Attendance

Ohio law uses two measures to monitor attendance: chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy.

Chronic Absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism measures the total number of school hours a student misses for both excused and unexcused absences. This includes:

• Illness and medical appointments
• Tardies and early dismissals
• Pre-planned absences
• Non-school-sponsored activities and competitions
• Religious Expression Days
• Any other excused or unexcused absence

A student is considered chronically absent after missing 10% or more of the school year, or:

• Grades K-6: 91 hours missed (approximately 15 school days)
• Grades 7-12: 100 hours missed (approximately 16 school days)

Once a student reaches the chronic absenteeism threshold, the district will no longer approve pre-planned absences for the remainder of the school year. Absences that do not qualify under the district's attendance policy will be recorded as unexcused and may contribute toward habitual truancy.

Habitual Truancy

Habitual truancy applies only to unexcused absences. A student is considered habitually truant when they accumulate:

• 30 or more consecutive unexcused hours (approximately 5 school days), or
• 42 or more unexcused hours in one month (approximately 7 school days), or
• 72 or more unexcused hours in one school year (approximately 12 school days)

Ohio law requires school districts to implement attendance interventions for habitually truant students. If a student does not make progress toward the goals outlined in an attendance intervention plan, the district must file a complaint with Juvenile Court.

Upper Arlington Schools will notify families when attendance concerns begin to emerge.

Families will receive:

• A notification when a student has missed or is approaching 5% of the school year (approximately 45 hours).
• A chronic absenteeism notification when a student reaches 10% of the school year in missed hours.

Our goal is to identify concerns early and provide support before attendance issues become more serious. When appropriate, school staff will work with families to develop an attendance intervention plan to improve attendance and support student success.

A state law allows a student’s parent or guardian to request up to three religious expression days for each school year. These absences:

• Are excused without academic penalty.
• Must be requested by the parent or guardian.
• Count toward chronic absenteeism totals under the new state law.

Religious expression days may be used to take holidays for reasons of faith or religious or spiritual belief system or participate in organized activities conducted under the auspices of a religious denomination, church, or other religious or spiritual organization. A parent or guardian that would like to request religious expression days, must submit up to three religious expression days within the 14 school days after the start of the school year. Families will receive additional information each August about requesting Religious Expression Days for the school year.

2026-2027 Religious Expression Days Form

Parents/guardians must submit this form within the 14 school days after the start of the school year (September 1, 2026) to request up to three religious expression days for the 2026-2027 school year. Requests received after 14 days from the start of the school year will not be approved. 

Non-exhaustive list of of religious holidays, festivals and observances

College Visits

Students may take up to three days per school year for college visits without those visits counting toward absences when they provide official documentation from the college. Additional college visits beyond three days will count toward chronic absenteeism totals.

Driver's Education

High school students may be excused for up to eight total hours to attend a private driver's education course.

The absence:

• May not exceed two hours per day.
• May be used for no more than four days.
• May not occur during a graded course.
• Requires a pre-planned absence form submitted by the family.

Beginning in the 2026-2027 school year, these excused hours will count toward chronic absenteeism totals.

Monitoring Attendance in PowerSchool

Families can monitor attendance throughout the year through the PowerSchool Parent Portal.

To view a student's total missed hours:

1. Log in to the PowerSchool Parent Portal.
2. Select "Chronic Absenteeism" from the left navigation menu.

This feature provides a running total of missed hours and helps families stay informed about attendance throughout the school year.