School Attendance

South Carolina Compulsory Attendance Law

SC Code of Law 59-65-10 - “South Carolina Compulsory Attendance Law requires that a parent or guardian shall require his child to attend regularly a public or private school or kindergarten of this State which has been approved by the State Board of Education, a member school of the South Carolina Independent Schools and Association, a member school of the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools, or some similar organization, or a parochial, denominational, or church-related school, or other programs which have been approved by the State Board of Education from the school year in which the child is five years of age before September first until the child attains his seventeenth birthday or graduates from high school.”

Truancy

Truant
A child age 6 to 17 years meets the definition of a truant when the child has three consecutive unlawful absences or a total of five unlawful absences.

Habitual Truant
Habitual Truant is a child ages 12 to 17 years who fails to comply with the intervention plan developed by the school, the child, and the parent(s) or guardian(s) and who accumulates two or more additional unlawful absences. This child may need a truancy petition filed with the Family Court.

Chronic Truant
Chronic Truant is when a child ages 12 to 17 has been through the school intervention process, has reached the level of a habitual truant, has been referred to Family Court and placed on an order to attend school, and continues to accumulate unlawful absences. Should other community alternatives and referrals fail to remedy the attendance problem, the "chronic" truant child may be referred to the Family Court for violation of a previous court order.

Student Absences and Excuses

Any student who misses school must present a written excuse, signed by his/her parent/legal guardian. The excuse will contain such other information as directed by the administration. The school administration will keep all excuses confidential.

A student may have up to 10 absences excused by a parent excusal note in each 180-day course and 5 days excused by a parent excusal note in a 90-day course. A student must attend the majority of a class session during a school day to receive credit for that class.

If a student fails to bring a valid excuse to school, he/she will automatically receive an unexcused absence.

The district will utilize a written intervention plan for improving student attendance. The purpose of the plan will be to link students with attendance problems and their families to all appropriate school and community resources.

Elementary and Middle School Student Attendance

School officials must promptly approve or disapprove any student absences in excess of 10 days. Principal judgment will be used to excuse absences above 10, which total no more than 15 days of lawful and/or unlawful absences.

School officials must take immediate steps to intervene whenever a student has three consecutive or five total days of unlawful absences.

If school officials are unable to get the student back in school on a regular basis, the student may be referred to a truancy intervention team and or DSS. As the result of any absence, a parent conference may be required at the discretion of the administration.

Secondary Student Attendance

In order to receive credit for a high school course, a student must attend at least 85 days (for a 90-day semester course) or 170 days (for a 180-day year course) in order to receive credit.

In order to receive one Carnegie unit of credit, a student must be in attendance at least 120 hours, per unit, regardless of the number of days missed, or must demonstrate proficiency as determined by the District. This exception to the 120-hour requirement is to be administered by the District on a case-by case basis and only for students who have excessive absences that have been approved. Students whose absences are approved should be allowed to make up any work missed in order to satisfy the 120-hour requirement. In order to receive high school credit after the 10th unlawful absence, “seat time recovery” is required for every subsequent absence that is unlawful.

School officials must promptly approve or disapprove any student absences in excess of five days per semester. Principal judgment will be used to excuse absences above five days per semester, which total no more than eight days of lawful and/or unlawful absences.

School officials must take immediate steps to intervene whenever a student has three consecutive or five total days of unlawful absences.

If school officials are unable to get the student back in school on a regular basis, the student may be referred to a truancy intervention team or to the family court. As the result of any absence, a parent conference may be required at the discretion of the principal.