Attendance pressure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS less time off at Christmas in the 1980s and we did not have a problem like this with attendance. People now feel entitled to their vacations even at the expense of school. But that is where we are now.

School felt entitled to their schedule of choice at the expense of parents. Why are parents supposed to treat schools with more respect than they recieve?

But the school schedule provides more breaks. Why would parents need more?

Families with international jobs, families of immigrants, families of military/transient DC residence— all very well represented in the area— can’t fly to visit relatives in the 1 and 2 and .5 day breaks that are all over the calendar. Summer, spring, and winter breaks are expensive (which is why the teachers aren’t sticking around) and the principal correctly noticed a lot of people don’t want to spend thousands of extra dollars to have their kids watch a movie on Friday afternoon. FCPS should make it a planning day.

Not the school system's problem. You could argue there are way too many small breaks, but building a schedule to allow extended school year vacations is a recent and stupid entitlement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS less time off at Christmas in the 1980s and we did not have a problem like this with attendance. People now feel entitled to their vacations even at the expense of school. But that is where we are now.

School felt entitled to their schedule of choice at the expense of parents. Why are parents supposed to treat schools with more respect than they recieve?

But the school schedule provides more breaks. Why would parents need more?

Families with international jobs, families of immigrants, families of military/transient DC residence— all very well represented in the area— can’t fly to visit relatives in the 1 and 2 and .5 day breaks that are all over the calendar. Summer, spring, and winter breaks are expensive (which is why the teachers aren’t sticking around) and the principal correctly noticed a lot of people don’t want to spend thousands of extra dollars to have their kids watch a movie on Friday afternoon. FCPS should make it a planning day.

Not the school system's problem. You could argue there are way too many small breaks, but building a schedule to allow extended school year vacations is a recent and stupid entitlement.

Apparently it is the school system’s problem since they're the ones sending unhinged emails.

I didn’t say they should build in longer breaks. They should be smart about how they use the breaks they have, like putting these planning days on the days they’re having attendance issues instead of on random Tuesdays. Then they don’t have an attendance issue for the state to be mad at them about and they don’t have a chaotic calendar to alienate the parents.

[Anonymous]

The forced after school detention is real - every 3 hours after school earns them 1 day back. As a parent of an athlete with all A’s and multiple AP classes who is competing at national level competitions, I find it ridiculous that they are required to miss training to stay after school to make days up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The forced after school detention is real - every 3 hours after school earns them 1 day back. As a parent of an athlete with all A’s and multiple AP classes who is competing at national level competitions, I find it ridiculous that they are required to miss training to stay after school to make days up.

For excused absences? I wouldn’t let my kid waste time like this. Staying after to make up exams yes they might have to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The forced after school detention is real - every 3 hours after school earns them 1 day back. As a parent of an athlete with all A’s and multiple AP classes who is competing at national level competitions, I find it ridiculous that they are required to miss training to stay after school to make days up.

Just refuse to do it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not racist. I had students of all races take off for two or three weeks in January. Yes, white children, too. The family was always on another continent. Always.

It’s discrimination, if you prefer that word. I want to take my kid out for just three extra days so they can spend a little more time with their grandparents. They’re elderly, and I genuinely don’t know how much longer my child will have the chance to be with them. We’re white, and the grandparents live overseas and cannot travel.
And now I’m being told that these three days of school—during a period when teachers are mostly focused on supporting underachievers—are somehow more important than my straight-A+ student spending irreplaceable time with aging grandparents?

Eh, I’m in the same boat, but this email isn’t directed at me and I’ll move on. My kid is always all or mostly 4s and she catches up quickly when we have to miss a couple days. I try to minimize it but it is what it is. However, if I had a kid who struggled at school, absolutely I would not let them miss any school unless absolutely necessary. In that case, the kid will be behind and it’s a lot of additional work for the teachers to bring them up to speed. I would pay extra for a shorter trip that costs more. In fact, we will do that next year because my oldest is in high school and I won’t have them miss high school regardless of grades.

[Anonymous]

Can someone please point me to policy in writing about these forced after school detentions? Is FCPS actually providing instruction during this time so that they can count it towards instructional hours?

This thread is the first I've ever heard of it. I am wondering if this is just MAGA rumor to bash FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am kicking myself that we did not travel for the full week of Thanksgiving. There was no content taught and no assessments and so many kids were out that the school sent several emails begging parents to not call, but to send in absenses through SIS.

Parents, take your children out of school when you need do, especially before breaks. There is nothing going on the days leading up to Winter Break.

Of course families are leaving early.

This is ridiculous and wrong. I hope people don't listen to the likes of these idiots.

I’m a DP but…do you really think kids gain more sitting in front of a movie or on lexia unsupervised than being with family?

Look at the pacing guides sometime. You will be shocked at how little instruction actualy happens in ES many weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS less time off at Christmas in the 1980s and we did not have a problem like this with attendance. People now feel entitled to their vacations even at the expense of school. But that is where we are now.

School felt entitled to their schedule of choice at the expense of parents. Why are parents supposed to treat schools with more respect than they recieve?

+100

The people that created the calendar did not have the educational needs of children or the needs of working parents as the priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please point me to policy in writing about these forced after school detentions? Is FCPS actually providing instruction during this time so that they can count it towards instructional hours?

This thread is the first I've ever heard of it. I am wondering if this is just MAGA rumor to bash FCPS.

I cannot find any info about this on the fcps website, but here is what I received via email from my HS on 10/9/25. They make it sound optional, but I know of parents who have been harassed about this and constantly pressured to have their students participate, and the school did not make it sound optional



"Attendance Recovery Procedures 2025/2026

Students can earn attendance hours by staying after school with a teacher. There are a few requirements this year that are changes from last year, so please take note.

Students must be staying with a teacher (does not have to be one of their teachers)
Recovery time must be outside of the student’s school hours
If a student has a partial schedule or off-campus waiver, they MAY recover time during those periods they would otherwise be off
Students must be working on one of the following:
Academic course work (their own OR supporting another student i.e. tutoring, writing center, etc.)
Graduation requirement items (CPR, SOL prep, College and Career Readiness)
MLL language acquisition activities (Multilanguage Learners)
IEP support/goals (Special Education Students)
*Notable hours that will not count this year include sports/team practice hours and after school performances that are required for a course (example, an evening chorus or band concert). Additionally, only extracurricular clubs/activities can count IF it supports one of the above requirements. For example, MLL students may have more flexibility earning hours for a social activity IF they are required to interact in English, whereas those hours would not count for students who are native English speakers.

Another big change this year: STUDENTS CAN LOG THEIR OWN HOURS! Simply go to http://bit.ly/RECOVERYLOG and submit the google form. The teacher supervising the recovery hours will receive an email to verify. Every teacher’s door name/schedule sign has the attendance recovery link posted. "

[Anonymous]

Its ridiculous that kids are being pressured to "make up" attendance hours. How absurd. Excused absence means just that: excused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its ridiculous that kids are being pressured to "make up" attendance hours. How absurd. Excused absence means just that: excused.

So, if a child is sick for a week and misses school, this is "excused." Fine. But, don't you think that this--which sounds like supervised study--would be helpful?

And, FWIW, I cannot recall the number of days, but there is a limit to how many can be excused without some type of reaction from the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The forced after school detention is real - every 3 hours after school earns them 1 day back. As a parent of an athlete with all A’s and multiple AP classes who is competing at national level competitions, I find it ridiculous that they are required to miss training to stay after school to make days up.

Why not just call in the kid?

[Anonymous]

Unless the school is threatening to not let your child move up to the next grade, I don’t see the point of this. I recall growing up that students couldn’t miss more than 10% of school days, so if there are 180 school days, a student could miss 18 before dealing with administrative hassles (without getting into excused/unexcused, half-days for doctor appointments, tardies). It seems like most kids, barring unexpected medical issues, wouldn’t approach 18 absences in the normal course of a school year—a few sick days, a couple of vacation days, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless the school is threatening to not let your child move up to the next grade, I don’t see the point of this. I recall growing up that students couldn’t miss more than 10% of school days, so if there are 180 school days, a student could miss 18 before dealing with administrative hassles (without getting into excused/unexcused, half-days for doctor appointments, tardies). It seems like most kids, barring unexpected medical issues, wouldn’t approach 18 absences in the normal course of a school year—a few sick days, a couple of vacation days, etc.

It would "seem" that way, but I think it is a larger number of kids than you believe.