WCSD Attendance Calling System for Secondary Schools

[chill]

Good morning -

At the start of school in September, the Wappingers Central School
District began using a new system, called Schooltool, for keeping
track of student attendance. Starting this past Tuesday, we began
using the daily attendance records kept by this system to help us
notify parents when their high school or junior high school student
missed more than half a day of school.

To do this, we use an automated phone system called AlertNow. While
this is the same system we used last year, there is one difference we
want you to know about. Last year AlertNow called home the day after a
student's absence; this year it will call on the evening of the
absence.

Using a combination of human and electronic voices, the AlertNow
message will say, "This is the Wappingers Central School District
calling with an important message from the principal and attendance
office of the [name of school] to report that your child [student's
name] was absent for at least half the day today, on [name of date].
Please send a written note of explanation to the attendance office as
soon as possible."

Keeping accurate attendance records is important for both educational
and fiscal reasons. (In the latter case, state aid depends, in part,
on the number of students who attend school each day.) We greatly
appreciate your help in keeping our attendance rates high and our
oversight of attendance records as accurate as possible.

- Charles Hill