Attendance & Tardy

Permits to leave are handled by the front office clerk. All notes must be in writing. You may email or send a note in with your child. All notes for absences must be turned in within 48 hours of returning to school. Please review our policy posted on this website.

School Phone: (727) 469-4100

If you know your student is going to be out, click the “Report Student Absence” link on the Dunedin High School website (https://www.pcsb.org/dunedin-hs) or email DunedinHS.absence@pcsb.org directly to report the absence.

How to document student absences:
Parents/Guardians need to report absences from the email we have on file for your student. We cannot accept emails from students. If you cannot email, please send a written note, and turn into the front desk within 48 hours of your student’s return to school. Please be sure to list your student’s legal first and last name, grade and date(s) of the absences on this document and the REASON the student was absent (not just please excuse my student). 
Per school board policy, parents/guardians must “Notify school personnel of their child’s absence prior to the end of the school day of the absence, if possible and provide written notification within 48 hours of the child’s return to school. Otherwise, the absence will be unexcused.”
All absence excuses must be in writing. We cannot accept phone calls to excuse absences (this included requesting a PTL over the phone).

Early release:
If you require your student to be released early from school, please send a written note and have your student turn it in to the front desk before school. The front desk will issue a permit to leave for the student to leave. If a student returns after leaving, please be sure to have them check back in at the front desk and obtain a tardy pass to return to class. If there is an emergency and you need to have your child released unexpectedly, you can come to the front desk with your legal ID and have the student released from class or call from the phone number we have in FOCUS for the parent of the student. If a person is not listed in FOCUS for the student to be released to, we cannot release the student to that person. Please be sure that the contacts are updated in your student’s FOCUS account. 
If a student is released early from class, and misses more than half of class, they will be considered absent for that class period.

Per school board policy, “A student who is not present in class at least one half of the class period shall be counted absent from that class. To be counted present for the school day, a student must be in attendance for at least one half of the class periods during the school day.” 
If your student is leaving early for a doctor’s appointment, please ask the provider for an excuse note and turn in via FOCUS, email to DunedinHS.Absence@pcsb.org or handing in at the front desk. 

Late arrival:
If your student arrives tardy to school, please have them enter through the Front Desk doors and obtain a tardy pass. If you have a doctor note, it can be turned in at that time. Please do not have students enter campus tardy through any other door or gate. This is a violation of policy. They must obtain a tardy pass before going to class. 
Corrections to tardies:
Your first point of contact to correct tardies is your student’s teacher. Students obtain a tardy pass through the office, but students cannot be coded as tardy until they arrive to class. Only teachers can code students tardy as they are who knows if the student is in their room or not.

Corrections to absences:
If your student was mistakenly marked absent, please ask your student if there was a substitute teacher. If there was, you may email dunedinhs.absence@pcsb.org to have it investigated. If there is proof that the student was in class (your student signing the sign in sheet), it will be corrected. If there was not a substitute teacher that day, please email the teacher directly to have it corrected. 

Attendance errors will only be corrected for ONE week. This was communicated to students during the Grade Level Assembly the first week of school.