Absences and Punctuality: Regular attendance at school is crucial if you want your child to be successful in school. It is virtually impossible for a child to make up the learning that takes place when he or she is absent frequently. Frequent absences create gaps in learning that prevent a child from mastering new content. It is also important for your child to arrive on time to school each day. When he or she is late, it starts the day in a hurried manner and disrupts learning for the rest of the students in class.
If you need to make doctor or dentist appointments for your child, please do so after school hours. If you are planning a family vacation, please schedule it during the school breaks in December, February and April. The district calendar, which contains the vacation dates, is included in this mailing. The Trumbull Public Schools do not condone vacations during school time and staff is not required to provide work for students to take on these vacations.
Students in grades 3, 4 and 5 will be taking the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) during the first three weeks of March. These tests are given on Tuesdays through Fridays from about 9:15 – 11:00. Since these are state mandated, high stake tests, it is important that your child be in school during this test window. It is also important that your child arrives on time. If a child arrives once testing has begun, he or she cannot enter the classroom until the test session is complete. If you are scheduling doctor and dentist appointments for your child, please do not schedule them during this test window. It is also imperative that you do not take your child out of school during this time for vacations. Since we have only a few days to complete make-ups for absent children, we administer them in the library media center. Consequently, your child will not benefit from taking the test in his or her own classroom with his or her teacher. Since these tests are used for placement purposes and for special recognition in grade 5, it is important for your child to do his or her best.
ABSENCES: If your child is absent from school, you must report the absence by calling our absentee line (452-4434) prior to the start of the school day. Please do not call the Main Office. You must call each day your child is absent. State your name, your relationship with the child, the child’s name, the name of your child’s teacher, and the reason for absence. When your child returns to school, you must write a note to the classroom teacher indicating the reason for absence. Absences that are not reported will be marked as unexcused absences.
LATE FOR SCHOOL: If your child is late for school, you must escort your child into the office and obtain a late slip. A reason for tardiness needs to be given by the adult when the child arrives to school for it to be classified as excused.
