Absence requests (for parents)

If your child will miss school, you can let the school know in advance from the parent portal. The school reviews your request and marks the register for you if it approves.

Sending a request

Sign in to the parent portal with the link the school sent to your verified email. On the Absences card, press Request an absence and fill in:

• Child - choose which of your children is affected.
• From and To - the first and last day of the absence (a single day is fine: pick the same date for both).
• Reason - a short note, for example a medical appointment or a family event.

Press Send request. It goes straight to the school, and you receive a confirmation email that the request was received. A request may cover up to 31 days and must fall within your child's current school year (when the school has set the year's dates; otherwise within a year of today). You cannot send a second request for days already covered by one that is pending or approved.

Following the decision

Every request you have sent is listed on the Absences card with a status:

• Pending - the school has not decided yet.
• Approved - the school has accepted the absence.
• Declined - the school has not accepted it. If the school added a note explaining why, it appears under the request.

You also receive an email when the school approves or declines, so you do not have to keep checking the portal.

What happens at the school

When the school approves your request and your child's class keeps a daily register, your child is marked Excused for each day in the range on which the class takes the register (on days already taken, an Absent mark becomes Excused at once while a day your child was marked present stays as it is; later days start as Excused when the teacher saves that day's register). The absence is recorded as excused rather than unexplained. Note that on the report card an excused day still counts toward the total days, just not toward days present, so it still lowers the attendance percentage. Pending requests show as a count on the school's Attendance pages and dashboard for the owner and the staff allowed to review them, who decide each one in Attendance > Requests, so a timely request is unlikely to be missed.

Send the request as early as you can. An approved request records the days as excused for you, so there is nothing more to do once you see the "Approved" status. If plans change, contact the school directly.

Related: Using the parent portal