Public forum on school attendance policy set

Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES will be holding a public forum at its regularly scheduled board meeting on June 18 to review the proposed new Comprehensive Attendance Policy and answer questions. According to new regulations on pupil attendance from New York's Board of Regents, every district and BOCES in the state must adopt a Comprehensive Attendance Policy by June 30 this year and fully implement that policy by July 1, 2003.

The purpose of the policy is to ensure adequate attendance record keeping, accountability to parents for students' whereabouts throughout the school day, and sufficient student attendance at all scheduled academic periods or supervised study activities. According to Regents guidelines, the new policy must provide for taking and recording attendance for each period of the day. The new attendance regulations are an outgrowth of the state's efforts to raise learning standards, since students cannot learn if they are not present.

The BOCES 2 public forum will be held in the Board Room of the Education Services Center, 3599 Big Ridge Road, Spencerport. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. Anyone wanting a copy of the proposed policy to review prior to the meeting should call the District Superintendent's Office at (585) 352-2411.