If a student is going to be absent for 3+ consecutive days, they might qualify for Independent Study (IS). Independent Study essentially means that the student will be learning/studying independently; i.e the student will need to complete the same amount of work they would have been doing if the student were at school receiving instruction. Therefore a student would have about 6 hours of classwork/independent-learning for each day they are absent. So 3 days X 6 hours daily= 18 hours of classwork to be completed for 3 days of IS.

• The parent must request IS from the teacher at least 2 weeks before the absences.
• It is completely at the school’s discretion as to whether or not to approve an IS request. Students with poor attendance and/or behavior/academic concerns will not have IS approved. 
• If the teacher and Principal approves the IS, the parent must pick up an IS Contract/Agreement Form from the office, complete it, and submit it to the teacher at least 1 week before the start of the absences.
• Assigned IS work is due to the teacher by 8:30am the day of the student’s return to school. If the work is not turned in at this time, the IS Contract/Agreement will be deemed void, and the absences will be considered “Unexcused."
• If the work is not completed in its entirety, then the student will not receive full credit for the days missed. For example, if a student only completed 2 days of work, the rest of the IS days will be considered “Unexcused Absences".

Please be aware that it is at the school’s discretion as to whether or not to approve an IS request. Typically IS is only granted for families who have a catastrophic family situation, emergency, severe health issue, or other emergency or special circumstance. We encourage parents to take vacations or other long trips during Thanksgiving, Winter, Spring, and Summer breaks.