Student & Family Handbook 2023-24

We value students’ attendance and engagement in our school community. When your student is absent, they are missed. Contact our office before 8:30am to report an absence or late arrival. There may be times your family faces a barrier to attending school regularly. Please reach out to let us know so we can help you during any challenging times. (206) 631-4800.

A school staff member will reach out to you by phone or email should absences exceed 5 days. 

Seahurst offers free breakfast and lunch to all students. We encourage students to decide when they are full after a meal to build on healthy eating habits.

We encourage families to support students as they choose clothing to wear to school that allows them to move comfortably throughout the day, including highly active times such as recess and PE. Clothing must be free of messages or images that promote drugs, alcohol, tobacco, violence, sexual messages, or intolerance or hate of any group of people. Wheeled shoes may not be worn at school as they can create a safety hazard and may cause damage to our facilities.

We ask that students keep their personal items at home, including cell phones. 

The use of cell phones at school has caused problems between students with texting and social media. If you would like to be able to reach your student at school, you are welcome to call the school office and we will relay the message.

Staff are unable to be responsible for recovering lost/stolen items. If you do choose to send your child to school with a cell phone, phones need to remain in backpacks and silenced until students are off campus. We are not responsible if they are lost or stolen. When cell phones are seen on campus, they will be stored in the school office for parents to retrieve.

We have a lost and found on the ground floor. Ask your child to check often for missing items!

Highline Public Schools has adopted ParentSquare, a new family communication tool for the 23-24 school year.  ParentSquare allows teachers and school staff to email & text families, and also has its own app where families can log-in to receive information.  Families, please visit the Highline website for information on how to create a ParentSquare account and download the app!

Elementary students are learning about their emotions and developing social skills. At Seahurst, we believe in teaching skills around behavior and emotions the same way we teach academics, and offering teaching and support to students who need it. If expectations are not met, staff use the following approaches:

Kindness and empathy are core values at Seahurst. When a student or family member reports an incident of bullying, an administrator will investigate by interviewing students and staff. Calls to families of any involved students are made. Staff follow through to support students to repair and restore relationships.

Seahurst values family partnership: you are your child’s first teacher. There are many opportunities for two-way communication year-round. You are invited to reach out to your child’s teacher to schedule a time to ask about your child’s progress, celebrate successes, or share concerns. Look for a parent communication survey each fall that will help our staff get to know your student and your preferred ways for being in contact.

There are regularly established timeframes when teachers communicate student progress and grades with parents. 

We welcome volunteers at Seahurst! Families can get involved at school by reading with students, helping teachers with projects, volunteering at special events, joining the PTA, welcoming new families to the school, and more! If you are interested, speak to the front office to obtain volunteer forms or click here.  To join PTA, email: officers@seahurstpta.org. 

We conduct monthly safety drills that include fire, earthquake, and intruder/lockdown drills so that our students are prepared in case of an emergency. If you are visiting the school during one of our drills, please follow the drill procedures along with our students and staff

For the safety of our students and staff, all outside doors are locked. We welcome you to visit. At the front doors, ring the doorbell, and a staff member will let you into the office. All visitors check in via the office and wear a nametag on campus.

It is our primary responsibility to keep students safe during an emergency. Please follow the procedures below for picking students up after a school wide emergency such as a fire or earthquake.

If students are in the building, report to the office to check your child out of school. 

If students are outside, they must wait with their class on the blacktop. Family members must check in at the Student Release Station on the blacktop to pick up their student.

In both situations, for student safety, students will be released only to people listed on their emergency cards.

Students may need to take medications at school. For safety reasons, all medications (including over the counter medicines, eye ointment, eye drops, ear medications, nose spray, and cough drops) are distributed through the office as authorized by your family doctor. Families will need to drop off the medication to the office along with a letter of authorization signed by a Dr.

The school staff is trained to administer first aid for minor injuries. In the event of a severe injury, 911 will be called. Families will be notified as soon as possible of a severe injury.

If a student becomes ill, we will call parents/guardians. If we are unable to reach you, we will call the designated emergency contact and keep your child in the health room until someone can be reached.

If your child experiences symptoms such as fever, vomiting, or diarrhea within 24 hours before school, please keep them home to be monitored until the symptoms have passed.

Check the Highline Public Schools website in the morning if it has snowed to see an update on whether school is delayed by an hour, two hours, or canceled.

We are unable to control when buses will arrive at your AM bus stop, and when they will arrive at school in the afternoon to bring students home. There is a bus driver shortage, and driver absences can result in drivers needing to do double runs. On the Highline webpage, there is a link to insert your address and look up your child’s bus number, anticipated pick-up time and location, and the anticipated drop-off location in the afternoon.

Students are well-supervised after school on campus and there is an adult at every bus, ensuring students have the correct colored bus tag to enter. Please help us keep your child safe by ensuring their bus tag remains tied to their backpack. 

School bus service is provided for students living more than one mile from school. Students are responsible to be at their assigned bus stop on time. Those who ride the bus should observe the following safety guidelines:

• Arrive at the bus stop no more than 5 minutes before your bus time

• Stay off private property and away from the road

• Respect others at the bus stop

• Keep a safe distance from the bus when it pulls up

• Only cross the road in front of the bus.

• On the bus, stay in your seat, keeping your body to yourself

• Use a normal low talking voice so you can hear the bus driver’s directions

• Show respect to your driver and to all students

Students are expected to follow the safety rules above. We will notify you if your child is not meeting these expectations. Several instances of not following the rules will result in a 2-week suspension of bus services.

For student safety, plan to arrive at school after 8:20 am. Prior to that time, staff are unavailable to supervise students. Drivers use the curb of the main parking lot on 14th Ave. SW. The parking lot entrance is a one-way single lane. Please do not get out of your car in the car lane. You can park your car in the parking lot, and use the crosswalk to meet your child on campus.

For students being picked up by car, families should wait in line in their car at the main parking lot entrance while staff members assist students with loading. Families need to remain with their vehicles so traffic can move quickly. If a parent needs to speak with a staff member, we ask that you please park in the lot and then walk in so pick-up traffic can keep moving. Please drive slowly and be patient.

If you have an appointment in the building, please use the crosswalks to enter the building to ensure family and student safety.

It is important that families call the office if transportation home will be different than normal, on any given day. Students are often mistaken when they report they are to wait for a family member, but it turns out this was not the case, and the bus has left without them. We rely on a call to the office to notify us of any changes, or we must send students home by their normal mode of transportation. 

Students cannot be left at school after dismissal time. Should you have a rare emergency, please call the office to let us know. We do not have adequate staffing to watch children after school. There are meetings and trainings staff need to attend. Thank you for picking up your child promptly at 3:15 PM Mon.-Thurs. and 1:45 PM on Fridays.