Hi [Student Name],
Hope you're feeling better / doing okay! Here's what you missed in class on [date(s)]:
What we covered:
• [Topic/activity 1]
• [Topic/activity 2]
What you need to do:
• [Assignment 1], due [date]
• [Assignment 2], due [date]
Notes / materials: [Attached / available on [class platform] / see a classmate from Period X]
Come find me if you have questions. I'm happy to catch you up quickly.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Replace the bracketed placeholders with your own details before sending. Save your finished version somewhere easy to find so you can reuse it next year.
How to use this email
When to send it
The morning they come back, or the night before if you know they are returning. Not on day two of a fever. A kid home sick who opens an assignment list at three in the afternoon cannot do any of it and now feels behind on top of feeling awful.
Long or planned absences work the other way. Surgery, a funeral out of state, a suspension, a hospital stay: for those, the list goes out at the start, and it goes to the family as well as the student.
What to change before you send
- Prioritize instead of inventorying. Five days out is fifteen items, and a student who opens that list closes it. Mark one thing "do this first" and be explicit about what you are excusing. What they need is the shortest path back, not proof that you kept records.
- Put real dates on the make-up work. Check your handbook first, since many districts set the number of days a student gets per day absent, and a deadline you invented that undercuts it will not hold up. Then write the actual date, not "two days after you return."
- Cut "hope you're feeling better / doing okay" down to one. The slash is there for you, not for them, and if you do not know why they were out, do not guess. "Good to have you back" covers every reason, including the ones that were not illness.
- Name the classmate or drop that line. "See a classmate from Period X" hands a socially difficult task to a student who has just missed a week. Either name someone you have already asked, or attach the notes yourself.
- Attach the materials to this email. Every extra click loses somebody. If it lives on your class platform, link straight to the page, not to the homepage.
What a good reply looks like
Most of the time, "ok thank you," or nothing. Either is fine here, because unlike a missing-work reminder, this email has already done its work by existing.
The reply worth acting on is the small logistical one: they cannot open the file, they do not have the packet, they were out for a funeral and are asking for more time. The first two take thirty seconds. The third should change your deadline, and you should let it.
Watch the pattern rather than the single email. A student who needs this message a fourth time does not need a fourth list; they need the attendance conversation, and probably the counselor. Check your handbook for who owns that step at your school.