Natomas Charter board adopts attendance policy and directs handbook edits after detailed line‑by‑line review

The Natomas Charter District Board approved the second reading and adoption of Board Policy 5113 (Absences and Excuses) at its May 11 meeting and then spent substantial time reviewing draft handbooks for Star Academy, PFAA, Leading Edge and ECA.

During the handbook review, board members and principals identified and directed a series of targeted edits: add a short explanatory sentence to the five‑day attendance “watch” notice stating the purpose is to inform families that the student is now being monitored; correct references to semester/trimester schedules where applicable (Star Academy operates on semesters); clarify that chronic absence triggers discussion and possible interventions (with medical documentation required after 15 days); standardize vocabulary (use “drive‑through line” consistently for drop‑off/pick‑up), and unify visitor‑management phrasing (use “visitor management system” rather than a specific product name so future changes do not break links). The board also asked staff to ensure immunization language references state law and to harmonize capitalization and punctuation across bullet lists.

Administrators committed to applying agreed edits across all handbooks where appropriate, to add links to the district policy page rather than single‑policy URLs in the student handbooks, and to return a cleaned, standardized set of handbooks for final review. Several procedural clarifications were made public on the record — for example, the district will track attendance watch/warning lists internally and principals will follow up with families after 10 days to understand barriers and possibly exclude a student from certain activities after 15 days, depending on circumstances.

The board adopted the policy and approved the set of handbook changes as a package for editing; staff will circulate revised handbooks and incorporate corrections identified during the meeting.