Student Attendance

To report an absence for a student, the parent or guardian must call 602-764-6595 and leave a message or 602-764-6500 to speak to our staff directly.

When reporting an absence, please state your student's full name, ID number or date of birth, the date of the absence, and the reason for the absence.  Absences should be reported before the absence or on the day of the absence, but you will have up to 10 days after the absence to excuse your student. If your student is going to be late, please make sure to state the time they arrive on campus to be able to justify a late arrival to campus. If the time is not mentioned in the call, we will not be able to justify the periods your student may have missed.

In the event of illness, family emergency, or observation of a religious holiday, students should stay home. As a guide, we suggest the following for each semester:   

Every school day counts in a child's academic life!

This school year, PXU is adopting the Strive for Less than Five attendance campaign to promote good student attendance. Good attendance means coming to school on time and being present in class all day every day, which is key to every child’s success.  After all, students must be present to learn! 

Attending school regularly helps students feel better about school, themselves, peers, and staff, which altogether improves academic success. We encourage you to help your student build good attendance habits by getting to school on time, every day, as it is an important skill that will help them succeed in life after high school.  Research shows that good school attendance is a better predictor of graduation rates than many test scores. Missing even two days a month (about 10%) during a school year can negatively affect a student's academic achievement.

Excused and unexcused absences affect the achievement of your child. Students who are absent two (2) days a month end up missing 18 days per school year. The Arizona Board of Education defines this as your child being chronically absent. Students who are chronically absent are more likely to not read at grade level, have lower test scores, fall behind on credits towards graduation, and drop out of high school. Ensure that your child is able to graduate from high school by attending school EVERY DAY. 

You can monitor your student's attendance on ParentVue or ask your student to show you the absence report on their StudentVue. If there is an error, contact the teacher for that class period. More attendance information can be found in the Handbook for Students and Families.

For administrative reasons, our District will classify absences with the following codes:

• ABS for unexcused
• BRO for brownslipped (typically includes extra-curricular events, testing, field trips)
• ETR for excused tardy
• EXC for excused
• IHS for In-House Suspension
• OFC for an office visit
• PDP for Pending Due Process Hearing
• SUS for Suspended
• TAR for tardy
• ABS for unexcused
• NUR for nurse's office

Regardless of the reason for the absence, your student was missing classroom instruction and this should be monitored. When your student is absent, they are responsible for the missing work upon returning to school. Communicating with the teacher is vital to ensure your student's learning. Have your student review their teacher's Plans for Success to view the process of submitting any missing assignments. 

PXU wants all children to attend today so they can achieve tomorrow! Therefore, we are asking every family to Strive for Less than Five absences per student, per semester. We will be sending more information, materials, and tips about attendance throughout this school year. Please partner with us to make school attendance a priority so we can help all our students learn, achieve, and succeed.