Ms. Marlene Camp, School Counselor

Mrs. Angel Mitchell, IPC

Ms. N'jyria Sutton, School Counseling Clerk

                                                     
Welcome to the Guidance Office! Our mission in is to assist your child and his/her teachers in facilitating Fessenden Elementary's mission statement and goals for each and every student. Please call 671-4937 if we can be of service.

We would like to invite you to come in and get to know us and the services we offer and those offered from this office. You may come by school or call during "teacher hours" and make an appointment with us. You don't need to wait until you have a problem or special reason! We hope that, together, we can lay a good foundation for future success and achievement by making your child's years at Fessenden Elementary a happy and rewarding learning experience

Counselors' Goals

• Help children understand themselves and others
• Help to identify children with special needs
• Provide crisis intervention
• Develop plans to prevent academic/behavioral problems from developing
• Provide Character Education program
• Coordinate the efforts of other professionals working for children
• Provide orientation for children coming to Fessenden Elementary for the first time
• Promote positive attitudes toward persons of diverse cultural, racial, ability, and socioeconomic backgrounds

Registration

New Enrollment Process: All new students must register online – Please visit https://www.marionschools.net/Page/69074 for more information

Attendance

As parents, it is your responsibility to assure your child/children have regular, timely attendance. However, if a child arrives to campus, after 7:40am, he/she must be checked in at the School Office by a parent/guardian before reporting to class. Also, if children are chronically absent, tardy, or picked up early, notices may be sent from the Guidance Office in accordance with Marion County School System policies and FL statutes.  Please call the Front Office if your child is absent.  Upon your child's return to school, send a hand-written note as to the reason for the absence.  If your child was seen by a doctor, please send the doctor's note.

Advance Absences

Please contact the Guidance Office if you know in advanced if your child will be absent. Please remember all advance absences must be approved by Ms. Redd, Principal.

Official Records

Your child's cumulative records are housed in the Guidance Office. If you need to review anything in the folder please call ahead and make an appointment for someone to go over the contents with you. If you need a copy of any document in your child's folder we can provide it for you. Again, please call ahead and we will try and have it ready for you or will send it home via your child. If you are transferring out of Fessenden Elementary we will make sure all necessary documents are forwarded to your child's new school.

*If you are a non-custodial parent who wishes to have copies of report cards, interim reports, and other routine school information, please see your child's teacher. You will be required to provide self-addressed, stamped envelopes for this.

Health Services Program

Parents are encouraged to call the school if they have health concerns regarding their child. The visiting health nurse provides health counseling, health education, and assistance with medical referrals and necessary follow-up.

In case of a health emergency, “911” (emergency medical services) will be called and the parent/guardian will be notified immediately. In the event the parent/guardian cannot be reached, the person designated by the parent/guardian to call “in case of emergency” will be notified.

During the school year, all students are eligible to participate in certain health services. Health screenings including, but not limited to, vision, hearing, and scoliosis will be conducted at various grade levels. Parents will be notified if these screenings indicate the need for follow-up. If a parent does not wish for his/her child to participate in health screenings, they should send a written note to the principal on a yearly basis requesting their child be excluded from participation. Health services begin the first week of school.

School health insurance forms are available upon request in the main office.

Medicine and Medication

If students are to take medication at school, an authorization form must be on file in the clinic naming the drug and the physician who prescribed the medicine, phone number of the physician, amount and times medication is to be given and the health condition requiring the medication. Students will not be permitted to take medication without a completed authorization form (including inhalers). The medicine is to be brought to school in the original container and kept in the clinic.