Absenteeism at school

[Anonymous]

I am not sure how many of you deal with this issue, but I have an upperclassman who is, for the most part, a rule follower.
However, many, many of her friends skip school and they face no consequences. I am not saying tat I think skipping a class is some kind of mortal sin, but when "everyone" is doing it and nobody is facing consequences, it becomes increasingly more difficult for kids to want to toe the line.
Several of my kid's friends have daily calls from the attendance office, but they just ignore them, the rationale being that they are good students nd if their grades stay up.
We tell our student that part of being a "good" student is showing up and being respectful in that regard, but even we recognize how draconian we sound when we say it.
I would love to see schools return to having leverage in making students show up and show up on time. Students used to fail if they had unexcused absences or tardies.
Is anyone else wrestling with this? I really worry that for underclassmen skipping classes will just become the norm, and I have one of those too and they are nowhere near as responsible as their older sibling.

[Anonymous]

My kid would be punished if he skipped class. He did once to get out of gym and I grounded him.

[Anonymous]

We moved our kid to a challenging school where if he skipped too many days, he'd fall too far behind and wouldn't be able to maintain good grades.

[Anonymous]

When my kid is out sick, the catching up he has to do is annoying at best, difficult at worst. So I don’t think he’d skip on purpose. Are these kids skipping the whole day, or just individual classes?

With the national problem of chronic absenteeism, I think more schools are cracking down on stuff like this.

[Anonymous]

I get notifications as soon as DS is marked absent from a class and I used to text him immediately to find out where he was (it was always an error/he was at school doing something legit.) He also isn't allowed to skip school because he doesn't feel like going. DS's BFF misses a LOT of school for "mental health days." I am all for self care - but a mental health day every other week is a sign of something other than needing to sleep in.

I see school as his job and when you are in a job, you show up when you are expected to be there. This is good practice for being an adult.

[Anonymous]

Your kid needs to be in harder classes. I don't mind when my kid skips, but they know that they can miss many days of the challenging courses. The mandatory art class they have to take, they skip multiple times a week. It really is a waste of time for everyone

[Anonymous]

Absenteeism will only increase. Schools need to innovate. The children see the futility of showing up every day. Look at colleges that randomly cancel courses due to protests, pandemic disruptions, or environmental disasters closing schools. 

School needs to be a 24/7 option so that kids do not have to sit in a building all day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The work world will soon adopt a more flexible format. 

I am glad kids are rebelling. I hated going to school every day, and I did very well. The bullying, over-structured format, and all the isms made school a horrible place. I wanted to learn through life, not in a building.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately Covid virtual school taught many students (and parents) that being in school isn't necessary. Understandably, when they were told it wasn't a necessity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your kid needs to be in harder classes. I don't mind when my kid skips, but they know that they can miss many days of the challenging courses. The mandatory art class they have to take, they skip multiple times a week. It really is a waste of time for everyone

My kid isn't the one skipping. Her friends are though , and when they do so and really there is no enforcement to NOT do so, it makes it hard to say "Go just because", especially at the end of the year as AP classes are ending etc

[Anonymous]

High school is just for warehousing teens anyway. Most of their education is over by the time they're 14.

[Anonymous]

Is your kid in MCPS by chance? Their attendance policy has encouraged this exact behavior you're talking about and my son fell pray to it, even though he knew we wouldn't approve of it, precisely for the reason you laid out: Everyone else did it without consequence so he didn't see why he shouldn't either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school is just for warehousing teens anyway. Most of their education is over by the time they're 14.

If you believe that to be true, you're only revealing the limitations of your own education.

[Anonymous]

Nope, but my kids go to private school where there are definite consequences for skipping.

They can and do kick kids out for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school is just for warehousing teens anyway. Most of their education is over by the time they're 14.

So we should let them wander around instead? A wonder what could go wrong when a bunch of youth just wander around without any training or education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nope, but my kids go to private school where there are definite consequences for skipping.

They can and do kick kids out for this.

Yep. If kids can skip this much class and still get As, they are taking easy classes.