Attendance

Miami Dade Online Academy (MDO) follows the district’s policy on attendance. An MDO student who has attained the age of six years is required to attend school regularly during the entire school term according to Compulsory School Attendance §1003.21. The school district must verify student attendance; therefore, students are expected to log in every school day and complete the appropriate work for each class.

Attendance record keeping is provided to MDO by the provider, who must maintain an auditable management system that records the student’s participation in the virtual instruction. Attendance may be recorded using the number of days a student receives instruction through a virtual program. MDO must report days present and days absent annually. There are 180 days of attendance required.

The information collected by the provider and reported to the district on a semester basis determines the official school attendance. For students present fewer than the total number of days in the semester, the absences are recorded beginning with the last day of the semester. The district enters the information in the district’s DSIS.

Only absences as specified in the Student Attendance Reporting Procedures PK-12 Handbook may be recorded as excused. The school may use disciplinary actions for excessive absences including placing on probation, reporting to the Federal and State Compliance Office for truancy, and withdrawing to the student’s boundary school.

Due to the nature of virtual instruction, MDO students are not confined to attend school or access their course work at a specific time of the day. Therefore, the parent/guardian should monitor their student’s daily online accumulated hours, the daily schedules, assignments, quizzes, and tests to assure their student does not fall behind during the semester. The student’s work should match the attendance. If they do not match, the school will have the authority to remove the attendance and begin the Truancy process. The Miami-Dade County Public School semester dates are the official end of the terms. Extensions and make-up work after the end of the semester date are not acceptable.

Excessive Absences:

In accordance with Florida Statute 984.03 and Board Rule 5200, any student accumulating ten or more class unexcused absences in an annual course, or five or more class unexcused absences in a designated semester course may have quarterly, semester and final grade(s) withheld pending an administrative screening and completion of assigned interventions by the Attendance Review Committee.