Secondary Tardy Policy Update

Dear secondary families,

Thank you for your patience and positivity during our first two weeks of school. Our students are genuinely excited to come to school, and it is absolutely wonderful to see their smiling faces each day.

This year, I am proud to report that most of our students are arriving at school and to their classes in a timely manner. Starting Monday (baring any impacts from weather), our new breezeway will connect the two buildings, resulting in shorter paths between classes. Now that students have a feel for the distance between their classes, our staff has been instructed to implement STEM’s Tardy Policy. (The policy is below.)

In a nutshell, students who are tardy will be required to retrieve a tardy slip from the front office in order to enter class. If a student is habitually tardy, there will be appropriate consequences. We are asking teachers to administer the policy with grace. If a child is struggling due to a particularly long distance or for another valid reason, we are asking that the child speak to the teacher to alert them.

We appreciate your support from home. With this policy, we will increase the instructional time for the students, reduce the interruptions to the learning environment, and improve the quality and time for all students. Further, this policy will teach time management skills, reduce students’ stress, and prepare students for business and societal expectations.

Once again, thank you for your support at home. Please reach out to me if you have any questions.

Very truly yours,

Maura Ridder, Middle School Director

STEM School Highlands Ranch Tardy Policy

If a student is tardy to class, the following steps will be followed:

1. At the start of each class, each teacher will close and lock their classroom door.
2. Any student who is late to class must report to the front office for a tardy slip. The front desk will change the absence to a tardy in Infinite Campus. (This is important because of the minutes calculated in IC.)
3. The first two times a student is tardy, the student may walk back to class on their own, and the teacher will have a restorative conversation with the student.
4. If a student is late THREE or more times, the teacher will notify the front desk to let them know they are sending a student with 3+ tardies.
5. An administrator will be called to assist the student in informing their parents from the school phone. The administrator will then walk the student back to class.
6. The student must ask the teacher if he/she can rejoin the class.
7. After the third tardy: the teacher will follow these steps:
   1. Document the tardiness in IC – General Conference Log
   2. Issue an RZ (Reflection Zone),
   3. Communicate to parents via email or phone call.
8. Teachers are encouraged to reach out to parents if a student is chronically tardy or absent in their class.
9. Three unexcused tardies = one absence. Ten absences (excused or unexcused) will result in a referral to the Education Welfare Service.