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TPS – The Potter's School  »  Current Classes  »  Guides / FAQs  »  Attendance and Absence

Attendance and Absence

For Your Convenience: Use our convenient message form to send your parent-excused absence notifications to TPS and your teachers.

Report Absence

You can select your teachers from a list instead of looking up their emails and typing them in, and the message goes directly to TPS Support and the teachers.
Parent Notification of Excused Absences

TPS courses are designed for synchronous (live) attendance and participation. Academic credit for a TPS course assumes regular live attendance and participation. Missing an occasional TPS class is not a problem, but missing many classes may make it difficult for even a strong student to do well in a course. Missing many live class sessions may also invalidate credit for a course.

  • Parents are expected to ensure their students attend and participate actively in their live TPS classes.
  • If it is necessary for a student to miss a live class, a parent should notify TPS in writing of the absence.
  • Notification should be made well in advance or as soon as reasonably possible.
  • Notification for each absence period should be a single email that includes TPS Support and each affected teacher.
  • Reason for each absence should be accurately provided.
  • Parents considering extended absence (e.g., travel, vacation) or multiple absences (e.g., sports, music, debate) during the academic term are encouraged to seek TPS concurrence prior to enrolling or as early as possible to ensure credit will be provided.
  • If the student is enrolled in the course as Non-Attending with TPS approval, then these notifications are unnecessary.
Absences and Class Participation Scoring

TPS encourages teachers to give low weight in-class Participation scores because this encourages actual participation and promotes learning.

  • For courses where in-class Participation is scored, the teacher will score as Zero the in-class Participation for any absence the parent does not report in advance or without delay.
  • For courses where in-class Participation is scored, the teacher will score as waived (NS) the in-class Participation for any absence the parent reports the absence in advance or without delay.
  • If the student is enrolled in the course as Non-Attending with TPS approval, any scored Participation is waived.
Absences and TPS Credit

TPS grants credit to the student for a course. Credit for a synchronous course assumes regular live participation unless a special accommodation or waiver is provided in writing.

  • TPS will track parent reports of absence, including reason and timeliness. For reported absences, TPS will provide written warning to the parent if the absences for the course risk placing the credit at risk.
  • TPS has other means of detecting or determining absence or non-participation even if it is not reported.
  • TPS will consider all absences (reported or unreported) or unresponsiveness in determining whether to grant credit to a student for the course. If TPS determines a student to have excessive consecutive or recurring absences (reported or unreported) in a course, the course may be placed in No TPS Credit (i.e., no TPS transcript) at the sole discretion of TPS.
  • If the student is enrolled in the course as Non-Attending with TPS approval, live attendance does not affect course credit.
Absences and Assignments

Assignment due dates are not adjusted for class absences. Please review the Assignment Submission Guidelines for more information.

Humanitarian Academic Leave (Extended Absence) and Waivers
  • In cases of extended illness, injury, surgery, bereavement (death in the immediate family) or other similar situations where the student must be away from classes and assignments for an extended period (greater than 5 days (120 hours)) for humanitarian reasons, it is cumbersome and counterproductive to negotiate individual assignment extensions, waivers, or accommodations for each assignment.
  • TPS manages periods of prolonged absence from classes or assignments due to humanitarian reasons through an overall academic leave of absence rather than by individual class or assignment. In keeping with the humanitarian purpose, assignments are usually waived rather than extended. To further reduce the notification and negotiation burden, the leave period, including all assignments, is centrally coordinated by TPS Support rather than by individual teachers.
  • Please see the Humanitarian Academic Leave details in the Assignment Submission Guidelines.