POLICIES AND HANDBOOKS

2023-2024 LPS Student Handbook

Updates to the Lincoln Preparatory Student Handbook may occur throughout the school year. Any changes/additions will be updated on the Lincoln Preparatory School website monthly to include necessary revisions.

Attendance Policy

(See "Compulsory School Attendance" policy starting on page 3 of student handbook)

Regular school attendance is essential for each student to make the most of his or her education— to benefit from teacher-supervised activities, to build each day’s learning on that of the previous day, and to grow as an individual. Absences from class may result in a serious disruption of a student’s mastery of the instructional materials; therefore, the student and parent should make every effort to avoid unnecessary absences.

Students may not miss any class more than 10 times within the school year, unless they are participating in competition beyond the district level. Students in grades K-8 who have more than 10 unexcused absences will be required to attend summer school and may be retained if they do not attend. Students in grades 9-12 must recover the seat time for unexcused absences over 10.

Seat Time Recovery

Students in danger of failing due to excessive absences may be allowed to make up missed seat time held outside of the regular school day. The makeup sessions must be completed before the end of the current semester for high school students. Middle school students must complete summer school or after school tutoring for excessive absences. If unexcused absences are greater than 5 full days, summer school is required.

Tardiness

Students who are late to class are designated tardy and will be assigned disciplinary consequences if they are tardy, without an acceptable excuse. Egregious tardiness—e.g., arriving to school after attendance has been taken—will be classified as an absence for the purpose of compulsory attendance enforcement if unexcused.

Nearly all tardiness is avoidable and is excusable only in cases of illness or emergency. To get an excused tardy slip, the student’s parent must report to the school office the emergency which caused the delay. Please see the specific guidelines for tardiness in the Quick Reference Section of the Handbook.

Truancy

Parents will receive notification of the State truancy policy at the beginning of the school year. Any juvenile student who is habitually absent or tardy from school will be reported as a truant child to the Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance, the family and/or juvenile court according to the provisions of Louisiana Children’s Code regarding families in need of services.

Truancy is defined by Title 17, Section 221 of the Louisiana Revised State Law. For details regarding the truancy statute, see page 14 of the student handbook or visit, http://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=80276.

Cell Phones and Other Electronic Devices

Students are not permitted to possess electronic devices (e.g., electronic games, iPod and mp3 players, pagers, radios, cameras, etc.) at school, unless prior permission has been obtained from the Executive Director. Without such permission, teachers will collect the items and turn them in to the Executive Director’s office. The Executive Director will determine whether to return items to students at the end of the day or to contact parents to pick up the items.

For safety purposes, the school permits students to possess cell phones; however, cell phones must remain turned off and in a students locker during the instructional day, including during all testing. Students may use their cell phones before the beginning of the instructional day (7:30 AM) and after the instructional day (3:13 PM). Cell phones are PROHIBITED in the classroom except for the Early College Academy.

Report Cards

Parents must be kept informed about their student's grades, overall performance, and absences. Therefore, report cards will be made available to parents at nine-week intervals. Report cards will be accessible in the Student Progress Center. Parents are requested to schedule a conference with their student’s teacher if he or she is not making adequate progress.

Uniform Grading Policy (K – 12)

GRADING SCALE REGULAR COURSES

100 – 93 = A

92 – 85 = B

84 – 75 = C

74 – 67 = D

66 – 0 = F

*Promotion is dependent on the grade level Pupil Progression Plan.