Attendance Plan
At Joel P. Jensen Middle School, our dedicated faculty and staff have consistently demonstrated their ability to help students achieve success. However, achieving this success becomes challenging when students are not regularly attending school. Consistent attendance at JPJ is crucial for academic achievement. By collaborating with parents to encourage regular attendance, our team can ensure that the time spent in learning is both effective and valuable.
How Parents Can Contribute:
- Maintain a Positive Outlook: Discuss the importance of attending school regularly in a positive light.
- Establish Home Routines: Set expectations for bedtime to ensure students are well-rested.
- Communicate with Teachers: Keep in touch with teachers if your child misses school to prevent falling behind.
- Report Absences: Ensure that all absences requiring an excuse are reported to the attendance office: 801-412-2858.
- Seek Support: If your child is facing challenges in attending school, engage with administration or student services for assistance. We can provide support through the counseling center: 801-412-2860 or by contacting your student’s counselor.
How Students Can Support Their Success:
- Recognize Your Support Team: Remember, teachers, counselors, and administrators are here to support your success.
- Attend Regularly: Make it a priority to attend school every day possible.
- Prioritize Rest: Ensure you have a reasonable bedtime on school nights.
- Take Responsibility: If you miss schoolwork, contact your teachers via Canvas or email to catch up.
- Adopt a Proactive Attitude: Cultivate the habit of attending school consistently and avoid excuses for absences.
School's Role in Supporting Attendance:
- Deliver Engaging Instruction: We commit to providing daily lessons that prepare students for future academic and life challenges.
- Ensure Accurate Attendance: Our attendance system ensures accurate tracking and will notify parents if concerning patterns emerge.
- Support for Missed Days: We offer assistance to students who miss school to help them quickly catch up.
- Implement Support Strategies: Attendance contracts and positive behavior interventions are in place to encourage attendance.
- Provide Counseling: Student Services offers counseling and, curriculum support to meet individual student needs.
At Joel P. Jensen, our faculty and staff are committed to fostering student success. Consistent attendance is vital for this success, and collaboration between parents, students, and school staff is key. The most important aspect of addressing attendance issues is open communication. Please contact the school if you have any questions, concerns, or needs regarding your child's attendance.
Tardy Policy
In evaluating the negative effects of missing in-school time, research has almost exclusively focused on absences, and almost no attention has been paid to tardiness. A Study by Michael Gottfried contributes a new lens to the field by examining the effects of student tardiness on academic achievement. There are 2 significant findings. First, students with greater tardiness perform worse on both standardized reading and math tests. Second, holding constant an individual's own record of tardiness, students whose classmates are tardy more frequently also have lower test scores. Hence, the achievement gap widens for students in classrooms whose peers have higher rates of tardiness and widens even further for students who also have greater individual levels of tardiness.
For that reason, Joel P. Jensen Middle School has a strict tardy policy. Students are given one warning tardy, and after that they begin to accrue consequences.
Parents may excuse tardies for 1st period or for a late check-in. We ask that parents call before 9:30 AM to excuse a morning tardy. Parents may not excuse tardies that occur during the school day.
| Number of Tardies | Consequences |
| 1 | Warning |
| 2 | 1 Lunch Detention |
| 3 | 2 Lunch Detention |
| 4 | 2 Lunch Detention and reflection assignment |
| 5 - 6 | 30 min After-school Detention for each tardy |
| 7 | 60 min After-school Detention and Parent Conference |
| 8 | 2 hours of After-school Detention |
| 9 | One Week of Lunch Detention |
| 10 | 1 Day In-school Suspenstion |
| 11 | 1 Day Out-of-school Suspension |
| 12+ | 1 Day of Out-of-school Suspension for Each Additional Tardy. |
Consequences determined by school administrators will include one or more of the
following: detentions, in school suspensions, out of school suspensions, personal
escort to class, parent/guardian escort to class, parent conferences.*
-Tardy sweeps will be held every passing period on every school day,
*JPJMS Administration reserves the right to change/adjust the tardy policy according to
student/parent needs.
Gottfried, Michael A. “The Achievement Effects of Tardy Classmates: Evidence in Urban Elementary Schools.” School Effectiveness and School Improvement, Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals, 30 Nov. 2013, eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1026967.