The Solon City Schools take student attendance very seriously, and truancy/unexcused absence is not acceptable. Cuyahoga County mandates that schools file truancy against students for chronic truancy. A student is considered chronically truant if s/he has seven (7) consecutive unexcused absences, ten (10) or more unexcused absences in a month or fifteen (15) or more unexcused absences in a school year.

According to our Code of Conduct, parents are permitted to excuse their students from school without a medical note for ten (10) days in a year. Therefore, if taking a vacation puts a student over ten (10) days of absence, all additional days will be considered unexcused/truant and the District will be required to file the appropriate paperwork with Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court when the aforementioned number of unexcused absences is met.

You may avoid the truancy report by choosing to withdraw your child from school for the period of the extended vacation; however, you must indicate how your child will be educated during the time s/he is not enrolled in Solon City Schools. You will be required to re-enroll your child prior to his/her return to school by providing proof of residency: lease/purchase agreement or tax duplicate.

Your child will be placed back into his/her original schedule if at all possible.

It is very important for parents to understand that any absence from school may have an adverse effect on the educational progress of your child. It is strongly discouraged that your child misses school for any reason.

When a student of compulsory school age is absent from school with or without legitimate excuse for thirty-eight (38) or more hours in one (1) school month, or sixty-five (65) or more hours in a school year, the attendance officer shall notify the child's parent or guardian of the child's absences, in writing, within seven (7) school days after the date of the absence that triggered the notice requirement. At the same time written notice is given, any appropriate intervention action listed herein may be taken.

A student will be considered habitually truant if the student is of compulsory school age and absent without a legitimate excuse for thirty (30) or more consecutive hours, for forty-two (42) or more hours in one (1) school month, or for seventy-two (72) or more hours in one (1) school year.

Legitimate excuses for the absence of a student who is otherwise habitually truant include but are not limited to:

To the extent required by law as determined on an annual basis, within ten (10) days of a student becoming habitually truant, the Principal shall assign the student to an absence intervention team.

Within fourteen (14) school days after the assignment of a student to an absence intervention team, the team shall develop an intervention plan for that student in an effort to reduce or eliminate further absences. Each intervention plan shall vary based on the individual needs of the student, but the plan shall state that the attendance officer shall file a complaint not later than sixty-one (61) days after the date the plan was implemented, if the child has refused to participate in, or failed to make satisfactory progress on, the intervention plan. Within seven (7) school days after the development of the plan, reasonable efforts shall be made to provide the student's parent/guardian/custodian with written notice of the plan.

As part of the absence intervention plan, the Principal may, in his/her discretion contact the appropriate juvenile court and ask to have a student informally enrolled in any alternative to adjudication described in R.C. 2151.27(G).

Each absence intervention team may vary based on the needs of each individual student but shall include a representative from the child's building, another representative from the child's building who knows the child, and the child's parent or parent's designee, or the child's guardian, custodian, guardian ad litem, or temporary custodian.

The members of the absence intervention team shall be selected within seven (7) school days of the student meeting the habitually truant threshold. Within the same period of seven (7) school days, the Principal shall make at least three meaningful, good faith attempts to secure the participation of the student's parent/guardian/custodian, guardian ad litem, or temporary custodian on that team. A good faith attempt to secure the participation of the parent shall include, but not be limited to, diligent efforts to reach the parent by telephone, email, or regular mail. If the student's parent responds to any of those attempts, but is unable to participate for any reason, the Principal shall inform the parent of the parent's right to appear by designee. If seven (7) school days elapse and the student's parent, guardian, custodian, guardian ad litem, or temporary custodian fails to respond to the attempts to secure participation, the attendance officer shall investigate whether the failure to respond triggers mandatory abuse or neglect reporting to the public children services agency. At the same time, the absence intervention team shall continue to develop an intervention plan for the child notwithstanding the absence of the child's parent, guardian, custodian, guardian ad litem, or temporary custodian.

In order to address the attendance practices of a student who is habitually truant, the intervention team may, as part of an intervention plan, take any of the following intervention actions:

The attendance officer shall file a complaint in the juvenile court against a student on the 61st day after the implementation of an absence intervention plan or other intervention strategies, provided that all of the following apply:

If the student, at any time during the implementation phase of the absence intervention plan or other intervention strategies, is absent without legitimate excuse for thirty (30) or more consecutive hours or forty-two (42) or more hours in one school month, the attendance officer shall file a complaint in juvenile court against that student, unless the absence intervention team has determined that the student has made substantial progress on the absence intervention plan.

Whenever any student of compulsory school age has sixty (60) consecutive hours in a single month or a total of ninety (90) hours of unexcused absence from school during the school year, s/he will be considered habitually absent. The Superintendent shall notify the student and his/her parents, guardian, or custodian, in writing, that the Superintendent will notify the Registrar of Motor Vehicles, if appropriate, and the Judge of the Juvenile Court of the child's unexcused absences unless the student or his/her parents wish to challenge the record. They are to be notified that the absence information has been provided to the Superintendent, that as a result of that information the child’s temporary driver instruction permit or driver’s license will be suspended or the opportunity to obtain such a permit or license will be denied, and that they may appear in the Principal’s office to challenge such information at a scheduled date and time which shall be no earlier than three (3) days or later than five (5) days after the date of the notification. The Principal may grant an extension, if requested by the child or the child’s parent, guardian, or custodian.

Notification will be sent within two (2) weeks after the Superintendent receives the information or the conclusion of the hearing if the determination that the student did not have a legitimate excuse for the absences is upheld. The student's name, address, birthdate, school, district, and attendance record shall be sent to the Juvenile Judge in writing and to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles, if appropriate, in the manner designated by the Registrar.

The District shall report to the Ohio Department of Education, as soon as practicable, and in a format and manner determined by the department, any of the following occurrences: