Attendance

We are required to track all absences. To streamline this process, we are asking all families to report ALL absences on this form: REPORT AN ABSENCE/LATENESS FORM. Use this form to report regular, non-COVID related absences AND COVID-related absences.

If you report a COVID-related absence, please ALSO fill out the REPORT A POSITIVE COVID CASE FORM

What do I do when my student is absent or late?

• Report ALL instances of ABSENCE or LATENESS via the Attendance Form:
  Form link: https://nestmk12.net/attendance
  You can report on a single date, or a range of dates. 
• Also, please email your child’s teacher(s). 

Using the Attendance form is the BEST way to report an absence or lateness. Our Attendance Secretary works from the form responses to manually update each student’s record.

How is attendance taken?

Attendance is taken each morning by your child’s first period teacher. Note for Grades 6-12 families: if your student swipes in at the CAASS machine before 8:15am, and they are not present when the first period teacher takes attendance, they will be marked absent.

If your child's attendance was marked incorrectly because he/she arrived late to school or class after the teacher took attendance, PLEASE reach out to your child’s teacher for an attendance correction. Our Attendance Secretary will need the teacher correction in order to update the student's record.

How to get an excused absence or lateness

• If a student is out of school for 3 days or longer, the parent/guardian will need to provide supporting documentation explaining the reason for the absence.
• If a student is sick or not feeling well for 1 or 2 days, simply fill out the Attendance form, no note is needed.
• An absence due to a positive COVID result, with an upload of the positive test result into the COVID reporting form, will be automatically excused and will not appear on the student’s record.

How to document an absence

The following types of documents can be uploaded into the Attendance Form to excuse absences or lateness:

• Doctor’s Visit note documenting illness/office visit
• College visit note confirming participation
• School Tour note confirming participation
• Competition Letter of Attendance confirmed by organization
• Official MTA transportation alert with date and time notification  (Note: Heavy traffic or inclement weather is NOT or Excused unless confirmed by the Chancellor's Office.
• Family vacations are not excused absences.

Attendance reporting

Parents/guardians should log into their NYC Schools account to see attendance. The NYC Schools account does not indicate excused absences. The system reports on whether a student is in the school building, or not. Our Attendance Secretary can provide you with an attendance report which provides information on BOTH excused and unexcused absences. If your child has a large number of absences or lateness, and there is an extenuating circumstance, you can request that their Guidance Counselor writes a letter to explain the circumstance. 

Please encourage your Grade 6-12 children to check in with our Attendance Secretary in the Main Office when they (or you) have questions about their attendance record. 

All attendance corrections must be made during the school year.

Once the school year ends, corrections can not be made. We recommend looking at your child’s attendance every month. Contact our Attendance Secretary if corrections or explanations are needed.

Please do not wait until June to correct attendance for the entire school year!