➤ Submit Absence Excuse Note Email to FSMS Attendance Office

Within 5 school days after the absence:

• Email an absence note to the school's attendance clerk
• Turn in the absence note once the student returns to school

The district attendance policies and procedures can be found in the FBISD Student/Parent Handbook.

Tardies

• Class period that does NOT contain the official attendance time (10:15 a.m.):
  • If the student arrives to a class period up to 20 minutes past class start, the student will be marked Tardy for that class period.
• Class period that does contain the official attendance time (10:15 a.m.):
  • If the student arrives to a class period up to 20 minutes late of the class start time, but before the official attendance time, the student will be marked Tardy for that class period.
  • If the student arrives to a class period after the first 20 minutes of the class start time, but before the official attendance time, the student will be marked Late for that class period.

Arriving Late to School

• Students who arrive at the school after school has started and have missed a class period and/or more than half of the period once arrived will be marked absent for those periods by their teacher.
• Repeated tardies may be subject to a disciplinary referral.
  

Leaving School Early

• No student may be picked up within 25 minutes of dismissal. The latest time for early dismissal is 3:45pm.
• If you need to pick up your child early, they MUST be signed out through the front office.  Please call or email the Attendance office on the morning of the early dismissal with the following information:   
  1. Child’s first and last name and grade  
  2. Date and time to be picked up (not the appointment time)  
  3. Reason for leaving (please be specific since some reasons might not be excused)  
  4. Name of person picking up your child  
  5. Your contact phone # and/or email address  
• Parent/guardian/person picking up the child will need to provide a photo ID and sign-out the child. Your name/signature will authorize the dismissal.   

Planned Absences or Religious Holidays: 

• Please notify the Attendance office in advance to confirm if the absences can be excused and to discuss possible attendance-related consequences due to the absence.  

Student Mistakenly Marked Absent?  

• If you receive a call/email that your child was marked absent during the day, but you know they were there, please contact the teacher for that period and ask them to notify me if a correction needs to be made.  

Truancy: 

• If a student has 3 unexcused absences, full or partial day, in a 4-week period, a Truancy Warning Letter will be issued.  If there are 5 or more unexcused absences in a semester, an online Truancy Diversion Program will be required to be completed.  Additional unexcused absences may warrant further action from our truancy department.  

90% Rule:

• Students must be present for at least 90% of instructional days in order to retain course credit for the school year.  Please plan your absences carefully, especially if your student has a high school credit class.  

Please note: it can take 24-48 hours for an excuse note to be reflected in Skyward Family Access