Attendance - Teaching Staff Member

Policy 3212

 

The regular and prompt attendance of teaching staff members is an essential element in the efficient operation of the school district and the effective conduct of the educational program. Staff member absenteeism disrupts the educational program and the Board of Education considers attendance an important component of a staff member’s job performance.

 

A teaching staff member who fails to give prompt notice of an absence, misuses sick leave, fails to verify an absence in accordance with Board policy, falsifies the reason for an absence, is absent without authorization, is repeatedly tardy, or accumulates an excessive number of absences may be subject to appropriate consequences, which may include the withholding of a salary increment, dismissal, and/or certification of tenure charges.

 

In accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:30-1, sick leave is defined to mean the absence from work because of a personal disability due to injury or illness or because the staff member has been excluded from school by the school medical authorities on account of contagious disease or of being quarantined for such a disease in the staff member’s immediate household. No teaching staff member will be discouraged from the prudent, necessary use of sick leave and any other leave provided for in the collective bargaining agreement negotiated with the member's majority representative, in an individual employment contract, or provided in the policies of the Board. In accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:30-4, the Superintendent or Board of Education may require a physician’s certificate to be filed with the Secretary of the Board in order to obtain sick leave.

 

The Superintendent, in consultation with administrative staff members, will review the rate of absence among the staff members. The review will include the collection and analysis of attendance data, the training of teaching staff members in their attendance responsibilities, and the counseling of teaching staff members for whom regular and prompt attendance is a problem.

 

N.J.S.A. 18A:27-4; 18A:28-5; 18A:30-1 et seq.

 

Adopted: 26 July 2005

Revised: 28 May 2015