Grading & Reporting Updates for SY 2026-2027

[Anonymous]

^^

As an adult I can't no show my job and then 6 days later be like, oh yeah I forgot to tell you I was sick that day so I can't be in trouble for not being here.

I get that these are kids but one of the more important parts of high school is teaching these kids actual life skills that will serve them beyond high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

It’s actually pretty easy to identify. Either we mark them as unexcused absent or the system already shows the absence as “excused.” If the absence isn’t planned, parents can submit a note if the child was really sick or another legitimate reason identified by the student handbook to the attendance office. The teachers can then see it’s excused, and voila, the kid can make up the work.

This was actually policy and it DID work for many years until we got too soft with COVID.

I bet this PP is just a 17 year old who’s pissed they can’t skip to get McDonalds anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^
Adding to this, the fact you are e-mailing the counselor instead of the student who was physically meeting with the counselor, causing said absence is the biggest issue I see here.

Neither of my kids has ever met with the counselor a single time. Every time I have needed to email the counselor it has specifically been a thing a parent would need to email about, not the student.

You are emailing the wrong person. Counseling doesn’t handle attendance. You need to contact the attendance secretary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

As a teacher I can do this by requiring a student submit proof of excused absence when they attempt to turn in the assignment late. I'm not denying them from doing it. I'm just denying them from getting credit for it when they can't prove that it was excused. It's not hard to produce a doctors note, e-mail from guidance, teacher, coach, administrator, etc. A parent writing a note saying "Student overslept" is not an excused note.

You are not living in the real world. My limited emails to the guidance counselor for legitimate things go into the abyss with no response at least half the time. I would never bother them with this. I don’t drag my kid to the doctor (and pay for the visit out of pocket due to my high deductible plan) the second he has a fever/virus, but I do keep him home and treat with rest/fluids. You want an obituary emailed to you if grandma dies and he’s out to attend the funeral?

If you call the school and let them know your child is sick, it will be marked as excused. If you don't do this, it will be marked as unexcused. Call the attendance secretary or send in a note. It is that simple.

I can tell you that year to date, in my HS between all 5 of my classes, I have probably seen less than 20 occasions where a student in my class was assigned an Illness code by the school attendance secretary. That means parents aren't calling. If you can't do your minimal responsibility then I'm not doing anything extra either. It's not my job to find out why your kid isn't in class. Everyone is unexcused until someone provides me with an excuse.

Good point. Most parents are too lazy to call when their kid is sick but magically expect that school will know

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

As a teacher I can do this by requiring a student submit proof of excused absence when they attempt to turn in the assignment late. I'm not denying them from doing it. I'm just denying them from getting credit for it when they can't prove that it was excused. It's not hard to produce a doctors note, e-mail from guidance, teacher, coach, administrator, etc. A parent writing a note saying "Student overslept" is not an excused note.

You are not living in the real world. My limited emails to the guidance counselor for legitimate things go into the abyss with no response at least half the time. I would never bother them with this. I don’t drag my kid to the doctor (and pay for the visit out of pocket due to my high deductible plan) the second he has a fever/virus, but I do keep him home and treat with rest/fluids. You want an obituary emailed to you if grandma dies and he’s out to attend the funeral?

If you call the school and let them know your child is sick, it will be marked as excused. If you don't do this, it will be marked as unexcused. Call the attendance secretary or send in a note. It is that simple.

I can tell you that year to date, in my HS between all 5 of my classes, I have probably seen less than 20 occasions where a student in my class was assigned an Illness code by the school attendance secretary. That means parents aren't calling. If you can't do your minimal responsibility then I'm not doing anything extra either. It's not my job to find out why your kid isn't in class. Everyone is unexcused until someone provides me with an excuse.

This night make sense if you were doing something that penalized the parents themselves, but it doesn't really seem fair for some kids to get worse grades than others based on whether or not their parent prioritizes (or even understands the importance of) calling in an excused absence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

As a teacher I can do this by requiring a student submit proof of excused absence when they attempt to turn in the assignment late. I'm not denying them from doing it. I'm just denying them from getting credit for it when they can't prove that it was excused. It's not hard to produce a doctors note, e-mail from guidance, teacher, coach, administrator, etc. A parent writing a note saying "Student overslept" is not an excused note.

You are not living in the real world. My limited emails to the guidance counselor for legitimate things go into the abyss with no response at least half the time. I would never bother them with this. I don’t drag my kid to the doctor (and pay for the visit out of pocket due to my high deductible plan) the second he has a fever/virus, but I do keep him home and treat with rest/fluids. You want an obituary emailed to you if grandma dies and he’s out to attend the funeral?

If you call the school and let them know your child is sick, it will be marked as excused. If you don't do this, it will be marked as unexcused. Call the attendance secretary or send in a note. It is that simple.

I can tell you that year to date, in my HS between all 5 of my classes, I have probably seen less than 20 occasions where a student in my class was assigned an Illness code by the school attendance secretary. That means parents aren't calling. If you can't do your minimal responsibility then I'm not doing anything extra either. It's not my job to find out why your kid isn't in class. Everyone is unexcused until someone provides me with an excuse.

This night make sense if you were doing something that penalized the parents themselves, but it doesn't really seem fair for some kids to get worse grades than others based on whether or not their parent prioritizes (or even understands the importance of) calling in an excused absence.

Sounds like that it might teach a child to finally self advocate. If mom doesn't care enough to do the absolute bare minimum then maybe the kid has to develop higher priorities than the parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

It’s actually pretty easy to identify. Either we mark them as unexcused absent or the system already shows the absence as “excused.” If the absence isn’t planned, parents can submit a note if the child was really sick or another legitimate reason identified by the student handbook to the attendance office. The teachers can then see it’s excused, and voila, the kid can make up the work.

This was actually policy and it DID work for many years until we got too soft with COVID.

I bet this PP is just a 17 year old who’s pissed they can’t skip to get McDonalds anymore.

You did not address the staff errors. I’m not a kid and I have firsthand experience with subs not knowing how to take attendance and marking my kid absent, or teachers making a mistake. I know it was a mistake because when I emailed teachers to inquire about the absences they would apologize and correct it.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand why parents of high school kids don’t notify the school when their kids are sick. This is the time it matters. My kids are grown but I did. I didn’t want their teachers to think they were skipping. There is actually an attendance secretary that you can just email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

It’s actually pretty easy to identify. Either we mark them as unexcused absent or the system already shows the absence as “excused.” If the absence isn’t planned, parents can submit a note if the child was really sick or another legitimate reason identified by the student handbook to the attendance office. The teachers can then see it’s excused, and voila, the kid can make up the work.

This was actually policy and it DID work for many years until we got too soft with COVID.

I bet this PP is just a 17 year old who’s pissed they can’t skip to get McDonalds anymore.

You did not address the staff errors. I’m not a kid and I have firsthand experience with subs not knowing how to take attendance and marking my kid absent, or teachers making a mistake. I know it was a mistake because when I emailed teachers to inquire about the absences they would apologize and correct it.

As a regular sub at high schools, one thing we can do is take attendance. Many kids try to use “I had a sub” when they skip class. I always repeat several times the names of kids marked absent, so there are no mistakes. Now, if a kid says they need to go to the bathroom at the start of class and then are gone for the rest of the period - he/she is marked absent. I let the attendance secretary know the circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Again, as a coach, I tell my players that their attendance being correct is ultimately nobody's responsibility other than their own. I'm out here coaching and leading future men. If they have a sub, they better stand there in the sub's face and watch as they are marked present. Heck, they should do it even if their regular teacher is there. I don't care if it's annoying or delays the start of class. When I run the report at the end of the day and there is an absence, "I had a sub" or "they didn't see me" won't fly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

It’s actually pretty easy to identify. Either we mark them as unexcused absent or the system already shows the absence as “excused.” If the absence isn’t planned, parents can submit a note if the child was really sick or another legitimate reason identified by the student handbook to the attendance office. The teachers can then see it’s excused, and voila, the kid can make up the work.

This was actually policy and it DID work for many years until we got too soft with COVID.

I bet this PP is just a 17 year old who’s pissed they can’t skip to get McDonalds anymore.

You did not address the staff errors. I’m not a kid and I have firsthand experience with subs not knowing how to take attendance and marking my kid absent, or teachers making a mistake. I know it was a mistake because when I emailed teachers to inquire about the absences they would apologize and correct it.

As a regular sub at high schools, one thing we can do is take attendance. Many kids try to use “I had a sub” when they skip class. I always repeat several times the names of kids marked absent, so there are no mistakes. Now, if a kid says they need to go to the bathroom at the start of class and then are gone for the rest of the period - he/she is marked absent. I let the attendance secretary know the circumstances.

Are you arguing with me about my lived experience? I literally said I emailed to inquire and a few times, it turned out the sub messed. And a couple times, it was teacher error.

I’m not just going off of what my kid said. I followed up with the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

As a teacher I can do this by requiring a student submit proof of excused absence when they attempt to turn in the assignment late. I'm not denying them from doing it. I'm just denying them from getting credit for it when they can't prove that it was excused. It's not hard to produce a doctors note, e-mail from guidance, teacher, coach, administrator, etc. A parent writing a note saying "Student overslept" is not an excused note.

You are not living in the real world. My limited emails to the guidance counselor for legitimate things go into the abyss with no response at least half the time. I would never bother them with this. I don’t drag my kid to the doctor (and pay for the visit out of pocket due to my high deductible plan) the second he has a fever/virus, but I do keep him home and treat with rest/fluids. You want an obituary emailed to you if grandma dies and he’s out to attend the funeral?

If you call the school and let them know your child is sick, it will be marked as excused. If you don't do this, it will be marked as unexcused. Call the attendance secretary or send in a note. It is that simple.

Yes I know how it is actually supposed to work but there is a know-it-all-teacher on here who thinks he or she can demand extra proof and can mark excused absences as unexcused.

Like PP, you are missing the point. If it shows as unexcused in Synergy, that is what we have to go by. However, it sounds like that teacher will allow students to send them documentation that it should have been excused. So, really she is 'going against' the attendance/grading policy by allowing this. Do you want them not to do this?

Listen, if you are a parent posting on this board, this is not going to impact you or your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

As a teacher I can do this by requiring a student submit proof of excused absence when they attempt to turn in the assignment late. I'm not denying them from doing it. I'm just denying them from getting credit for it when they can't prove that it was excused. It's not hard to produce a doctors note, e-mail from guidance, teacher, coach, administrator, etc. A parent writing a note saying "Student overslept" is not an excused note.

You are not living in the real world. My limited emails to the guidance counselor for legitimate things go into the abyss with no response at least half the time. I would never bother them with this. I don’t drag my kid to the doctor (and pay for the visit out of pocket due to my high deductible plan) the second he has a fever/virus, but I do keep him home and treat with rest/fluids. You want an obituary emailed to you if grandma dies and he’s out to attend the funeral?

If you call the school and let them know your child is sick, it will be marked as excused. If you don't do this, it will be marked as unexcused. Call the attendance secretary or send in a note. It is that simple.

I can tell you that year to date, in my HS between all 5 of my classes, I have probably seen less than 20 occasions where a student in my class was assigned an Illness code by the school attendance secretary. That means parents aren't calling. If you can't do your minimal responsibility then I'm not doing anything extra either. It's not my job to find out why your kid isn't in class. Everyone is unexcused until someone provides me with an excuse.

This night make sense if you were doing something that penalized the parents themselves, but it doesn't really seem fair for some kids to get worse grades than others based on whether or not their parent prioritizes (or even understands the importance of) calling in an excused absence.

+1 this is like penalizing kindergartners for tardiness when they are obviously not driving themselves or walking alone to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Attendance: Absences from skipping class disqualify for make-up work.

How on earth does MCPS plan on identifying, assessing and discerning which absences are legitimately due to skipping and not errors on their part due to subs not knowing how to take attendance, teachers forgetting to do attendance, or tardies being mistakenly marked as absences?

There's no way they have the scale and manpower to do this.

It’s actually pretty easy to identify. Either we mark them as unexcused absent or the system already shows the absence as “excused.” If the absence isn’t planned, parents can submit a note if the child was really sick or another legitimate reason identified by the student handbook to the attendance office. The teachers can then see it’s excused, and voila, the kid can make up the work.

This was actually policy and it DID work for many years until we got too soft with COVID.

I bet this PP is just a 17 year old who’s pissed they can’t skip to get McDonalds anymore.

You did not address the staff errors. I’m not a kid and I have firsthand experience with subs not knowing how to take attendance and marking my kid absent, or teachers making a mistake. I know it was a mistake because when I emailed teachers to inquire about the absences they would apologize and correct it.

As a regular sub at high schools, one thing we can do is take attendance. Many kids try to use “I had a sub” when they skip class. I always repeat several times the names of kids marked absent, so there are no mistakes. Now, if a kid says they need to go to the bathroom at the start of class and then are gone for the rest of the period - he/she is marked absent. I let the attendance secretary know the circumstances.

Are you arguing with me about my lived experience? I literally said I emailed to inquire and a few times, it turned out the sub messed. And a couple times, it was teacher error.

I’m not just going off of what my kid said. I followed up with the school.

+1
It’s obvious to me that know-it-all first year teacher does not have a kid and has not experienced the errors that periodically occur on the other end of this.

[Anonymous]

No. Two kids at two different high schools. I never encountered this. My kids went to class, and I called the school when they were ill.

I am sure when angry parents thinks their little snowflake is marked absent, it has to be the school’s fault. Not worth arguing with them. Just mark the student present, even though skipping hurts the kids in the long run.