Maddy Cox

The first bell of the day rings at 8:28 a.m. and students who are in school at this time are expected to be present in their classrooms. Students who have not yet entered the building are required to sign in at the Welcome Center. If they do not have a valid reason with proper documentation they will be marked absent-late.

The first bell, marking the start of 1st Hour, rings at 8:28 a.m. All students are expected to be in their classrooms so teachers can mark them as present on Infinite Campus. But what happens to the students who haven’t entered the building yet?

Students who come in after the first bell are expected to ring the buzzer at the entrance and sign in at the Welcome Center. When individuals do that, they are automatically marked as absent-late on Infinite Campus. If students are in the building before the bell rings but are late for their first class, then they are marked tardy. 

Absent-late is a code that administrators use to show that a particular student wasn’t here in the building until after 8:28 a.m.

Assistant Principal Colleen Fields said that this type of label is mandatory for the state of Missouri.

“The state of Missouri requires that we report, at a certain time, who is here in the building. So, if you’re running late and you come in and you sign in after the bell has rung, you’re assigned an ABLT, which is absent-late. We can’t tell the state that you were here because you weren’t physically here in the building,” Fields said. 

Since absent-late is still considered a tardy, they will add to student’s tardy count.

If a student provides a doctor’s note as an excuse for being late to school, however, then they won’t be marked as absent-late but as absence excused.

“There is a code that we can use for excusing [students] because we have a doctor’s note provided,” Fields said. 

On the other hand, a tardy is when a student is already present in the building but enters their class after it has started. 

“If you’re in the building, and let’s say you go get something to eat and then the bell rings and then you go into your class, that’s considered tardy because you were already here in the building,” Fields said.