Cyber Attendance Policy

Central York Cyber Academy learners will follow all Central York School District attendance procedures including excuse submissions as outlined in the CYSD Student/Parent Handbook in addition to those specifically related to the Central York Cyber Academy.

• Students will be excused from school in the event of illness, death in the immediate family, quarantine, or exceptional reasons determined to be urgent by the school authorities in accordance with school law.
• With regard to excused absences, the burden of proof for a student being excused from school is placed on the parent/guardian of the student. Determination of the excused nature of the absence is left to building principal or designee discretion. Please note: students may access and attend school virtually from their home 24 hours a day seven days a week. Excused absences should be few, far between, and due to extreme circumstances. The very nature of an online school allows students to maintain attendance while circumstances would ordinarily prevent them from attending school. Students who maintain their adequate work completion goals on a weekly basis will not be required to provide documentation except in the case of a pre-approved absence (family vacation, educational field trip etc.)
• Parent call/email and submission of excuse within 5 days
  • Excuses can be submitted via parental phone call, email, or excuse card to the Central York Cyber Academy Coordinator
  • After 10 days of absence, the school may require a physician’s statement for any future absence. Upon accumulating the absences, a student will be placed on a doctor’s note for the remainder of the year in order for his/her absences to be excused. Written notice of this requirement is sent to the parent or guardian upon accumulating ten absences.
  • When a child has a total of three days of unlawful absences, a legal notice will be served on the parent or guardian. Additional unlawful absences will be referred to the District Magistrate for court action.
  • After 3 cumulative unlawful absences, the learner will be required to attend a Truancy Elimination Plan Meeting.
    • Consistent with Pennsylvania School Code, in the case of learners age 18 and over, after 10 consecutive unexcused absences, Central York School District reserves the right to remove the learner from his/her cyber classes and/or withdraw the learner from Central York High School.
    • Cyber truancy may lead to removal from Central York Cyber Academy. It is the responsibility of the parent to re-enroll in the learner back into the “brick and mortar” school should the learner be dropped for any reason. Compulsory school attendance procedures will be initiated if the learner is not re-enrolled.

Pennsylvania School Code requires all public schools to offer a minimum of 180 days of instruction each year. Additionally, a minimum number of instructional hours are noted as an equivalent of 180 school days.

*The CYCA week runs from Monday morning through Sunday night at 11:59 PM. The flexibility of a seven-day school week provides for an opportunity to eliminate absences each week. Assignments are available 24 hours/7 days a week and can be completed at any time. Online teachers, however, may only be available during structured times as posted.

(Includes both online and offline activity)

(Includes both online and offline activity)

(Includes both online and offline activity)

CYCA will calculate attendance as a combination of course pacing and activity time.

• For full attendance, learners are expected to be “on pace” in all classes weekly or no more than 3 percent behind.
• Activity time measures the online time students are actively engaged and making forward progress in their online coursework. Activity time does not include any offline academic work such as elementary workbook pages, studying for a quiz or test, writing assignments, projects, research, or independent study.
  • Kindergarten learners are expected to complete at least 300 minutes per week of online activity time, which is equivalent to 60 online minutes per day over a 5-day school week.
    • Please note few kindergarten learners can remain “on pace” by completing just the minimum standard of online activity time. The necessary online activity time needed to maintain pace varies from to learner to learner.
    • In addition, the 300 minutes of online activity is a weekly average. Learners have flexibility in their schedule and can work for longer periods on some days and shorter periods on others.
  • Grade 1-5 learners are expected to complete at least 375 minutes per week of online activity time, which is equivalent to 75 online minutes per day over a 5-day school week.
    • Please note few grade 1-5 learners can remain “on pace” by completing just the minimum standard of online activity time. The necessary online activity time needed to maintain pace varies from to learner to learner.
    • In addition, the 375 minutes of online activity is a weekly average. Learners have flexibility in their schedule and can work for longer periods on some days and shorter periods on others.
  • Grade 6-12 learners are expected to complete at least 750 minutes per week of online activity time, which is equivalent to 150 online minutes per day over a 5-day school week.
    • Please note few grade 6-12 school learners can remain “on pace” by completing just the minimum standard of online activity time. MOST middle and high school learners accrue 1000 minutes or more of online activity each week to stay on pace in their classes. The necessary online activity time needed to maintain pace varies from to learner to learner.
    • In addition, the 750 minutes of online activity time is a weekly average. Learners have flexibility in their schedule and can work for longer periods on some days and shorter periods on others.

Full-time Kindergarten cyber learners should maintain pace in all courses. If the learner is more than 3 percent behind pace in a given week (Monday through Sunday) then attendance is calculated as follows:

Full-time Elementary grade 1-5 cyber learners should maintain pace in all courses. If the learner is more than 3 percent behind pace in a given week (Monday through Sunday) then attendance is calculated as follows:

Part- time Elementary and Middle School cyber learners should maintain pace in each course in which they are enrolled. Weekly attendance (Monday through Sunday) will be calculated based upon both pacing and activity minutes adjusted for the number of course enrollments.

Full-time grade 6-12 cyber learners should maintain pace in all courses. If the learner is more than 3 percent behind pace in a given week (Monday through Sunday) then attendance is calculated as follows:

Part- time High School cyber learners should maintain pace in each course in which they are enrolled. Weekly attendance (Monday through Sunday) will be calculated based upon both pacing and activity minutes adjusted for the number of course enrollments.

Whether an absence is excused or unexcused, learners are required to make up all work and continue toward successful completion of coursework in order to receive credit in accordance with the policy that governs the granting of credits. Learners can avoid having absences (whether excused or unexcused) tracked by making adequate weekly progress in their assigned coursework or by working ahead in their coursework.

When learners, parents and/or guardians anticipate future excused absences, they should work ahead in the weeks prior to the future excused absence in order to stay on track. When learners encounter an unforeseen absence, they will need to make up that work time within three school days of each absence, following an excused or unexcused absence. An individualized work completion plan can be generated in collaboration with the Central York Cyber School Coordinator to meet the educational need of the cyber learner in extenuating circumstances.

• Learners who are unable to log into school or who have a power outage or network connection issues must have an alternative plan to complete coursework. Alternative plans may include the School Library/Learning Hub, public library, or a public location with computer access to do work. The learner must notify the CYCA District Coordinator in order to legitimize the absence. A maximum of 1 day can be excused for this reason.
• Learners who are absent due to school-issued computer technical issues and do not have a back-up plan and cannot go to either the school or public library, must contact both their School Technical Support and the CYCA District Coordinator, within 24 hours, to legitimize the reason for absence.