Attendance, Lates & Safe Arrival

Regular attendance at school is an important factor in every student’s academic success. We encourage all of our students to develop this important habit. It is also important to be on time for school to avoid disrupting the class.

When a student is late, he/she is expected to report to the office. If tardiness persists, parents will of course be notified. Students leaving the school during the day, for any reason, or at lunch are required to sign out in the school office. Parents wishing to pick up children at school for appointments etc. must report to the office to make this request. Your child’s teacher will then be contacted in the classroom and the student will come down to the office to meet the parent. Students returning to school during the day must report to the office to sign in and get an admit slip before going back to their classrooms.

One measure of keeping students safe is ensuring students have safely arrived at school. It is important that if your child is going to be absent or late for any reason, you contact the office immediately and report the reason for the absence.  The SAFE ARRIVAL number to call is 416-395-9505.

If there is no report about the absence, an automated call-out system begins for our Safe Arrival Program. This system will mean that you will be contacted more quickly than is currently possible with a manual system.

The system call-out will work as follows:

• Parents/guardians identified in TDSB’s Student Information Systems who has access to student records, and emergency contact with priority 1 or 2 will receive a call.
• When you receive the call, you are required to listen to the entire message and follow the prompts accordingly.
• You will be asked if you are aware or unaware of your child’s absence.
• If unaware, you will be asked to call the school immediately.
• If you are aware of the absence, you will be asked to enter the reason for your child’s absence. The following options will be provided for you:
1. Illness
2. Doctor Appointment
3. Dentist Appointment
4. Family Matter
5. Weather
6. Other

At the end of the message, you will have to press 2 to confirm you received the message.

• If you do not confirm receipt, you will receive a call on your mobile phone.
• If there is no response from a Priority 1 contact, this same process will be followed for Priority 2 contacts.
• If there is no contact with either Priority 1 or Priority 2, this entire process will be repeated 3 times in 10 minute intervals.
This same process will be followed for the afternoon attendance.

In the evening, all parents/guardians of students who were late that day will receive a call informing them of their child’s tardiness.

With this in mind, it is important that your contact information on file at the office is up-to-date. Please let the office know immediately if your contact information changes at any time throughout the school year.

We recognize that regular attendance is essential to the safety, academic success, and well-being of all students. We feel it is never too late to encourage the life skill of being punctual.

Please review the following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for additional information about our new automated system.

SchoolConnects FAQ.pdf