Inaccurate MCPS messages on absences on Remind

[Anonymous]

Got a note from MCPS via Remind saying my kid has missed 3 days of school which includes both excused and unexcused absences. It expressed concerns and asked if anything could be done but had no option to respond or info to contact anyone.

I was puzzled because my kid did have 3 sick days which I reported and thought were excused. I called the school and they said the message comes from MCPS higher up and they it says “excused and unexcused” even if all are excused. Is MCPS so sloppy that it can’t verify whether all the absences are in fact excused?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got a note from MCPS via Remind saying my kid has missed 3 days of school which includes both excused and unexcused absences. It expressed concerns and asked if anything could be done but had no option to respond or info to contact anyone.

I was puzzled because my kid did have 3 sick days which I reported and thought were excused. I called the school and they said the message comes from MCPS higher up and they it says “excused and unexcused” even if all are excused. Is MCPS so sloppy that it can’t verify whether all the absences are in fact excused?

It’s not that they don’t know, it’s that they’re on an attendance push. Even if it’s excused, they want you to think missing three days is a lot.

And maybe some of it is making sure the parents know - our kids’ high schools have google forms for attendance, so I’m sure there are even more kids marking themselves excused than there were in the days of faking your parents’ signatures/phone voices.

[Anonymous]

My kids report cards always have mysterious numbers for absences. I think they were just teacher errors. I learned they are meaningless and not worth anyones time to fix. We even once got an official notification from MCPS my DD was in danger of failing due to absences (which were AP exams, a sports event, and a field trip). School told us to ignore. Nothing happened.

[Anonymous]

It's not a mistake. They are not distinguishing between excused and unexcused. Just ignore it.

[Anonymous]

Ignore. We've had excused absences counted as unexcused, and vice versa. It doesn't actually matter in MCPS: kids don't lose points if they're absent, so sometimes my kids skip "wellness" half days, etc. One graduated with a 4.7 weighted GPA and the other also has excellent grades in high school. I couldn't care less what messages MCPS sends me.

[Anonymous]

They know the difference between excused and unexcused. However, the distinction doesn’t change the fact a kid is out of school and missing class which in turn impacts learning. They are trying to get ahead of chronic absenteeism by engaging families early.

[Anonymous]

DS has had 2 bouts of illness. The first one resulted in 3 missed days in a row so we were contacted. They should be saving the messages for unexcused absences. It makes parents feel they should send sick kids to school. I know it made me hesitant to keep mine home for the 2nd illness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS has had 2 bouts of illness. The first one resulted in 3 missed days in a row so we were contacted. They should be saving the messages for unexcused absences. It makes parents feel they should send sick kids to school. I know it made me hesitant to keep mine home for the 2nd illness.

No they shouldn’t. What they need is to be able to dig deeper into each cases and determine if they are generally spaced out and so likely more related to simple illness or school activities. They need to cross reference grades and other social impacts. But just assuming I excused absences is not correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS has had 2 bouts of illness. The first one resulted in 3 missed days in a row so we were contacted. They should be saving the messages for unexcused absences. It makes parents feel they should send sick kids to school. I know it made me hesitant to keep mine home for the 2nd illness.

Agree. Just sending automatic message with a judgmental tone and implying it’s an unexcused absence implies parents are doing something wrong. Get some better data analytics and save it for the unexcused absences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got a note from MCPS via Remind saying my kid has missed 3 days of school which includes both excused and unexcused absences. It expressed concerns and asked if anything could be done but had no option to respond or info to contact anyone.

I was puzzled because my kid did have 3 sick days which I reported and thought were excused. I called the school and they said the message comes from MCPS higher up and they it says “excused and unexcused” even if all are excused. Is MCPS so sloppy that it can’t verify whether all the absences are in fact excused?

It's an automated message and it's a blunt instrument. The automated nature of it makes it cause more harm than good, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS has had 2 bouts of illness. The first one resulted in 3 missed days in a row so we were contacted. They should be saving the messages for unexcused absences. It makes parents feel they should send sick kids to school. I know it made me hesitant to keep mine home for the 2nd illness.

No they shouldn’t. What they need is to be able to dig deeper into each cases and determine if they are generally spaced out and so likely more related to simple illness or school activities. They need to cross reference grades and other social impacts. But just assuming I excused absences is not correct.

You're expecting MCPS to be thoughtful, accurate and rational and to apply effort. That's asking too much of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS has had 2 bouts of illness. The first one resulted in 3 missed days in a row so we were contacted. They should be saving the messages for unexcused absences. It makes parents feel they should send sick kids to school. I know it made me hesitant to keep mine home for the 2nd illness.

No they shouldn’t. What they need is to be able to dig deeper into each cases and determine if they are generally spaced out and so likely more related to simple illness or school activities. They need to cross reference grades and other social impacts. But just assuming I excused absences is not correct.

You're expecting MCPS to be thoughtful, accurate and rational and to apply effort. That's asking too much of them.

I don’t think people are asking for an automatic message to be thoughtful. But it’s not too much to ask that it not be wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS has had 2 bouts of illness. The first one resulted in 3 missed days in a row so we were contacted. They should be saving the messages for unexcused absences. It makes parents feel they should send sick kids to school. I know it made me hesitant to keep mine home for the 2nd illness.

No they shouldn’t. What they need is to be able to dig deeper into each cases and determine if they are generally spaced out and so likely more related to simple illness or school activities. They need to cross reference grades and other social impacts. But just assuming I excused absences is not correct.

You're expecting MCPS to be thoughtful, accurate and rational and to apply effort. That's asking too much of them.

I don’t think people are asking for an automatic message to be thoughtful. But it’s not too much to ask that it not be wrong.

The message is not wrong. OP's kid has missed 3 more more days of school. The intent of the message is not to notify OP of unexcused absences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS has had 2 bouts of illness. The first one resulted in 3 missed days in a row so we were contacted. They should be saving the messages for unexcused absences. It makes parents feel they should send sick kids to school. I know it made me hesitant to keep mine home for the 2nd illness.

No they shouldn’t. What they need is to be able to dig deeper into each cases and determine if they are generally spaced out and so likely more related to simple illness or school activities. They need to cross reference grades and other social impacts. But just assuming I excused absences is not correct.

You're expecting MCPS to be thoughtful, accurate and rational and to apply effort. That's asking too much of them.

I don’t think people are asking for an automatic message to be thoughtful. But it’s not too much to ask that it not be wrong.

The message is not wrong. OP's kid has missed 3 more more days of school. The intent of the message is not to notify OP of unexcused absences.

Now read the message. You are wrong.

[Anonymous]

DC's high school is notoriously wrong in reporting absences. I used to try to fix them but I have given up. If DC's high school doesn't care I'm not going to care.