Attendance and Independent Study
Attendance and Independent Study
At MUS, we value school attendance and we hope that families schedule their travel outside of school days during the many breaks. Recent changes described below may impact families’ choices about when to travel and how to approach travel from an attendance perspective
Education Code 51749.5 requires that the amount of daily work assigned is equivalent to a minimum day of school, and teachers are responsible for keeping track of the minutes it takes to complete the work independently before giving credit for the days absent. This is a significant amount of schoolwork that may impact family decision-making around the timing of trips and when or when not to request independent studies. The daily work ranges from 3 to 4 hours per day and families should consider if this is a realistic expectation while traveling. Because of the large impact that this will also have on teachers' time to prepare work, we are unable to accept any last-minute requests. Requests must be made 5 full school days in advance. There will be no exceptions. Below are the daily work time requirements by grade:
- TK/Kinder - 3 hours/day
- 1st, 2nd, & 3rd - 3 hours and 50 minutes/day
- 4th, 5th, & 6th - 4 hours/day
This means that if a 4th grader missed 5 days of school to take a trip, the teacher would need to prepare 20 hours of work, the student would need to complete all assignments with quality (approximately 4 hours each day), then the teacher would need to review each piece upon return and verify that the time requirements were met. If their work is not adequately done then the student will be marked unexcused for any portion of the absence for which work was not adequately completed. This may lead to a child becoming truant and further repercussions.
If you are considering requesting an independent study please reach out to the front office and your child’s teacher well before your trip.