Proposal that could allow truant seniors to graduate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:white kids: "my precious snowflake missed a lot of school due to anxiety and an enriching international trip we took"

nonwhite kids: TRUANTS WATER DOWN VALUE OF HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA[/quote]

way to NOT be helpful. A two week vacation to see family in central america (my kid attends a DCPS that is 70% latino and high poverty, but go on with your racist assumptions) is very different than missing over 30 days and still bringing in failing grades when you are in attendance.

The bolded is very helpful and accurate. There are many UMC students who miss 30+ days and if you look they are all excused. Honestly barring a medical or health issue, what's the difference between excused or unexcused? UMC parents know what to write on the notes and fight if someone questions them. But their student's attendance issues would NEVER water down the value of a diploma, as a PP stated. The enforcement of attendance rules is totally inequitable

Unexcused didn't write a note that said dr appointment or child was feeling sick today please excuse. no difference!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:white kids: "my precious snowflake missed a lot of school due to anxiety and an enriching international trip we took"

nonwhite kids: TRUANTS WATER DOWN VALUE OF HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA[/quote]

way to NOT be helpful. A two week vacation to see family in central america (my kid attends a DCPS that is 70% latino and high poverty, but go on with your racist assumptions) is very different than missing over 30 days and still bringing in failing grades when you are in attendance.

The bolded is very helpful and accurate. There are many UMC students who miss 30+ days and if you look they are all excused. Honestly barring a medical or health issue, what's the difference between excused or unexcused? UMC parents know what to write on the notes and fight if someone questions them. But their student's attendance issues would NEVER water down the value of a diploma, as a PP stated. The enforcement of attendance rules is totally inequitable

Unexcused didn't write a note that said dr appointment or child was feeling sick today please excuse. no difference!!!

that is all the parent, sorry child, has to write, no one is asking for medical verification if it is odd day at a time, nor are they verifying the parent did write it.

[Anonymous]

In some schools, attendance is taken 30 times per week (period attendance). A student can easily acquire many absences if school based activities are coded incorrectly by the teachers ( field trips , special ed pullout services, athletic travel, guidance counseling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In some schools, attendance is taken 30 times per week (period attendance). A student can easily acquire many absences if school based activities are coded incorrectly by the teachers ( field trips , special ed pullout services, athletic travel, guidance counseling

Yeah, and this is where this becomes a class thing. I have time to call the school and fight to get them to correct wrongly entered absences (most days DS has a game, he gets marked absent and many days when he's sitting in class he gets marked absent). Lots of parents don't.

[Anonymous]

DC Council just rolled over and died. They could give a rat's bottom about these students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In some schools, attendance is taken 30 times per week (period attendance). A student can easily acquire many absences if school based activities are coded incorrectly by the teachers ( field trips , special ed pullout services, athletic travel, guidance counseling

Yeah, and this is where this becomes a class thing. I have time to call the school and fight to get them to correct wrongly entered absences (most days DS has a game, he gets marked absent and many days when he's sitting in class he gets marked absent). Lots of parents don't.

Lot's of parents don't understand, just because you send your child to school does not mean they are sitting in class in middle and high school. We have many many hall walkers, teachers take attendance during the 1st 10 minutes, you would be shocked how many students skip class, enter during 1st 10 mins then leave and don't come back, or just roam the halls. Again, parents just because you send your child does not mean they are sitting in class and doing their work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In some schools, attendance is taken 30 times per week (period attendance). A student can easily acquire many absences if school based activities are coded incorrectly by the teachers ( field trips , special ed pullout services, athletic travel, guidance counseling

Yeah, and this is where this becomes a class thing. I have time to call the school and fight to get them to correct wrongly entered absences (most days DS has a game, he gets marked absent and many days when he's sitting in class he gets marked absent). Lots of parents don't.

Lot's of parents don't understand, just because you send your child to school does not mean they are sitting in class in middle and high school. We have many many hall walkers, teachers take attendance during the 1st 10 minutes, you would be shocked how many students skip class, enter during 1st 10 mins then leave and don't come back, or just roam the halls. Again, parents just because you send your child does not mean they are sitting in class and doing their work!

np: In college, this is completely on the student. In middle school, if ‘hall walking’ is commom, it’s the school’s disciplinary failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In some schools, attendance is taken 30 times per week (period attendance). A student can easily acquire many absences if school based activities are coded incorrectly by the teachers ( field trips , special ed pullout services, athletic travel, guidance counseling

Yeah, and this is where this becomes a class thing. I have time to call the school and fight to get them to correct wrongly entered absences (most days DS has a game, he gets marked absent and many days when he's sitting in class he gets marked absent). Lots of parents don't.

Lot's of parents don't understand, just because you send your child to school does not mean they are sitting in class in middle and high school. We have many many hall walkers, teachers take attendance during the 1st 10 minutes, you would be shocked how many students skip class, enter during 1st 10 mins then leave and don't come back, or just roam the halls. Again, parents just because you send your child does not mean they are sitting in class and doing their work!

You're wasting your energy. I assume you're a teacher and have sat through enough "I know my child" speeches during parent conferences. We're with their kids more waking hours than they are, and we see their children interact with a greater number of people than they do. Despite this, we'll never win that fight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In some schools, attendance is taken 30 times per week (period attendance). A student can easily acquire many absences if school based activities are coded incorrectly by the teachers ( field trips , special ed pullout services, athletic travel, guidance counseling

Yeah, and this is where this becomes a class thing. I have time to call the school and fight to get them to correct wrongly entered absences (most days DS has a game, he gets marked absent and many days when he's sitting in class he gets marked absent). Lots of parents don't.

Lot's of parents don't understand, just because you send your child to school does not mean they are sitting in class in middle and high school. We have many many hall walkers, teachers take attendance during the 1st 10 minutes, you would be shocked how many students skip class, enter during 1st 10 mins then leave and don't come back, or just roam the halls. Again, parents just because you send your child does not mean they are sitting in class and doing their work!

You're wasting your energy. I assume you're a teacher and have sat through enough "I know my child" speeches during parent conferences. We're with their kids more waking hours than they are, and we see their children interact with a greater number of people than they do. Despite this, we'll never win that fight.

I'm absolutely sure that you are both right about kids walking the halls. However, when my straight-A student has been marked absent, he has been able to show me the classwork that was completed that day and describe in great detail what the class did. That's why the attendance office fixes the issue once I email or call. This is typically an issue when there is a sub, which also happens to be when work that was completed and turned in ends up getting lost and he ends up with a zero for classwork. It's such a regular occurrence that my kid now takes a picture of all sub work with his phone before turning it in.

Also, by high school, my kid is one of hundreds of kids that a teacher sees for about 5 hours a week each, almost always in a group of 30 other kids. Some of my kid's teachers barely know his name, so the notion that they know much about him -- other than how he behaves for the few minutes a week that they directly interact --- is not credible to me. I entirely believe that teachers DO know if my kid is making their day to day harder by causing any kind of disruption (i.e. talking, looking at his phone, etc.), so when they report that kind of thing at conferences, I take it at face value. The idea that they know WHY he's behaving as his is, or what's going on with him socially or emotionally, or even what class material gets versus what he's struggling with -- nah, not a chance. They simply have too many students for my kid to be much more than student number XXXXXX to them.

[Anonymous]

So the Council bill passed 12-1 (Brandon Todd voted against it).

Acting DME has said the Administration is opposed to the emergency legislation.

Will Bowser veto it outright? Pocket veto? Or sign it.

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-passes-emergency-law-to-allow-chronically-absent-students-to-graduate/2018/06/06/3aa128ae-6990-11e8-9e38-24e693b38637_story.html?utm_term=.a56459d101de

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-passes-emergency-law-to-allow-chronically-absent-students-to-graduate/2018/06/06/3aa128ae-6990-11e8-9e38-24e693b38637_story.html?utm_term=.a56459d101de

"Data released last month shows that 64 of the school system’s 3,623 seniors could receive a break because of the legislation. Those students are at risk of not graduating for one reason: They have too many absences.

But White said the school system has updated its figures, and it’s now believed 26 seniors would be affected by the legislation. It is unclear why that number changed, but White suggested that schools may have discovered some students in danger of not graduating had failed to meet other academic standards."

Interesting that the number of affected kids might be more like 26 than 3600.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-passes-emergency-law-to-allow-chronically-absent-students-to-graduate/2018/06/06/3aa128ae-6990-11e8-9e38-24e693b38637_story.html?utm_term=.a56459d101de

"Data released last month shows that 64 of the school system’s 3,623 seniors could receive a break because of the legislation. Those students are at risk of not graduating for one reason: They have too many absences.

But White said the school system has updated its figures, and it’s now believed 26 seniors would be affected by the legislation. It is unclear why that number changed, but White suggested that schools may have discovered some students in danger of not graduating had failed to meet other academic standards."

Interesting that the number of affected kids might be more like 26 than 3600.

26 rather than 64.

[Anonymous]

What happens with students in other grades who have missed 30 days or more? Do they get social promotion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No wonder Wilson was shut out of Ivy admissions this year. Colleges are waking up to the worthlessness of a DCPS educatuon.

Just wanted to resurrect this thread to LOL at this dumb comment. The Wilson class of 2018 has two kids who will be attending Yale, one who will be attending Penn, and one who will be attending Princeton. Plus one who will be attending Stanford. There may be more too - that's just what I learned from attending their graduation ceremony this past Saturday.