Attendance Procedures

It is the responsibility of the parents or guardians to contact the attendance office and state the reason for your child's absence. Only parents, guardians, or a person on the student’s FERPA list are able to excuse an absence, late arrival, or release a student from school. For your convenience a phone answering machine will be in operation 24 hours 7 days a week. Please call before 8:45 a.m. if your child will be absent from school. The attendance office number is 816-359-4121. A guardian may report an absence or late arrival through the absence request on the portal. We cannot accept early releases through the absence request on the portal.

Students unaccounted for will be placed on a telephone call list. The attendance office will contact those parents or guardians on the same day of the absence either by manual or an automated calling system. The automated message will explain the absentee situation and request parental assistance. For partial day absences, parents or guardians may view the student’s attendance on Infinite Campus to identify which classes have been marked absent.

If the absences have not been excused by a parent or guardian within 48 hours, they will need to speak with an administrator to have a status of an absence changed. Park Hill South does not accept handwritten or email notifications to excuse absences.

After a student’s 5th tardy, parents/guardians will receive an email notifying them of the number of tardies and potential consequences if the student(s) continues being tardy. Parents/guardians will be notified of all consequences, and you or your student can always talk to Dr. Beth Esco about your specific situations. 1st block tardies will be excused with a doctor’s note or medical documentation only.

  

All students leaving early must report directly to the attendance office. When students leave the campus during the school day, a telephone call from the parent or guardian is required and a pass secured from the attendance office. We cannot accept early releases through the absence request on the portal. When requesting an early release, please call as early as possible in the morning. If you are unable to call in the morning, we ask that a minimum of 30 minutes is allowed for ample time to locate your student. For your convenience, you do not need to come into the building to pick up your student. Your student will meet you outside ready at the time you requested for his/her pass.

There are many occasions when the attendance office experiences a high volume of calls. If you reach our voicemail, please do not hang up and call again. Leaving a message will keep your place in line and will allow us to assist you more quickly. Voice messages receive priority over incoming calls.

The following information will help when you call the attendance number, 816-359-4121, to report an absence:

1. Your name and relationship to the student
2. Student's name and spelling of last name
3. Grade of student
4. Reason for absence
5. Date of absence

 

Personal items (lunch money, clothes, homework, etc.) needed during the day need to be dropped off by a parent/guardian, person on FERPA list, or listed in the student’s Infinite Campus. If food is being dropped off, it needs to be a parent/guardian or person on FERPA list only. Deliveries from DoorDash, GrubHub, etc. will not be accepted per PH Student handbook policy.