"senioritis"-- is two hours late considered absent for the whole day?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is a high school senior with a bad case of senioritis--she doesn't want to go to school much. Just trying to get her to June graduation. This morning she asked to go to school two hours late (I have a bad headache"). She said if she's two-hours late, it's marked as absent the whole day. True?
Yes, I usually send her because she's faking illness, usually to get more sleep (the bus comes very early). But recently I forced her to go and she tested positive for COVID, so we went to pick her up and she was home for a few days. Just trying to make it to graduation. Please be kind--it's been a rough road for us.

[Anonymous]

BTDT last year. My kid frequently missed partial days in their last semester (either arriving late or leaving early) and was only marked absent for the missed periods. Things could have changed since then.

I was worried about all the absences, but it ended up fine and I think it's not uncommon. But I made it clear that DC had to keep on top of assignments and not let the grades slip to the point that we'd need to even have a talk about it. GL.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear it has been a rough road. It is not just seniors but many many more have "highschoolritis". What exactly is there in these high schools to want students to go any day? Asking seriously. Can't wait for our kids to make it across the finish line.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you so much for these replies. There is a mom's group called JFG--Just F*&ing Graduate. I am a founding member.
I liked school, but after Algebra I, we could drop math (I was in the DC school system), and now they're adding on meaningless math requirements instead of coding or practical math skills. The math classes my daughter has taken, from middle school on, have been poorly taught. (Huge exceptions for the covid years, of course). My high school started at 9 and ended at 3. No longer true, and my DD is exhausted at the early AM start time.
She participates in an internship program, assisting teachers of young students with special needs. I notice that on internship days, there are fewer complaints of "my head hurts" "I don't feel well" and "my stomach hurts" (that last one was COVID)...

I'm at a loss, but my high school years were different. I remember individual counseling for college or after-school plans, and some emotional group discussions ("Emotional Health" or something) that everyone made fun of but which many of us attended. And I had great English teachers! My love of reading got me through...To end on an up note, some kids were outside the supermarket raising money for their robotics team. Nice kids, impressive robot. Respect.

[Anonymous]

I hear you OP. My daughter knows which classes she needs to graduate and is now refusing to turn in any work for the other classes. She's at school, but hangs out in the library or some other class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you so much for these replies. There is a mom's group called JFG--Just F*&ing Graduate. I am a founding member.
I liked school, but after Algebra I, we could drop math (I was in the DC school system), and now they're adding on meaningless math requirements instead of coding or practical math skills. The math classes my daughter has taken, from middle school on, have been poorly taught. (Huge exceptions for the covid years, of course). My high school started at 9 and ended at 3. No longer true, and my DD is exhausted at the early AM start time.
She participates in an internship program, assisting teachers of young students with special needs. I notice that on internship days, there are fewer complaints of "my head hurts" "I don't feel well" and "my stomach hurts" (that last one was COVID)...

I'm at a loss, but my high school years were different. I remember individual counseling for college or after-school plans, and some emotional group discussions ("Emotional Health" or something) that everyone made fun of but which many of us attended. And I had great English teachers! My love of reading got me through...To end on an up note, some kids were outside the supermarket raising money for their robotics team. Nice kids, impressive robot. Respect.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure she’s still not sick? Covid can last more than a few days

[Anonymous]

I thought you could no longer fail based on not showing up?

[Anonymous]

The absences mean nothing. Really. My daughter has some serious senioritis as well and sometimes I don’t even write notes. You need a shit-ton of them in order to get noticed. The way I figure, my daughter is a very good student, is doing well this semester and is already accepted to several colleges and is deciding which to attend. She worked so hard these last few years (much much harder than I ever worked in HS), and I want her to enjoy her last months in HS. In the end, none of this matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought you could no longer fail based on not showing up?

According to our MCPS counselor they can disenroll you after 10 consecutive unexcused absences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought you could no longer fail based on not showing up?

According to our MCPS counselor they can disenroll you after 10 consecutive unexcused absences.

Can is the key word...

[Anonymous]

I think it's unhealthy to encourage your daughter's sense of entitlement by indulging in fake diagnoses like "senioritis."

Life is full of things you might not enjoy or feel like doing. Oh well. Part of becoming an adult is learning how to do those things even if you don't necessarily like, want or feel like doing them.

I would instead focus my energies and time on getting to the root of her avoidance behaviors and working with a therapist to overcome those tendencies. Not further indulging them by seeing what loopholes might exist to aid her in skipping out on school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's unhealthy to encourage your daughter's sense of entitlement by indulging in fake diagnoses like "senioritis."

Life is full of things you might not enjoy or feel like doing. Oh well. Part of becoming an adult is learning how to do those things even if you don't necessarily like, want or feel like doing them.

I would instead focus my energies and time on getting to the root of her avoidance behaviors and working with a therapist to overcome those tendencies. Not further indulging them by seeing what loopholes might exist to aid her in skipping out on school.

What, specifically, do you think the OP's child feels entitled to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's unhealthy to encourage your daughter's sense of entitlement by indulging in fake diagnoses like "senioritis."

Life is full of things you might not enjoy or feel like doing. Oh well. Part of becoming an adult is learning how to do those things even if you don't necessarily like, want or feel like doing them.

I would instead focus my energies and time on getting to the root of her avoidance behaviors and working with a therapist to overcome those tendencies. Not further indulging them by seeing what loopholes might exist to aid her in skipping out on school.

What, specifically, do you think the OP's child feels entitled to?

To not having to go to school, even though the state compels her to?

[Anonymous]

Totally understand senioritis but just to share a real world story. DS had pretty bad senioritis (I didn't even know he was skipping quite a bit because he was 18 and was able to write his own notes) but one of his teachers wasn't having any of this and failed him for the last quarter of the class which lowered his grade for the semester. That on top of other classes where he put in very little effort 2nd semester generated a letter from the college he was planning to attend that he would be on "academic alert" his 1st semester of freshman year. No they didn't rescind his offer but they were letting him know that he didn't live up to their academic expectations for the end of his senior year. It all worked out but schools do have the option of rescinding admissions etc.,