Handbook

If your child is going to be absent or late to school due to an appointment, please call our attendance voice mail 24-hour message tape at 312-7501, option #3, by 9:00 am on the morning of the absence. Please advise us if your child needs to order a hot lunch. It is required that a Doctor or Dentist note is provided to the office for appointments during school hours. A child's absence without the required note will be recorded as unexcused. It is important that a parent or guardian verify all absences and tardies by calling or by note to the office. If we do not hear from you, we will call your home or business to confirm the absence. These procedures are important to the safety of children as well as for the District and State accounting purposes.

Please note that if a child is absent due to a trip/vacation, he/she may be in danger of losing his/her enrollment at Audubon. Please read the section entitled "Truancy" for further information.

It is very important that your child arrive at school on time. If your child is late to school, she/he is to report to the office for a Late Pass slip. The child's absence will be charged to "late" on the student's attendance record. Students who arrive after 9:00 am should bring lunch from home, as the daily lunch count order is phoned to the district before this time.

If a student accumulates a number of unexcused tardies, you will receive a letter through the SMFC District Truancy Hunter program. Please read the section entitled "Truancy" for further information.

If your child must be excused from school early, a note stating the time of dismissal, the reason for dismissal and the person who will pick up the child should be sent to the teacher and the office. A child will only be released to the parent/guardian or other authorized adults listed on the emergency card. In an emergency situation, the parent may authorize someone else to pick up his/her child. The adult taking custody of the child will be asked for identification if not known to the office staff. All children will be released and checked out through the office, not the classroom. Please do not walk directly to the classroom to pick up your child. The authorized parent/guardian must sign out the student on the log located in the office. Authorized persons will be required to produce proof of a doctor or dentist appointment if arriving late, or leaving school early. Please read the section entitled "Truancy" for further information.

For your child's academic success it is important that he/she attend school on a regular basis.  Please avoid removing your child from school for a family vacation or any other inexcusable reason.   Please note that a family trip is NOT an excused absence.  Students with more than three (3) unexcused absences are eligible to receive a truancy notification letter.  Please review the San Mateo-Foster City School District's attendance policy here.  

California Education Code 48205 identifies the following reasons for excused absences:

1. illness-verified by phone or parent note

2. funeral services for a member of the immediate family-limit of one day within California or three days out a state.

3. Professional appointments-doctors, dentists, professional counseling

4. Medically required quarantine

5. Immunization-limit of five days

6. Justifiable personal or legal reasons such as an appearance in court, observance of a holiday or ceremony of his or her religion, and attendance at a funeral, other than as specified above.

There is no playground supervision before or after school. Before school, students should not arrive before 8 am. After school, all students are expected to go home, or to their after school program immediately upon dismissal from class. Parents and younger siblings who are waiting for older siblings to be dismissed may play on the primary structure with parent supervision. Students without supervision must wait in the office.

Audubon participates in the district food services program. Menus are distributed monthly. My School Bucks is a convenient online service that (for a small fee) allows parents to make payments to their child's meal account using Visa, Mastercard or a Debit Card. Click on this link to create your account today! For more information about the district lunch program please visit the Child Nutrition Services page on the district website.

If your child is going to be absent for more than two days, we will be happy to accommodate parental requests for homework. Please make this request when reporting the absence. Homework should be requested in the morning and picked up after school in the office.

Personal messages to be delivered to children during the school day must be kept to a minimum. We will accommodate such requests only in very unusual circumstances. Each request becomes a classroom disruption and an interruption to the instructional program. The office telephones are for official office business. Children will be allowed to use them only when deemed necessary for a child's welfare.

Who is required to be fingerprinted?

District policy states that parent volunteers who are taking students off campus alone (e.g. driving students on a field trip) must be fingerprinted. Volunteers who chaperone for the Coloma Outdoor Discovery Program MUST also be fingerprinted. If other field trip venues require chaperones to be fingerprinted, we will let you know.

Do I have to be fingerprinted every year?

No, this is a one-time requirement & fingerprinting is valid through your child's 8th grade year.

School Fingerprinting Procedures

Pick up the required ‘Request for Live Scan Service Form’ from the office.
Arrange for fingerprinting at a location that offers Live Scan services by clicking on the link below. This link will direct you to the State of CA, Department of Justice which provides information on Live Scan locations, hours of operation and the fees associated with each location:
https://oag.ca.gov/fingerprints/locations?county=San+Mateo.

After fingerprinting is completed, return the yellow copy of the ‘Request for Live Scan Service form to the school office with your child’s name and grade written on the form.
The office will notify the teacher when fingerprinting has been cleared.
If your fingerprints do not clear, you will be notified by the SMFC District office.

Fingerprinting FAQs

CLICK HERE to view frequently asked questions about the SMFC School District’s Fingerprinting Policy