What is your school's attendance policy?

[sukhakuli]

You guys will love this. My dad lives in a pretty affluent area, here's their language about missing school:

The state funds that we receive for the daily attendance of students are not paid whenever your child is absent from school for any reason. Every time your child is absent the Blankity Blank District loses $50.

If your child does need to be out of school, please consider providing the District with a voluntary contribution of $50 for each day your child is absent.

I love it!! So, funny, but they also allow for independent study contracts when you're going on vacation. I think they're being quite reasonable

To the bolded, that is why attendance policies have gotten so ridiculous. Schools are worried about money, not the education of the students. It costs the same to run the school even if I keep my kid home because of illness or whatnot, but the school gets paid less. How does that make sense? They should pay schools based on enrollment, and not daily attendance.

Our school's policy looks tough, but there's a nice little loophole that makes vacations easier. After 3 unexcused absences you get a nasty gram from the school, but they don't count it until after the block of absences is over. So, we took the kids out for an extra week after Thanksgiving, and they missed something like 8 days total. Day 1 counted against them. Day 2 counted against them, and day 3 did as well, but the rest of the absences for the week were rolled in to the 3rd day. If the kids had more unexcused absences after that, then we'd have to go to court, but they could miss a month as long as it was all in the same block and nothing would happen. They have a pretty lax policy about the kids being sick, and they call me to come and pick them up from school all the time, even if my ds is just misbehaving a lot and they don't feel like dealing with it. We're in Texas, BTW.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

To the bolded, that is why attendance policies have gotten so ridiculous. Schools are worried about money, not the education of the students.

To be fair, the two can be quite intertwined. It's much easier to educate if you can afford to have a full staff & a well-maintained building

It costs the same to run the school even if I keep my kid home because of illness or whatnot, but the school gets paid less. How does that make sense? They should pay schools based on enrollment, and not daily attendance.

A lot of underachievers would probably do better in school if they had better attendance. For every person here on this board whose kids are making straight A's despite missing 2 weeks for vacation, there are a dozen other kids missing a month or more for various other reasons - and those kids are not doing as well. So, I'm sure that's why the states push attendance on the districts the way they do.

 

[Colleen27]

Kids can only have 5 unexcused absences before a truancy referral but any absence a parent calls in to verify is considered excused. At the elem and middle school levels the student handbook specifically discusses vacations, saying something to the effect of "Attendance is important to your child's success, but we understand that not all families can vacation during established breaks" and outlines the pre-arranged vacation procedure for getting work in advance. Our schools average attendance in the 95-97% range every year even with such a permissive policy so I don't think anyone has seen any need for stricter rules.

At the high school level the rules are somewhat tighter, with 15 absences in a semester triggering academic penalties even if they are all parent excused, but still very reasonable compared to some of the policies I read about here on the DIS.

 

[crisi]

To be fair, the two can be quite intertwined. It's much easier to educate if you can afford to have a full staff & a well-maintained building

Nor is it easy to educate kids who aren't in school.

For every Lake Wobegon living Diser whose kid is pulled from school all the time and performs great, you have two kids whose parents pull them to school to watch their younger siblings so they can work, or who don't make sure their kids get on the bus, or who pull their kids for Disney - whose kids don't perform at grade level. And in the NCLB world, if they don't manage to make those kids perform - you got a trip to Disney, and the administration and teachers get to look for new jobs.

I have a very bright daughter - well above grade level on standardized tests - no worries about that. She had pneumonia this winter. Its a real battle for her to stay caught up in her advanced courses, just with the homework. She normally has an hour or two of homework every night (this is sixth grade, and that doesn't include the 1500 pages of reading each tri), when she misses a day, add an hour for each day missed. She missed seven at the beginning of the tri - She'll have about sixteen hours of homework before she is caught up - plus the hour or two she is getting each day now that she is back. Plus, I get to relearn the quadratic equation to help her through the math she missed. I can't imagine pulling her for anything voluntarily...at this point it would be more of a punishment than a treat.

(She even has to make up gym. For every day missed, 30 minutes of dedicated activity - biking, playing a sport, swimming, this winter she made up time skiing (she was sick a lot this year) - but Disney wouldn't count - its a lot of walking, but it isn't a dedicated activity - you aren't walking 30 minutes straight).

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Its a real battle for her to stay caught up in her advanced courses, just with the homework. She normally has an hour or two of homework every night (this is sixth grade, and that doesn't include the 1500 pages of reading each tri

Little sidebar here, but you said "tri". I assume your school doesn't have the traditional semester setup. How's that work? What's the schedule like? I know when my sister was in TN, they had sort of a year-round schedule where the kids had a much shorter Summer break, but they got (I wanna say) 3-week Fall break and a much longer Spring Break than typical. It seemed like a nice setup, honestly.

(She even has to make up gym. For every day missed, 30 minutes of dedicated activity - biking, playing a sport, swimming, this winter she made up time skiing (she was sick a lot this year) - but Disney wouldn't count - its a lot of walking, but it isn't a dedicated activity - you aren't walking 30 minutes straight).

Both my parents were Phys Ed teachers. This would make them very happy

 

[ccgirl]

After reading the thread about "taking your child out of school for Disney" I was curious about other school districts attendance policy. Presently, our elementary school in central New Jersey allows 6 unexcused absences. Some neighboring towns are at 3. I thought 6 was a bit harsh. Not everyone can afford the co-pay to go to the Dr. everytime and most of the time they don't even prescribe an antibiotic. A lot of parents have chosen to send their child in sick, of course spreading their illness, and wait for the school nurse to call. If the school calls and tells you to come get your child, it is an excused absence. So what is your school's number?

DD's school doesn't really have one. Missing school for things other than a dr's appt is "discouraged" but there is no set # of days as long as grades are maintained.

 

[crisi]

Little sidebar here, but you said "tri". I assume your school doesn't have the traditional semester setup. How's that work? What's the schedule like? I know when my sister was in TN, they had sort of a year-round schedule where the kids had a much shorter Summer break, but they got (I wanna say) 3-week Fall break and a much longer Spring Break than typical. It seemed like a nice setup, honestly.

Ours is a normal school year. But there are three reporting cycles rather than two.

 

[kvnchapman]

We live in a coastal resort town. Our public schools are allowed some lattitude (on a local level), and the typical train of administrative thought understands that many residents have seasonal/hospitality/tourism jobs or own their own businesses that must operate during summer and holiday periods. Thus, we are allowed 5 "excused" unexcused absences, so to say. This lets all of the families that cannot vacation during traditional breaks the opportunity to still enjoy a vacay during the school year.

 

[ssleblanc]

In our district, students must be present 94% of the required instruction time.

Sick with a note from a parent (email or handwritten) is considered excused for up to two days. Three days in a row means we have to visit a doctor for a note. If a school nurse sends them home sick (happened to me once this year with boy kids - fever and vomitting) it is considered excused. The only time my middle child was sick this year, the school administrator told me "please don't bother with paying a doctor for a note - it isn't necessary" after I'd emailed her a note. They are allowed up to 13 unexcused absences in a year for middle school. Once in high school, the numbers drop down significantly.

When my mother passed away, they only missed half a day for the funeral. I brought the obituary that included their names as the grandchildren, and it was excused.

Next year is our last year with the both of the two older boys in middle school, and the last year I will take them out for vacation (only the second time ever-and it will be no more than 2-1/2 days surrounding by a school holiday).

Both of my kids usually have perfect attendence (lost this year due to a nasty flu virus circulating through our house - though this past quarter both of them had perfect attendence). They are also both in all honors classes and have good grades.

 

[loafer74]

I picked my dd up for lunch ,had her out for 34 minutes and they counted it as a half a day because she was gone for over 30 , I got her at the start of lunch and she was back in the classroom before the kids on the playground , the schools are getting a little silly with the rules

 

[kkandaj]

Wow! Our school district's policy is really lenient. I just looked it up and it pretty much states: if the student is absent excessively (no number is given) the administration will look at the cause, the parents/students attitude regarding school attendance and the students grades. They can then contact Social Services if they feel liek the child is being neglected because of not being in school. From doing a search on Missouri's laws, it seems like that pretty much goes along with what MO says.

DD is in kindy and her elem school requests that you call before 9am if your child will be absent. I have forgotten before and did receive a phone call about 9:30am asking if DD was okay. She was out 6 school days with the flu (103 temp) and I called everyday to tell them. Not once did they ask for a doc note, in fact told me to keep her home until her temp was under 100.4 for 24 hours.

She missed two days for a small vacation and I let the teacher know about 3 weeks in advance. She said no problem, have fun. We have not told her yet that DD will miss the last 3 1/2 days of school because we will be at WDW, but I will notify her next week.

Missouri law does state that any child under the age of 7 does not have to be enrolled in school, but if your child IS enrolled in school, you must make them attend school.

I'm sure the school would feel differently if we abused the system and if she was older.

 

[NLD]

Okay, this thread got me to look it up in our student handbook.

According to our handbook, excused absences are:

illness of the student, quarantine, death in the immediate family, religious observations, impassable roads (determined by local authorities), or other exceptional urgent reasons

We are also allowed 5 days per school year for an educational tour or trip, as long as it's pre-approved.

However, any longer than 5 days, and the extra days count as unlawful absences. And here is where it gets strict:

Kids can only get three unlawful absences.... their entire school career (to age 17). At the fourth unlawful absence, fines and court fees can be imposed.

There is no limit stated to the number of excused absences a kid can have. But it does say that after 10 days of excused absences, excluding absences that were accompanied by a doctor's note and excluding educational trips, the school may require all additional absences to be accompanied by a doctor's note. 15 days will mean automatically requiring doctor's notes in the future.


So... I don't know what to think! On the one hand, it's nice we get those five days of excused absences for vacations/educational trips. We've used that rule twice, for exactly five days each time--once when dd was in kindergarten, once this year in second grade.

On the other hand... unlawful absence policies are STRICT!

I had it in the back of my mind to maybe, next year, pull dd out for 7 days for a trip. Figuring we'd get the 5 days excused, and then just take the other 2 as unexcused. But clearly that's not a good idea! Because those 2 other unexcused days would be considered "unlawful" and she's only allowed THREE unlawful absences from now to age 17!

Holy smokes.

 

[crisi]

NLD, that one seems pretty good actually. It lets parents pull their kids for a "reasonable" amount of time for a vacation. Lets you have an "ordinary" amount of illness, but encourages doctors visits when it appears there is a chronic problem.

Also, there is a difference between an automatic application of fines and court fees and "may be applied." But it gives everyone a very clear boundary. And without the ability to impose that, the school might as well not have a policy at all.

I now have middle schoolers. I'm expecting the unexcused absences to start showing up for skipping school.

 

[SenecaWolf]

Both of my kids have been having a rough year health wise. My DD15 had all 4 of her wisdom teeth out in Nov. and the combination of painkillers, antibiotics and steroids sent her into kidney failure so she was hospitalized and out for 10 days.

My DS14 has been having progressively worse GI problems, to the point he didnt want to be far from a bathroom and he is now in the process of being screened for Chron's disease. He also has missed over 15 days and our vacation is coming up which is starting 2 days after they get back from spring break.

Luckily they have worked hard to make up the work they've missed and our school district doesnt have a definitive amount of days or percentage listed (POLICY) but I got a notice of excessive absences after 15 days even after doctors notes and contacting the school. Both the middle and high schools are aware of the vacation and wished them a good time though! Their orchestra teachers are even letting them do their lessons in the 2 days before we leave so they dont have to worry about it after.

 

[ladynmom94]

Taken from the school boards website:

As a parent/guardian, you also have the right to excuse your child from school for any reason for up to 10 days per year. You must submit a written excuse before the child is absent.

Students may complete class work and take examinations missed during excused and unexcused absences without being penalized for their absence.