Attendance & School Absence
Attendance at Utah Virtual Academy (UTVA)
We are happy that you chose UTVA as your school of choice. Thank you for being part of our school. We love to see our students learn and make progress every school day.
UTVA is a public charter school and we are required to report student school attendance to the state. UTVA students attend school from their home but it is not homeschooling. Class attendance is part of a student’s grade.
How is student attendance recorded
Student attendance is recorded electronically when:
- student logs into student account
- comes to live classes in their schedule
- opens and works in each of their courses
All 3 items are required daily.
In high school: students who work can watch recordings later in the day; Flex and Fast track students have more flexibility with live class attendance.
Important:
If there are no live classes on schedule, students still need to log in and work in courses on a school day.
Logging in from the Learning Coach school account doesn’t count towards student attendance. Students need to log into student account to be marked attended.
Three A’s of Attendance for students:
- Attend school by logging into the student school account daily.
- Attend classes by coming to live online classes daily.
- Attend courses by working in their courses daily.
For the Learning Coaches
Recommended log in is daily (for elementary students) and at least weekly (for middle and high school students).
When students need to attend school
Every school day. See our school calendar (ADD LINK). Weekend days and hours do not count towards attendance.
What happens when your student attends school daily:
- They are more likely to be on track in their academics.
- They are more engaged in their learning.
- They create meaningful relationships in class and in school.
Attendance Expectations
There are 180 school days in a school year in Utah. Students are required to log 180 school days and have 5.5 hours of daily school attendance (4.5 hours in 1st grade, 2.5 hours in kindergarten).
Parents do not need to enter attendance hours; all attendance is taken electronically. Follow our school calendar (ADD LINK) and have your student attend on every school day. If your student doesn’t have live classes in their schedule on a school day, they are still required to log in and work on their lessons and assignments.
Important:
We require that students maintain 90-100% attendance at all times.
Missing more than 10% of school or 5 days per quarter (excused or unexcused) will adversely affect your student’s academic progress. Your student will miss vital instructional time, will be at risk for getting behind, might lose school credit and not pass a class and not graduate in high school. Please have your student attend daily.
Daily routine and habits from the very beginning
You can attend school from virtually any device and from any place. As your student starts online school at UTVA, please establish a daily routine, habits and expectations with your student at home from the very beginning, so they are coming to school first thing in the morning and follow their daily live class schedule as you would do in a brick and mortar school. If you establish this routine from the very beginning, they are less likely to miss and get behind. Things get piled up very quickly. Do not yield to the temptation of missing a day here and there, not coming to class here and there. It all adds up and is very easy to get behind in a remote learning model. We don’t want this to happen. We want your child to succeed. Please have them come to school every single school day.
Please reach out for help and communicate with us!
We are here for you: your teacher, Student Services team, mentor, homeroom teacher, counselor. We want you to stay in your school and be successful!
Be there daily in: OLS, live classes, courses
Missing school
We understand that emergencies come up and people can get sick. If your student can log into school and do at least some of the school assignments, do not excuse the whole day of school. Work with your subject teachers to make up what is missed. Often, teachers give full credit for watching a recording on the same day.
Excusing an absence
If a student is sick or has another valid excuse and cannot log in even for part of the school day and has to miss an entire day of school, their parent/legal guardian can fill out an online absence request form within 72 hours of the absence. An online absence request can be filled out on any electronic device. Please read it carefully and check all the boxes that you agree with.
No Internet or No working computer
No internet problems or no working computer are not considered a valid excuse to miss school. Please have a back up plan for these cases. We are a remote learning school and you have the flexibility to attend school from any device from any place. Please find a way for your student to attend school on a temporary basis using another device, use some other internet or a free wifi place, library, friends, family, etc. Let your mentor/homeroom teacher know right away about technical issues. Call the K12 customer tech support line for tech issues right away. It is open 24/7. Phone 1-866-K12-CARE (1-866-512-2273). When you call tech support, write down your case number for reference. Call your internet provider for internet issues. See our internet resources page here.
Supporting Documentation for missing school
If you have a doctor’s note or other documentation, please fill out our online excuse form and send the note if you have it to your mentor or homeroom teacher (as an attachment) so they can forward it to the attendance office for the absences to be excused.
How many days can your student miss
We require that our students maintain 90-100% attendance at all times. This means that a student can miss no more than 5 school days per quarter. Remote learning allows you the flexibility to do school from anywhere from any device, so please find a way for your student to log into school even if it is for part of the day. Then have them make up what they missed.
Withdrawing students for attendance
After 10 days of no log in, your student can be withdrawn from UTVA. If a student is withdrawn from UTVA school for not attending, they will lose their spot at UTVA and will need to find another school to attend, since Utah has compulsory education laws. We will need to know the name of your new school or have a parent fill out an homeschooling exemption affidavit with their local school district.