Student Handbook

Daily attendance is very important! Absences make children fall behind in their work. Any student who has been absent from school should bring a note from a parent when returning to school stating the reason for the absence. If a student is absent due to illness for more than three days, a doctor’s note is expected upon return to school. All students must be picked up by 3:30 PM. If students are not picked up by 3:30 PM, school personnel may contact the Sheriff's department. According to district policy, if students have a history of absences or tardies from the previous year, truancy procedures can be accelerated during the following year.

After five absences, a letter of concern will be sent home to update parents of excessive absences. An additional letter will be sent home after 7 absences. Once a child has missed 10 days of school, they will be referred to the Hendry County TIPS program.

Bullying is defined as systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students or employees, and may involve but is not limited to teasing; social exclusion; threat; intimidation; stalking; including cyber stalking; physical violence; theft; sexual, religious, or racial harassment; public humiliation; or destruction of property.

The Hendry County School Board Bullying/Harassment Policy can be viewed in its entirety in the Hendry County School District Policies and Procedures Forms for reporting Bullying/Harassment may be obtained from any Hendry County School Office or the District website.

Known or suspected instances of Bullying/Harassment should be reported right away to the teacher or administration. Bullying/Harassment may be reported anonymously.

7:30 A.M….….....Breakfast
7:55 A.M………...Students report to class
8:00 A.M…….…...Tardy bell rings
3:00-3:15 P.M..…Dismissal

If students are checked out of school because of emergencies, parents must report to the office to sign them out.

Absolutely NO-ONE will be able to be checked out after 2:30

At no time will a child be allowed to sign out and go home alone. When a child is ill, a parent, guardian, or the emergency contact person must report to school to sign the child out. If a child must be checked out early for any other reason, a note must be sent to the teacher stating when and why the child will leave. Again, we emphasize that no child is to be checked out after 2:30 p.m. for any reason.

Parents are welcome to come to school and eat lunch with students during their scheduled lunch time. Please sign in the front office before going to the cafeteria.

It is imperative that the school office be notified immediately of a change of address, home or cell phone number, or emergency information during the academic school year. Most importantly, we want to have the telephone numbers of responsible adults who can be reached during the day in case a child becomes ill or has an accident. Only those adults indicated on the yellow emergency card will be allowed to pick a child up from school.

Our school participates in the Community Eligibility Provision. Through this provision, all students are eligible to receive breakfast and lunch at no cost. There’s no need to fill out an application. We hope that this will increase participation in our school’s breakfast and lunch programs, where we serve nutritionally- balanced meals daily. A healthy diet has been shown to improve academic success.
Students are allowed to bring lunch and/or beverages from home. It is very important that all students eat a healthy lunch.

Food costs are as follows for adults: Adult breakfast - $2.20  |  Adult Lunch - $4.00

Prescription or over-the-counter medications must be brought to the office. Please do not give medications to your child to bring to school! A student cannot have any medicine on school grounds unless trained office personnel administer the medicine. Parents must fill out a special form issued by the school nurse and completed by the doctor for any medicine to be given at school.

Open House - Tuesday, August 8th from 9:00-11:00

In order to pick your child up at parent pick up, you must have a car tag issued by the office. NO STUDENT WILL BE ALLOWED TO GET IN A CAR WITHOUT A CAR TAG. If you need a car tag, please contact the office.

In order to protect your child, we have a very firm policy on taking students out of classes during the school day. The following procedure will be used:

• NO CHANGES FOR DISMISSAL CAN BE MADE OVER THE PHONE. To make changes for dismissal, a signed note must be provided or the parent/legal guardian must come to the office.
• Parents should send a note notifying the child’s teacher that the child will be picked up
• early. The student will then take the note to the office.
• Upon arrival to campus, parents must report to the office to sign the child out. Please do not go to the cafeteria or classroom to get your child.
• Anyone that is sent to pick a child up must be over 18 years of age. Photo identification will be required, and the person must be listed on the yellow card.
• In the event that a student’s dismissal routine needs to be changed, we require written
• notification to the office. Do not tell your child to go home a different way without sending a note to his/her teacher!
• If there are special instructions or restrictions regarding who can pick a child up from school, there must be a record of such on file in the school office.

The report card used at LES is a graded report card and is the standard used by the Hendry County School system. Report cards are issued at the end of each nine weeks. Parent / Teacher conferences are scheduled after progress reports are issued. See dates of report cards, progress reports and parent conferences on the Dates to Remember page.

Safety is a prime concern at LES. The School Safety plan is updated annually and addresses everyday safety as well as emergency situations.

As the school year gets underway, we wanted to inform you that we will be practicing emergency drills regularly at LES, in accordance with state law. At least once a month we will have some type of drill that will be practiced. We practice fire, tornado, and lockdown drills. For a fire drill, all students will exit the building with the teacher that they are with. During a tornado drill, students will be against an inside wall covering their heads. There are two types of lockdown drills that we refer to as a red or a yellow lockdown. Yellow means that the classroom can remain active, however no one can leave the room that they are in. Red means that lights are off and students will be silent and hiding. Please discuss with your child the importance of practicing drills for their safety. We ask parents to support our efforts to provide a safe environment by reinforcing school rules with their children regarding behavior at school, on buses, and walking to and from school.

We also ask parents to follow safe driving practices around our school, and to drop off and pick-up students only in the designated student drop-off / pick-up area. Students who are designated as walkers are those who walk to and from their home in close proximity to the school.

School begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 3:00 p.m. Students are not allowed on campus/dropped off before 7:30 a.m. Students who arrive before 7:30 a.m. are unsupervised. Breakfast begins at 7:30 a.m. After breakfast students will wait outside their classroom until the 7:55 bell rings to go inside. The tardy bell rings at 8:00. After 8:00, students are tardy; parents must bring their students to the front office to check them into school.

During school hours, all students should be suitably dressed and properly groomed. We urge students to dress in practical, sturdy clothes.

T-shirts with obscene sayings or pictures will not be allowed. Additionally, no written or inferred references to alcohol or tobacco are allowed. Tank tops, baggy pants, crop tops, muscle shirts, costumes, and shorts that are very short may not be worn. Shirts must have straps of at least three inches in width. Shorts should be longer than the student’s fingertips when standing. Shoes with cleats may not be worn. Athletic shoes or sneakers must be worn during P.E. class. On days students do not have P.E. they will participate in recess; as a result, closed –toe shoes are required every day. Pants cannot have holes above the knee. Flip-Flops are not allowed. Platform shoes and any shoe with a heel over one inch present safety problems and will not be allowed at school. No make-up of any kind is allowed during school hours.

Any student with a dress code violation will be sent to the front office each morning. The first two dress code violations, parents will be contacted and asked to bring appropriate items to school for the student to change into. After three violations, the student will wear clothing provided by the school (examples: scrubs, t-shirt, pants) and also receive a discipline referral.

Students must wear a school ID at all times. Every student will receive two for free. If the student loses those two, the student will have to pay $5 for a replacement card. The student will serve a one day lunch detention after the second lost ID.

For the safety of the students, every visitor must sign in at the office and receive a visitor’s pass before visiting any part of the school. All school personnel have been instructed to stop anyone without a visitor’s pass or without an approved identification badge. No school-aged students from another school or district are allowed to attend school activities within the school day.