accumulate in ONE particular class, you can expect the following from that teacher:

  • 3rd Tardy - Written Warning
  • 4th Tardy - Lunch detention issued and parent contact
  • 7 or more Tardies - After school detention and parent contact
  • 10 or more Tardies - Parent contact and additional disciplinary action

*Note: This process resets at the end of each marking period. Our goal is to have students on time and in class every period, every day.

Pre-arranged Absences

If you know your student will be absent at a future date, please call the attendance office and report a “pre-arranged absence.” The student can then request classwork from the teachers and will receive their work before they leave.

Excessive Absences

Consistent attendance is one of the strongest indicators in school success. and we want to work with you to keep your child in school and on time. If there are extenuating circumstances for a student’s excessive tardiness or absences, please contact the student's counselor or an administrator. Our goal is to work together to resolve any attendance issues or concerns. Interventions include parent meetings with teachers, counselors and administration. When a student accumulates excessive absences or tardies, it will result in a letter from the school, as a part of the attendance documentation process. This can happen as early as 10 full or partial days absent from school.

In addition, Clifford H. Smart Middle School will be working with the Oakland County Truancy Prevention Program. Mr. Larry O’Brien, an Oakland County Schools Consultant, meets with students and families at school to help develop plans to reduce and/or eliminate absences and tardiness. In extreme cases a truancy a student may be referred to Lisa Krapol, our Oakland County Truancy Officer.

Make-Up Work

Students are responsible to make-up the work they have missed due to an absence. Check the teacher’s Google Classroom for the work your student may have missed. If your student is absent two or more days, after checking the Google Classroom, you may also email the teachers for work. This work will be in the attendance office by the end of the next day.  We recommend calling our main office to confirm the work is ready for pickup.

Attendance Codes in Skyward Family Access

  • C - Co-Curricular, which is school related and is not an absence
  • D - Early Dismissal
  • E - Excused absence
  • I - Student has been removed from class due to a discipline issue, but is still in school. An "I" is also used when a student is removed from class for behavior and sent to our Responsibility Room.
  • S - Students is suspended out of school due to a discipline issue
  • T - Tardy
  • U - Unexcused absence
  • X - Exempt from being tardy or absent due to a late bus, school emergency, etc.