List of students – Reports of attendance – Enforcement of compulsory attendance – List of truant students

(a) By the beginning of each school year, the director of schools shall furnish, or cause to be furnished through the attendance supervisor, to the principal of each school a list of students who will attend the school together with the names of the students’ parents or guardians. The lists must be taken from the census enumeration on file in the office of the director of schools or from any other available and reliable source. Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!(b) After the opening of school, each principal of a public school must report to the director of schools the names of all students on the list furnished to the principal who have not appeared for enrollment. (c) A principal or head of school of a public, nonpublic, or church-related school must report to the director of schools of the LEA in which the school is located the names, ages, and residences of all students in attendance at the school within thirty (30) days after the beginning of the school year. The principal or head of school of a public, nonpublic, or church-related school must make other reports of attendance in the school, including transfers of students, as may be required by the local board of education, the state board of education, or the department of education. Notwithstanding subsection (f), this subsection (c) applies to any student less than six (6) years of age who is enrolled in kindergarten in any school to which this subsection (c) is applicable. (d) All public, nonpublic, and church-related schools shall keep daily reports of attendance, verified by the teacher making the record, that shall be open to inspection at all reasonable times by the director of schools of the LEA in which the school is located, or the director’s duly authorized representative. Notwithstanding subsection (f), this subsection (d) applies to any child less than six (6) years of age who is enrolled in kindergarten in any school to which this subsection (d) is applicable. (e) (1) By the beginning of each school year, the principal or head of school of a public, nonpublic, or church-related school shall give written notice to the parent, guardian, or person having control of a student subject to compulsory attendance that the parent, guardian, or other person having control of the student must monitor the student’s school attendance and require the student to attend school. The written notice must inform the parent, guardian, or other person having control of a student that a student who accumulates five (5) days of unexcused absences during the school year is subject to the LEA’s progressive truancy interventions and that continued unexcused absences may result in a referral to juvenile court. The five (5) days of unexcused absences need not be five (5) consecutive days of unexcused absences. (2) The principal of a public school must report promptly to the director of schools, or to the attendance supervisor, the names of all students who have withdrawn from school or who have accumulated three (3) days of unexcused absences. Upon a student’s accumulation of three (3) days of unexcused absences, the director of schools or the attendance supervisor may serve, or cause to be served, upon the parent, guardian, or other person having control of a child subject to compulsory attendance who is unlawfully absent from school, written notice that the child’s attendance at school is required by law. (3) Additionally, the principal of a public school must report promptly to the director of schools, or to the attendance supervisor, the names of all students who have withdrawn from school or who have accumulated five (5) days of unexcused absences. Each successive accumulation of five (5) days of unexcused absences by a student must also be reported. (4) (A) When a student accumulates five (5) days of unexcused absences, the director of schools or attendance supervisor shall serve, or cause to be served, upon the parent, guardian, or other person having control of a child subject to compulsory attendance who is unlawfully absent from school written notice that the child’s attendance at school is required by law. The director of schools or attendance supervisor shall send a new notice after each successive accumulation of five (5) unexcused absences. (B) After the child has accumulated five (5) unexcused absences, and after given adequate time, as determined by director of schools or attendance supervisor, the child’s parent, guardian, or other person having control of the child has failed to turn in documentation to excuse those absences, the director of schools or attendance supervisor shall implement the truancy intervention requirements of the second tier of the progressive truancy plan as described in § 49-6-3009. (C) This section does not prohibit a local board of education from adopting a progressive truancy plan that allows the LEA to take intervention actions before those required in this subsection (e). Such actions may include any of the truancy