Attendance Letters / Policy

Some of our parents may have received a 3-day warning letter for attendance in the past several days.  We are required to notify parents when a child has accrued 3 or more days of illegal absences.  Since all middle school students fall into the age range for compulsory school attendance in Pennsylvania, any absence that is not documented with a written excuse or that is for an unexcused reason is considered illegal.  According to Central Cambria School District Board Policy #204, reasons for excused absences are:

• Illness with return of properly signed excuse
• Quarantine
• Recovery from accident
• Required court attendance
• Death in family
• Family educational trips
• Pre-approved educational tours and trips

We realize that there may be some confusion as to the procedures for reporting attendance.  If you have received a warning letter, you need to do the following:

• Write an excuse for the days listed on the letter stating the reason for absence for each date
• Sign the letter/excuse (parent)
• Drop the letter/excuse off in the middle school office (you or your child may do this)

Once we have written documentation of the reason for absence, we can re-code the days as excused days.  If there are any days listed which are in error, please notify the office as soon as possible so that we can get those dates straightened out.


We will be sending blank excuse forms home with students' mid-term progress reports next week.  Please keep these on file and feel free to use them for future absences.


If you have questions, please contact me at 814-472-6505 ext. 500 or csantini@cencam.org.