March 7, 2006 > Seat reassignment policy to be reviewed

by Gary Leatherman

The Fremont Unified School District Elementary Education Department has scheduled a community meeting March 14 to discuss a change in rules governing how long seats will be held for students who are enrolled in a school but do not attend for the first few days of the school year. Currently, a seat can be held for a student if he or she is absent without the school being notified for the first three days. If the student reports to school on the fourth day, he or she will be admitted. If not, he or she will be dropped from the school's enrollment.

The proposed change would shorten that period by one day. If a student is absent and the school is not notified on the first and second day of school, the student's seat can be reassigned unless the student arrives on the third day.

Under current rules, a student whose parents notify the school in writing that the student is planning to report to the school, the student can be absent up to 10 days before his or her seat can be reassigned. The proposed rule change would not allow a seat to be held more than two days unless the student has an excusable reason for being absent, such as illness.

The rule changes have been proposed to enable school officials and staff to assign students to their schools as quickly as possible, which is particularly important at schools where classroom space is limited and students may need to be overloaded to other schools. Shortening the period of time that seats can be held is expected to get students settled in their schools sooner than is possible under the current rules.

The meeting to discuss the policy will be from 7-9 p.m. in the Board Room of the FUSD Education Center, 4210 Technology Drive. Anyone interested in further information about the policy or the meeting should contact the FUSD Elementary Education Department at 659-2596. The text of Board Policy 5113.1, which governs the reassignment of students following an absence, is available on the FUSD website at http://www.fremont.k12.ca.us/5000Series.pdf.