Embedded Files
Redwood Shores Elementary School Handbook:
Our families, prospective families, and staff should review our handbook for an exhaustive list of policies, protocols and procedures for Redwood Shores Elementary School. This handbook may continue to be updated as needed throughout the year. Below are some highlighted policies:
Cellphone and Smart Watch Policy
Cell phone and smartwatch policy:
As soon as students arrive and line up in the morning, phones and smart watches must be turned off.
Devices must stay off and inside backpacks for the entire school day.
Students may turn them back on after dismissal to contact family as needed.
During the school day, students must not check, use, or wear cell phones or smartwatches. BRSSD and Redwood Shores Elementary School are not responsible for lost, stolen, or damaged devices.
Why this policy?
Helps students focus on classwork and friendships
Reduces distractions, anxiety, and conflicts
Supports a calmer, more connected school community
Violations of cell phone & smart watch policy
We use progressive discipline to help students learn and remember expectations:
First offense: Device will be taken by staff and returned to the student at the end of the day.
Second offense: Device will be taken; parent/guardian must pick it up from the front office.
Third offense or more: A meeting will be held to create an intervention plan for responsible use with the principal
Need to contact your student?
If you need to get a message to your child during the day:
Call the main office at (650) 802-8060 . We’ll make sure your child gets the message as soon as possible.
Guardians should refrain from messaging student while at school during school hours
In case of an urgent school-wide emergency:
The principal or teacher will send a text and email blast to parents right away vis ParentSquare
Dress Code
Dress Code Policy Helping every student feel safe, comfortable, and ready to learn.
At Redwood Shores Elementary, we believe that what students wear should support a positive and focused learning environment—without limiting individuality or expression. Here’s what families need to know:
General guidelines
Clothing should be comfortable, school-appropriate, and free of offensive language or images.
Clothing must fully cover undergarments and private areas at all times (even when sitting, bending, or playing).
Closed-toed shoes with backs or heels are required for safety during play, PE, and daily activities.
Flip-flops, slides, or high heels are not safe for our active school day and should not be worn
Hats, caps, and sun-protective wear:
Are allowed outside for sun protection.
In classrooms, each teacher may decide if hats can be worn, based on the activity and learning environment.
By following these guidelines, families help us create a welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment where every child can focus on learning.
Please avoid clothing that displays:
Words, symbols, or images that promote:
Violence or weapons
Alcohol, tobacco, vaping, or drug use
Hate speech, profanity, or insults targeting any group or individual
Sexual content, innuendo, or sexually suggestive language/images
Gang-related signs or symbols
Images or slogans that could make others feel unsafe, threatened, or disrespected
The goal is to keep school a welcoming, safe, and distraction-free space for everyone. By choosing positive, school-appropriate clothes, families help create a caring environment where every student can focus, belong, and thrive.
Snack & lunch guidelines, class party guidelines
Supporting healthy minds & bodies at Redwood Shores:
At RSES, we know that what children eat during the day makes a real difference in their energy, focus, and learning. That’s why we follow the USDA’s Smart Snacks in School standards to guide what’s offered and brought to campus.
Students are expected to come to school daily with:
A full reusable water bottle with water
A snack to be eaten around recess time
Choice between home lunch OR free school provided lunch (menus offered monthly in the Weekly Seal Community Bulletin)
Daily Classroom Snack: To qualify as a Smart Snack according to the USDA, a snack or entrée must first meet the general nutrition standards:
Be a grain product that contains 50 percent or more whole grains by weight (have a whole grain as the first ingredient); or
Have as the first ingredient a fruit, a vegetable, a dairy food, or a protein food; or
Be a combination food that contains at least ¼ cup of fruit and/or vegetable (for example, ¼ cup of raisins with enriched pretzels); and
The food must meet the nutrient standards for calories, sodium, fats, and total sugars.
Great snack ideas: Fresh fruit or fruit cups packed in water or 100 % juice, Raw vegetables with a small container of dip (like hummus,) Cheese sticks, yogurt cups, Whole grain crackers
Lunch guidelines: Our cafeteria menus already meet USDA nutrition standards, so if your child buys lunch at school, you can feel confident they’re getting a healthy meal.
For lunches brought from home, we encourage meals that meet the USDA guidelines above and in the resource provided. Lunches that cover all food groups and meet the guidelines keep our students full and energized for the rest of the day.
Please avoid for lunch or snack:
Soda, sports drinks, or energy drinks
Candy or large desserts
Nuts of any kind (opt for sunbutter or sunflower seeds instead)
Due to allergy concerns, students may not share food for snack or lunch
Birthday Celebration policy
If you would like to celebrate your child’s birthday in the classroom:
first coordinate a time and day with your child’s teacher for a time and date at least 2 weeks in advance
(optional) bring non-food treats to keep birthday celebrations fun and balanced
Some non-food treats include:
Reading a book
Sharing pictures
Gifting pencils, stickers, or small trinkets to students
Playing a game
Cultural & traditional Celebrations policy
If you would like to celebrate a cultural event special to your family, we would love to have your expertise and for you to share your experience! Please coordinate with your child’s teacher with an explanation of the cultural event or tradition you would like to share. If it is a cultural experience that involves food, please abide by the following guidelines:
Follow all school snack guidelines
Avoid nuts of any kind
Inform the teacher additional allergies besides nuts and consider making accommodations to those allergies. It accommodations are not possible, please inform the teacher so they can coordinate to ensure the student with an allergy can be included
allergens can include: nuts, dairy, peas, sesame, soy, wheat, eggs, shellfish and more
absences, tardies, and truancy
We ask for your support in assuring that your child attends school every single day unless they are ill. Daily attendance assures that your child receives the best possible education that RSES can offer. We encourage families to plan trips when school is not in session. Please call the office or email our office staff to report each absence daily, plus the reason for an absence.
Guardians are expected to report all absences to the school office. Guardians should inform teachers of planned absences when cannot be avoided. Teacher are not required to create work packets for students while absent, but may suggest activities to do while out. Excused absences include illnesses under Belmont-Redwood Shores School District Illness Guidelines, medical appointments with doctor’s note, and religious obligations.
Unexcused absences are travel (even when notified in advance,) guardian opting to keep student home, or appointments without doctor’s notes. Families will receive attendance letters upon 3 or more unexcused absences or tardies. Families with excessive absences will require a meeting with the principal and counselor who will help the family develop an attendance plan.
Illness
If your child is ill, you are expected to call the school office each day of the absence to let us know that the child will not be in school. For your child's safety, our office staff must verify the whereabouts of absent children and will need to reach you if you have not called in. The office is staffed between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. At all other times, an answering machine is on for absence reporting. Children should not be sent to school if they are feeling ill so that they can get better and so that other children don’t get sick. Students may not come to school if they have had a fever within the past 24 hours.
Tardies
We ask that you assure that your child is at school every day on time. Tardies result in your child missing valuable classroom time. Families with excessive tardies will be asked to meet with the principal who will help the family develop a plan that will assure on-time arrival at school.
Truancy
Under state regulations, a student absent three times without being excused or late three times in excess of thirty minutes is considered truant. (Note: The state allows only medical/dental appointments and illness as excused tardies.) If the truancy is not corrected, students will be referred to the district’s School Attendance Review Board (SARB).
Bullying and Harassment
Bullying Definition:
Bullying is targeted and repeated unwanted, aggressive behavior (verbal or physical) between two or more students with a power imbalance. In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:
An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.
Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.
Harassment and Discrimination Policy:
It is the policy of the State of California to ensure that all local education agencies continue to work to reduce discrimination, harassment, violence, intimidation, and bullying. It is further the policy of Belmont-Redwood Shores School District to improve student safety at schools and the connections between students and supportive adults, schools, and communities. Please visit the district website for Student Safety for more in-depth information.
Resource:
BRSSD Board Policy 5145.7(a) on Sexual Harassment
BRSSD NON-DISCRIMINATION
The District programs, activities, and practices shall be free from unlawful discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based on actual or perceived race, color, ancestry, national origin, ethnic group identification, age, religion, marital or parental status, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression; or on the basis of a person’s association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. Additional bullying resources can be found at this link. AR 1312..3 Uniform Complaint Procedures. BP 0410 Nondiscrimination.
If you believe you have been subjected to discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or bullying, you should immediately contact the school site principal and/or Director of Administrative Services (CCR Title V and Title IX Officer) Julie Eastburn, at 650-637-4800, jeastburn@brssd.org
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