ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – As we head into the second week of school, Orange County Public Schools said its new absent notification system will be up and running again on Monday.
The district made changes to the absence notification system following the death of 13-year-old Madeline Soto.
Investigators in Soto’s case said her mother told them she didn’t know Maddie wasn’t in school until she got an automatic notification at the end of the day.
The policy was approved back in March and went into effect after kids returned from Spring Break in April.
“It really was a lot more complicated than I think any of us realized and so I will be honest, I did not expect we would have a solution in place,” OCPS Chair Teresa Jacobs said at the March meeting.
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The new policy allows for parents to get a call notifying them of their child’s absence in the beginning of the day as well as the end of the day.
OCPS said each parent will know whether or not their child was in school at the beginning of the day.
High school calls will begin at 8:55 a.m., elementary school calls will begin at 10:05 a.m. and middle school calls will begin at 11:05 a.m.
The district said if your child is absent for more than half of the day, you will also receive a call in the afternoon.
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The district is also encouraging parents to sign up for text notifications in addition to voice and email notifications, which they can do by texting “Yes” or “Y” to 68453 to sign up.
The notifications will start up again on Monday, Aug. 19.
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