By law, children between the ages of 6 and 16 must attend compulsory school (skolplikt). It is the parent/guardian’s responsibility to ensure that the child attends school. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that the students complete their schooling.

The school is also responsible for taking attendance and reporting absences to parents of all age groups. At ISLK attendance is also essential in PYP 1, i.e. from the age of 5, as this is the equivalent of
year 1 in our international school system. The students are in school 178 days out of 365 in a year. Therefore the school asks parents to book trips etc. during the 187 days their children are not in school. The school is very restrictive with approving leave of absences during school time.

Parent/Guardian responsibility

It is the parent’s/guardian’s responsibility that the child is in school on time ready to learn. If a child is ill or for any other reason absent, the parent/guardian has to report to the school the same day.

Reporting illness

If a child is ill the parent/guardian need to report to the school before 8 am every day of the illness. The parent/guardian should phone the automatic reporting system Skola24, phone number 0515-86928. The parent/guardian need to have the Swedish personal number of the child at hand. If the parent/guardian has not yet received the personal number for their child/children they can phone the reception, phone number 046 3597570. The reception will then put the absence into Skola24.

Planned leave of absence

Parents/guardians can apply for leave of absence for their child if there are exceptional reasons. However, the school needs to give their permission and an application can be turned down. The parent/guardian need to fill in a leave of absence form well in advance. For absences of two days maximum, the permission can be given by the mentor/class teacher. For absences of three days or more, a permission by the Principal/Vice Principal is necessary. Parents/guardians find the leave of absence form on the school website and in the school reception.

Unnotified absence

Unnotified absences will be registered in Skola24 and a message will automatically be sent to the email address registered by the guardian.

Procedures for taking attendance in Skola24

PYP

In the PYP teachers will record absences twice a day at 8:30 and 14:30. An automatic message will be sent by Skola24 to the parents/guardian if the student is absent. Unnotified absence will be reported to the ISLK office and staff will phone the parent/guardian immediately.

MYP

In the MYP the subject teacher will take attendance at the beginning of each class. Both notified and unnotified absences will be sent by Skola24 automatically to the parent/guardian.

Procedures regarding absence

Procedures for mentors/class teachers to keep track of student absence Teachers will check absence trends in Skola24 at the end of every week. If there is an absence of significant extent and/or repeated patterns or another concern, parents/guardians will be contacted and further action will be taken if necessary. In the MYP, teachers will send reports from Skola24 to all parents/guardians for them to
sign/acknowledge once per term (end of November and end of April). In the PYP, reports from Skola24 are only sent to parent/guardian if the absence is of significant extent and/or repeated patterns, or if there is a concern.

Actions taken in case of high absence and concerns

1. Parents/guardians are contacted and meetings set up with mentors/class teachers.
2. Learning Support Team/Educational Leadership Team notified and involved.
3. If necessary, contact with external parties will be taken, for example: Social services, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (BUP), Primary Healthcare, Child and Adolescent Habilitation, The Education administration or the Police, depending on the situation. All actions will be documented and followed up. Support will be put in place when applicable.
4. If the student continues to have considerable absence (unnotified and notified absence exceeding 20%), the School Principal reports every student’s absence to the Child and Education Committee, City of Lund. If the student lives in another municipality, the report is sent to the home municipality.

If the school has any reason to suspect that a child is being maltreated, physically or verbally, the school is obliged to submit a notification of concern to the Social Services. (Social services Act, Chapter 14, §1)