Regular school attendance is essential for a student to make the most of his or her education—to benefit from teacher-led and school activities, to build each day’s learning on the previous day’s, and to grow as an individual.  Absences from class may result in serious disruption of a student’s mastery of the instructional materials; therefore, the student and parent should make every effort to avoid unnecessary absences.  A recent study from E3 Alliance stated Texas high school students who miss 10 school days a year are three times more likely to drop out than those who miss 5 days. (Texas Monthly, December 2015, page 208).  As per the State’s mandatory attendance laws, pursuant to Section 25.095 of the Texas Education Code, if a student is absent from school for 10 or more days or parts of days within a 6 month period in the same school year or for 3 or more days or parts of days within a 4 week period, there is cause for concern and those absences must be addressed.  

   Under Texas law, it is the parent’s duty to monitor the student’s attendance and require the student to attend school. Children cannot learn if they are not present in school, so attendance is a must. Please visit with your child about the importance of showing up to school everyday, and make that the expectation.  Do not let your child stay home unless they are truly sick.   Showing up for school has a huge impact on a student’s academic success starting in kindergarten and continuing through high school. Even as children grow older and more independent, families play a key role in making sure students get to school safely every day and understand why attendance is so important for success in school and on the job.   Thank you for your help with this concern.

Thanksgiving holiday will be from November 25-27. Secondary campuses will dismiss at 11:30 on Tuesday, November 24.

On a regular basis, our staff reviews with our students the various campus safety procedures to ensure our students are familiar with those procedures in case of an emergency. All WOISD campuses practice various types of safety drills with our students throughout the year. Those include the following: Shelter in Place (The purpose is to keep our students and staff safe by not moving around. This is in effect any time it is safer to be inside than outside), Building Evacuation (The purpose is to keep our students and staff safe by leaving the building. This is in effect any time it is safer to be outside than inside) and Site Evacuation (The purpose is to keep our students and staff safe by relocating to a predetermined safe location. This is in effect anytime it is safer to evacuate our campus and transport our students to a predetermined safe location rather than to stay at White Oak. This semester, we have practiced both the Shelter in Place and Building Evacuation drills. On Monday, November 16, 2015, White Oak ISD will conduct a district wide evacuation drill. This drill is designed to simulate the need to remove all students and personnel and relocate to a predetermined safe location. We want to give you advanced notice of this drill. Since this is only a drill, all students will practice this drill by moving to the designate pick up area on our campus and will load buses.   No one will actually leave the district and/or be transported. We will complete the building evacuations and ensure that everyone is loaded and accounted for to transport. We expect the entire drill to be complete in 30-40 minutes and then everyone will return to a regularly scheduled instructional day. Again, this is only a drill and students will not leave the district.