Last year, my son had a medical difficulty that kept him out of school several days, and sent him home early on others. Despite trips to the doctor and medication, the difficulty persisted, and in the last weeks of school, I received a notice that he was running out of available absences.
When this happens, school district policies vary. This could mean summer school or makeup days, or it might mean being kept back to repeat the grade. (One district in Tennessee recently announced they wouldn’t even accept doctors’ notes for absences!)
In North Carolina, a new policy says that a child can’t be failed for this alone, as long as they are achieving the necessary grades.
Strict Absence Policies Hurt Families
If your child is enrolled in a school, they need to attend classes and learn. This is important for your child, for their teacher (who is already overworked without handling makeup assignments), and for their school (which can lose funding when students are absent).
That said, your child’s health and well-being are even more critical.
Your child should not go to school when contagious or when he’s too sick to learn. You should not feel pressured to force him to do so, or worry about whether keeping a child at home who is vomiting will result in him failing or being required to attend summer school.
This becomes even harder when a doctor’s note is required. Some illnesses need a doctor’s treatment, but many (like a stomach bug or a contagious severe cold) typically do not.
Going to the doctor just because a note is required is a hassle. It adds to the current shortage of appointments (that’s assuming you can even get an appointment), and may be financially untenable, especially for families that don’t have medical coverage.
Strict attendance policies may be intended to protect your child’s learning, but they result in suffering for many students and their families.
The New North Carolina Rule
This year, the News & Observer reports, the North Carolina State Board of Education has agreed on a few changes to their high school transcript policies — and one is eliminating absences alone as a metric for failure.
“A student cannot receive an F for attendance,” Sneha Shah-Coltrane, senior director for Academic Policy and Advanced Learning at the state Department of Public Instruction, said at last week’s State Board of Education meeting. “So you can’t fail a kid if they’re making an A but just don’t show up to class.”
This doesn’t mean kids can miss as many classes as they like without facing consequences. Schools can still impose detentions or in-school suspensions for skipping class, for instance.
There’s no restriction on barring kids from sports and other extracurricular activities for excessive absences.
Are Passing Grades Possible With Excess Absences?
The new set of standards doesn’t seem to address makeup work after absences.
That means that a school could likely still set a policy by which students can only make up missed work if the absence is excused. Classwork policies could easily make passing without attending class (or having an excused absence) impossible. If a school is determined to set a policy that makes it impossible to pass without showing up, it can be done.
Some classes are hard to pass without showing up, and ideally, schools and districts set policies that are understanding of chronic illnesses and other hardships. That could mean allowing a student to watch a lecture via Zoom or take home packets to keep up with their classes.
The reality, though, is that many schools may lack the resources to offer some of these options, and kids who can attend class should do so.
What Can We Take From This?
Our kids have the greatest chance of academic success when parents, students, schools, and communities are all contributing to the goal.
That means that kids should be making every effort to go to school and learn, and parents should be working to encourage their children and to teach them that education matters. Schools and communities must prioritize making schools accessible, safe, and effective.
This does mean requiring kids to be in class (and making it safe to be there), but it also means being accommodating of those who can’t.
This year, North Carolina parents should still send their children to school as scheduled, but can, at least, breathe a sigh of relief with the knowledge that an illness won’t equal academic failure.