Attendance pressure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My problem is the uniform treatment given to a failing student with 20 absences and a straight A student with 6. The tone and lecture I receive when I pick up my child early from school is absurd and they can pound sand. I am the parent and will do as I see fit.

It has nothing to do with grades. To many absences and the school can get investigated by the state.

The fact that attendance is put on the schools is ridiculous. Parents control this. Schools cannot force kids to come to school.

But in theory they can force teachers to do so? Don’t have high-volume sub days (which are public information) because your staff wants to get cheaper flights to their families, but then send a screed when the parents want to. Hypocrisy isn’t a good way to get people to trust you.

I don't understand this post. States don't set attendance standards for teachers, they do for students. That's the focus, who cares about where trust falls in that equation? Teachers earn leave and can take it like any other profession.

The message says:

“Our teachers will be teaching, and our students will be learning. But it’s harder to teach and it’s harder to learn when too many students are absent.”

But parents know it a lie because of all the subs. Most workplaces have policies which guide when employees can use their earned leave— so make a policy that says no personal days in the week before winter break. Then we’ll know they care about “teachers teaching”

Once again, schools have to meet certain requirements for students attendance. If your kid doesn't go to school it hurts that school and in return it hurts your community. On their worst days schools will have 10-15% of their teachers out, which means the vast majority of teachers are there doing what the school is asking of them. Schools need to build trust with their community so that they can get buy-in from the stakeholders. The best schools are the schools with the most community support. Building trust is not about convincing you to participate in the system, that is a standard and an expectation. None of these things apply to the families that are missing less than 5 days a year, it is for the families whose students miss enough school to be considered chronically absent. The definition of chronically absent is a standard set by the state government. If your student hasn't missed school this year and you want to take them out a few days, then take them out. If they have then don't.

When 15% of teachers are out, this absolutely affects more than the students just in their classes. Subs in FCPS are paid $21.22 per hour, so other staff in the building are forced to step in to guide them at many points throughout the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn't a FCPS-wide message or issue. Why are we spending so much mental space trying to figure it out. It could even be just a rogue principal who sent this out. I'd just put it to rest if it isn't a FCPS-wide email or issue. Best to spend time on stuff that is a problem for everyone.

The attitude of disrespect towards families and their resources, as well as the lack of self-awareness from FCPS, is certainly a problem for everyone.

Except the message is NOT from FCPS. Even if this is a real email that was sent to an entire school's student-family body (which we can't actually verify either since the OP is being obtuse about the facts), it would still be a singular school with a rogue principal. We're blaming "FCPS" but the facts are: (1) FCPS did NOT send this message out to its entire student body, and (2) we have no idea that this was actually sent to a FCPS school (since the OP doesn't actually identify where this email came from). Given this, we really should not start throwing darts at FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The messaging about the importance of attendance is getting more and more aggressive. And now also kind of racist.

"December Attendance
Every year, absences spike in the weeks before and after winter break. It’s time to break that cycle. Give your child the gift of attendance and help build a habit of attendance.

We recognize that holidays are an important time for reconnecting with families far away and exposing your children to your home and language, whether you grew up in another part of the United States or a different country. The price of plane tickets often influences when you want to travel. But keep in mind the costs to your children’s education if they miss too much school.

Make sure your child is in school every day, right up until vacation starts. Our teachers will be teaching, and our students will be learning. But it’s harder to teach and it’s harder to learn when too many students are absent.

Two weeks to go! Let's finish strong. Winter break is December 22nd through January 2nd. School resumes on January 5th, 2026."

I'm sorry, but which school or district sent this message? I'm at Haycock/Longfellow/Mclean (with a kid in each) and we did not receive this message.

This message was sent to an elementary school in the Westfield pyramid.

I have definitely seen the detention thing in high school. Straight A students, who have already made up all of their work and were absent for illness are told they have to stay after school in order to "make up" the time they missed. This from a district who just a few years ago sent us multiple messages a month about the importance of keeping our kids home when they have any symptom whatsoever. The complete 180 is very unsettling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The messaging about the importance of attendance is getting more and more aggressive. And now also kind of racist.

"December Attendance
Every year, absences spike in the weeks before and after winter break. It’s time to break that cycle. Give your child the gift of attendance and help build a habit of attendance.

We recognize that holidays are an important time for reconnecting with families far away and exposing your children to your home and language, whether you grew up in another part of the United States or a different country. The price of plane tickets often influences when you want to travel. But keep in mind the costs to your children’s education if they miss too much school.

Make sure your child is in school every day, right up until vacation starts. Our teachers will be teaching, and our students will be learning. But it’s harder to teach and it’s harder to learn when too many students are absent.

Two weeks to go! Let's finish strong. Winter break is December 22nd through January 2nd. School resumes on January 5th, 2026."

Families are being trained by the calendar to not expect five day school weeks. There have only been three full weeks of school since August 18th. It should come at no surprise that families choose miss school on days that are important to accomplishing famliy goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They aren't talking about students who are doing well despite their absences. They aren't talking about Asian kids going to visit family overseas.

They absolutely are talking about Asian and other families who take their kids out for one to three weeks for travel.
This is about increasing attendance metrics. The above group is easily guilted and might respond to passive aggressive threats. The other groups in low income schools who chronically miss school are more difficult to reach.

This is pretty racist. Asian families are perfectly capable of seeing through these kinds of emails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My problem is the uniform treatment given to a failing student with 20 absences and a straight A student with 6. The tone and lecture I receive when I pick up my child early from school is absurd and they can pound sand. I am the parent and will do as I see fit.

It has nothing to do with grades. To many absences and the school can get investigated by the state.

The fact that attendance is put on the schools is ridiculous. Parents control this. Schools cannot force kids to come to school.

But in theory they can force teachers to do so? Don’t have high-volume sub days (which are public information) because your staff wants to get cheaper flights to their families, but then send a screed when the parents want to. Hypocrisy isn’t a good way to get people to trust you.

I don't understand this post. States don't set attendance standards for teachers, they do for students. That's the focus, who cares about where trust falls in that equation? Teachers earn leave and can take it like any other profession.

The message says:

“Our teachers will be teaching, and our students will be learning. But it’s harder to teach and it’s harder to learn when too many students are absent.”

But parents know it a lie because of all the subs. Most workplaces have policies which guide when employees can use their earned leave— so make a policy that says no personal days in the week before winter break. Then we’ll know they care about “teachers teaching”

Once again, schools have to meet certain requirements for students attendance. If your kid doesn't go to school it hurts that school and in return it hurts your community. On their worst days schools will have 10-15% of their teachers out, which means the vast majority of teachers are there doing what the school is asking of them. Schools need to build trust with their community so that they can get buy-in from the stakeholders. The best schools are the schools with the most community support. Building trust is not about convincing you to participate in the system, that is a standard and an expectation. None of these things apply to the families that are missing less than 5 days a year, it is for the families whose students miss enough school to be considered chronically absent. The definition of chronically absent is a standard set by the state government. If your student hasn't missed school this year and you want to take them out a few days, then take them out. If they have then don't.

I think shouting at parents that they shouldn’t be influenced by the cost of seeing their families with 15% of teachers out of the building is a pretty poor way to build trust. How do you suggest schools become more credible on the issue of attendance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school did not send that message because of racism or discrimination. They sent it for 2 reasons, 1: Attendance rate is a part of a schools accreditation. FCPS wants to ensure all of its schools are accredited. 2. Their is a direct correlation between attendance and gpa. Sure there are some outliers but the majority of students need to be in school to do well and missing school creates gaps in their learning.

This is what strains credibility. There’s no educational justification for our calendar, kids at the younger, critical ages don’t benefit from lack of repetition and routine. So to say missing school creates gaps— while potentially true— ignores the gaps the school creates and considers just fine.

THIS X 100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn't a FCPS-wide message or issue. Why are we spending so much mental space trying to figure it out. It could even be just a rogue principal who sent this out. I'd just put it to rest if it isn't a FCPS-wide email or issue. Best to spend time on stuff that is a problem for everyone.

The attitude of disrespect towards families and their resources, as well as the lack of self-awareness from FCPS, is certainly a problem for everyone.

Except the message is NOT from FCPS. Even if this is a real email that was sent to an entire school's student-family body (which we can't actually verify either since the OP is being obtuse about the facts), it would still be a singular school with a rogue principal. We're blaming "FCPS" but the facts are: (1) FCPS did NOT send this message out to its entire student body, and (2) we have no idea that this was actually sent to a FCPS school (since the OP doesn't actually identify where this email came from). Given this, we really should not start throwing darts at FCPS.

It’s verified below as being a FCPS school.

Leadership sets the tone. Telling parents how it’s no big deal to add early dismissals, lying about them, lecturing parents about how school isn’t childcare, and treating working families like garbage is what makes a principal think they can send an email lecturing parents about how many thousands of dollars they should spend extra so their kids can watch a movie on the Friday before vacation. It is systemic.

[Anonymous]

They think they have attendance issues now?

Just wait and see how many famlies choose to take a full week off during the five day Memorial Day weekend this year. Or not return at all for the rest of the year.

[Anonymous]

Many Asian families don’t take that email seriously because their students are the ones driving FCPS’s academic performance metrics. These students tend to be highly self-directed and often learn far beyond what is taught in the classroom, largely because they are trained and supported from an early age to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My problem is the uniform treatment given to a failing student with 20 absences and a straight A student with 6. The tone and lecture I receive when I pick up my child early from school is absurd and they can pound sand. I am the parent and will do as I see fit.

It has nothing to do with grades. To many absences and the school can get investigated by the state.

The fact that attendance is put on the schools is ridiculous. Parents control this. Schools cannot force kids to come to school.

But in theory they can force teachers to do so? Don’t have high-volume sub days (which are public information) because your staff wants to get cheaper flights to their families, but then send a screed when the parents want to. Hypocrisy isn’t a good way to get people to trust you.

I don't understand this post. States don't set attendance standards for teachers, they do for students. That's the focus, who cares about where trust falls in that equation? Teachers earn leave and can take it like any other profession.

The message says:

“Our teachers will be teaching, and our students will be learning. But it’s harder to teach and it’s harder to learn when too many students are absent.”

But parents know it a lie because of all the subs. Most workplaces have policies which guide when employees can use their earned leave— so make a policy that says no personal days in the week before winter break. Then we’ll know they care about “teachers teaching”

Once again, schools have to meet certain requirements for students attendance. If your kid doesn't go to school it hurts that school and in return it hurts your community. On their worst days schools will have 10-15% of their teachers out, which means the vast majority of teachers are there doing what the school is asking of them. Schools need to build trust with their community so that they can get buy-in from the stakeholders. The best schools are the schools with the most community support. Building trust is not about convincing you to participate in the system, that is a standard and an expectation. None of these things apply to the families that are missing less than 5 days a year, it is for the families whose students miss enough school to be considered chronically absent. The definition of chronically absent is a standard set by the state government. If your student hasn't missed school this year and you want to take them out a few days, then take them out. If they have then don't.

I think shouting at parents that they shouldn’t be influenced by the cost of seeing their families with 15% of teachers out of the building is a pretty poor way to build trust. How do you suggest schools become more credible on the issue of attendance?

If a school has 4 teachers per grade at the elementary school level that would be a total of 28 teachers. 10% out would be 2.8 teachers who are not in the building. Even adding specials and other people in the building on its worst days schools are down at most 6 or 7 school based professionals. I am not sure why that is breaking the trust of the community. Money for substitutes in counted in the yearly budget based on data from the previous years. Wasted spending in the FCPS budget is not going to teacher/substitute pay, its going to huge amounts of employees at gatehouse that do nothing and make big money doing it (educational specialists, executive principals, the Dr. Reid security team, etc). There are a ton of things to be mad about in the county, the school trying to get your kid to come consistently isnt one of them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn't a FCPS-wide message or issue. Why are we spending so much mental space trying to figure it out. It could even be just a rogue principal who sent this out. I'd just put it to rest if it isn't a FCPS-wide email or issue. Best to spend time on stuff that is a problem for everyone.

The attitude of disrespect towards families and their resources, as well as the lack of self-awareness from FCPS, is certainly a problem for everyone.

Except the message is NOT from FCPS. Even if this is a real email that was sent to an entire school's student-family body (which we can't actually verify either since the OP is being obtuse about the facts), it would still be a singular school with a rogue principal. We're blaming "FCPS" but the facts are: (1) FCPS did NOT send this message out to its entire student body, and (2) we have no idea that this was actually sent to a FCPS school (since the OP doesn't actually identify where this email came from). Given this, we really should not start throwing darts at FCPS.

It’s verified below as being a FCPS school.

Leadership sets the tone. Telling parents how it’s no big deal to add early dismissals, lying about them, lecturing parents about how school isn’t childcare, and treating working families like garbage is what makes a principal think they can send an email lecturing parents about how many thousands of dollars they should spend extra so their kids can watch a movie on the Friday before vacation. It is systemic.

For many Asian families in this pyramid, that email from the elementary school principal isn’t a concern. Their children, who often attend Carson then TJ, are typically working several grades ahead and are largely self-directed learners. Missing three weeks of instruction in an average elementary program simply doesn’t register as a meaningful academic setback for them. These families invest heavily in early academic preparation, and their children’s performance often lifts the overall achievement metrics of the school. For students who rely more heavily on in-school instruction, staying in class may be essential. But for all of the Asian families receiving that message, their educational trajectory is already well beyond what they perceive the school can offer in those weeks.

[Anonymous]

Oh and now I just got my attendance report cards. I really don't need a report card on this subject. My kid missed three days of school because of the state/county/whomever scheduling sporting events during the school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh and now I just got my attendance report cards. I really don't need a report card on this subject. My kid missed three days of school because of the state/county/whomever scheduling sporting events during the school day.

Imagine if the administrative lift to create an “attendance report card” went into timely routine communications with parents instead…

[Anonymous]

Funds to schools from above are usually based on the Average Daily Attendance.

Absences hurt the bottom line. Fact.