Dear Patchogue-Medford Middle School and High School Families:

As we complete our fifth week of classes, we would like to thank our students, administrators, teachers, support staff and parents for all their efforts in a successful start to an extremely complex school year. We do recognize that there is no substitute for in-person instruction, but due to spacing at our middle schools and high schools and the current New York State Department of Education (SED) guidelines on social distancing, we are unable to accommodate fully in-person instruction.  We remain optimistic that the COVID number will remain low and guidelines from SED will be revised.  Until such time, we will continue to evaluate and enhance our current hybrid model.  At this time, we will be making a modification to our attendance procedure for days’ cohorts are not in-person (Remote Learning days).  Please review the new procedures below: 

• On Remote Learning days’ students will need to log-in daily for attendance purposes. Rather than having to take attendance in each class, we have streamlined the procedures for students.  Students will need to go directly to their school’s website and click on the Daily Remote Attendance Form.  Students will enter their name, grade and assigned cohort.  Once students submit this form, they are marked Present for all remote classes. Failure to complete this form will result in your child being marked absent for that specific day.
  • Cohort 1 students must complete this form on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
  • Cohort 2 students must complete this form on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

It is extremely important to know that in addition to student’s logging in each day for attendance purpose, they must continue to sign-in to Schoology to access all assignments that have been posted by teachers. 

Question:  If my child forgets to log-in for attendance but completes his assigned work in Schoology, will he/she still be marked absent?

Answer:  Yes.  Attendance and completion of work are two separate items.  A student must do both.

Question:  Will my child have to log-in for period by period attendance during Remote Learning days?

Answer:  No.  These new procedures streamline daily attendance on Remote Learning days. Your child only has to sign-in once and they will be marked present for all classes that day.

We will be reviewing all of these new procedures with the students.  We will begin the new Daily Remote Attendance sign-in on October 13^th for Cohort 1 and October 19^th for Cohort 2. We appreciate your assistance in reminding your child to check-in for attendance purposes on days they are on Remote Learning.  Attendance is critical for a variety of reasons:

• Attendance is a requirement for state aid.
• Students are required to have appropriate seat time to be awarded credit for a course.
• Allows districts to monitor chronic absenteeism and to offer immediate support and resources to students and families.

Thank you for your continued support during these challenging times. Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact your child’s teachers or your building principal.

Sincerely,

 
Lori Cannetti
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction