Attendance pressure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The messaging about the importance of attendance is getting more and more aggressive. And now also kind of racist.

"December Attendance
Every year, absences spike in the weeks before and after winter break. It’s time to break that cycle. Give your child the gift of attendance and help build a habit of attendance.

We recognize that holidays are an important time for reconnecting with families far away and exposing your children to your home and language, whether you grew up in another part of the United States or a different country. The price of plane tickets often influences when you want to travel. But keep in mind the costs to your children’s education if they miss too much school.

Make sure your child is in school every day, right up until vacation starts. Our teachers will be teaching, and our students will be learning. But it’s harder to teach and it’s harder to learn when too many students are absent.

Two weeks to go! Let's finish strong. Winter break is December 22nd through January 2nd. School resumes on January 5th, 2026."

I'm sorry, but which school or district sent this message? I'm at Haycock/Longfellow/Mclean (with a kid in each) and we did not receive this message.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not racist. Families of all races and nationalities travel internationally. It’s disruptive. I have a student who has missed all of second quarter so far. Was supposed to return 11/24 but hasn’t come back yet, so he was dropped from the system due to 15 consecutive days of absence. I have no idea when he’s coming back, but if it isn’t before winter break, it will be a full 2 months that he wasn’t in my class if he comes back in January. What am I supposed to do? How do I recover that much learning? I cannot remediate an entire quarter for one kid.

Part of having kids is prioritizing them. I get wanting to travel and see family but there are lots of times at which that can be done without drastically impacting school. Pulling your kid out for multiple weeks is not beneficial to them just because you found tickets for $300 cheaper during school time.

Firstly, it might do you some good to consider that $1200 ($300 across a families worth of tickets) is probably real money to some of your students parents. I’m genuinely happy for you that $300/ticket is not a meaningful enough difference to impact your travel plans.

Next, when are all these “lots of times” I can travel internationally without impacting school? Bear in mind I have a family member with a medical condition which makes summer travel nearly impossible. I try to target weeks that already have a day or two off, but if there’s a ton of other time I’m missing I’d be happy to learn about it.

Finally— the parents of these kids are prioritizing them. They just think that prioritizing them means giving them time with their families.

If you can travel internationally for 3-5 weeks at a time , we are not going to pretend $1200 is a make or break amount of money for you. Come on. Sorry about your health condition that means your kids lose massive chunks of learning each year because you can’t travel in the summer but as a teacher, I am allowed to be concerned about students missing weeks of instruction. I had a kid fail the entire third quarter several years ago because he was gone for nearly all of it. And had an IEP. We simply cannot pretend that all kids can absorb losing learning time because their parents want to travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not racist. Families of all races and nationalities travel internationally. It’s disruptive. I have a student who has missed all of second quarter so far. Was supposed to return 11/24 but hasn’t come back yet, so he was dropped from the system due to 15 consecutive days of absence. I have no idea when he’s coming back, but if it isn’t before winter break, it will be a full 2 months that he wasn’t in my class if he comes back in January. What am I supposed to do? How do I recover that much learning? I cannot remediate an entire quarter for one kid.

Part of having kids is prioritizing them. I get wanting to travel and see family but there are lots of times at which that can be done without drastically impacting school. Pulling your kid out for multiple weeks is not beneficial to them just because you found tickets for $300 cheaper during school time.

Firstly, it might do you some good to consider that $1200 ($300 across a families worth of tickets) is probably real money to some of your students parents. I’m genuinely happy for you that $300/ticket is not a meaningful enough difference to impact your travel plans.

Next, when are all these “lots of times” I can travel internationally without impacting school? Bear in mind I have a family member with a medical condition which makes summer travel nearly impossible. I try to target weeks that already have a day or two off, but if there’s a ton of other time I’m missing I’d be happy to learn about it.

Finally— the parents of these kids are prioritizing them. They just think that prioritizing them means giving them time with their families.

If you can travel internationally for 3-5 weeks at a time , we are not going to pretend $1200 is a make or break amount of money for you. Come on. Sorry about your health condition that means your kids lose massive chunks of learning each year because you can’t travel in the summer but as a teacher, I am allowed to be concerned about students missing weeks of instruction. I had a kid fail the entire third quarter several years ago because he was gone for nearly all of it. And had an IEP. We simply cannot pretend that all kids can absorb losing learning time because their parents want to travel.

It’s not my health condition— it’s my children’s 80 year old grandparent. With whom, I imagine you’ll agree, they get no make up time.

My kid isn’t behind. And I don’t think it prioritizes her to have her spend extra days in a sub-taught classroom rather than with her grandparent overseas. Honestly I think if it were your kid and their grandparent you’d make a similar choice.

[Anonymous]

I think the message was sent only in a limited circumstance. As the prior poster, we haven't received this message either (in a different pyramid in FCPS).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP - school accreditation can be affected by higher numbers of student absenteeism (10% or more missed days for ANY reason).

My straight A honor roll sophmore was out with pneumonia for three days in October. I got a Talking Points message that she would be required to stay after school to make up time missed. She was PULLED five minutes before the bell from her last class and marched to the library for her make up hour. It was like a forced detention/study hall. And she was excused and is an honor roll student.

But I also understand the serious pressure coming from VDOE on absentism and it's defintely showing up in the schools and how they choose to handle it.

THIS is why schools are pushing attendance.

You're thinking about vacations and families; schools are tracking absences and seeing how much closer they are to losing accreditation. Schools can't stop you from pulling your kids out, but they will send message after message because that's pretty much all they can do.

The forced detention is new to me, and that doesn't seem right.

This may change with a new VA governor, and if she changes the school accreditation requirements.

They can do another thing: have a credible school calendar. Don’t have 39 days off across the school year but think parents will really seriously worry about adding 4.

Don’t say you’re being inclusive of our diverse regional religious population and then send a screed about traveling during a (for many) religious holiday.

[Anonymous]

The school did not send that message because of racism or discrimination. They sent it for 2 reasons, 1: Attendance rate is a part of a schools accreditation. FCPS wants to ensure all of its schools are accredited. 2. Their is a direct correlation between attendance and gpa. Sure there are some outliers but the majority of students need to be in school to do well and missing school creates gaps in their learning.

[Anonymous]

My problem is the uniform treatment given to a failing student with 20 absences and a straight A student with 6. The tone and lecture I receive when I pick up my child early from school is absurd and they can pound sand. I am the parent and will do as I see fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My problem is the uniform treatment given to a failing student with 20 absences and a straight A student with 6. The tone and lecture I receive when I pick up my child early from school is absurd and they can pound sand. I am the parent and will do as I see fit.

It has nothing to do with grades. To many absences and the school can get investigated by the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school did not send that message because of racism or discrimination. They sent it for 2 reasons, 1: Attendance rate is a part of a schools accreditation. FCPS wants to ensure all of its schools are accredited. 2. Their is a direct correlation between attendance and gpa. Sure there are some outliers but the majority of students need to be in school to do well and missing school creates gaps in their learning.

This is what strains credibility. There’s no educational justification for our calendar, kids at the younger, critical ages don’t benefit from lack of repetition and routine. So to say missing school creates gaps— while potentially true— ignores the gaps the school creates and considers just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school did not send that message because of racism or discrimination. They sent it for 2 reasons, 1: Attendance rate is a part of a schools accreditation. FCPS wants to ensure all of its schools are accredited. 2. Their is a direct correlation between attendance and gpa. Sure there are some outliers but the majority of students need to be in school to do well and missing school creates gaps in their learning.

This is what strains credibility. There’s no educational justification for our calendar, kids at the younger, critical ages don’t benefit from lack of repetition and routine. So to say missing school creates gaps— while potentially true— ignores the gaps the school creates and considers just fine.

Take it up with the state the the federal govt. No child left behind (Bush and Obama) forced states to create standards. Virginia included attendance in its standards. None of this is FCPS's fault. Wanting you to be in school is forced on FCPS by the state. The standards do not include exceptions, this is why students who go out for a while receive homebound services. Sure the calendar sucks but that is our fault. We (the residents of fairfax county) voted a bunch of people into the school board who put activism before children. Now we have a terrible calendar with the same standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My problem is the uniform treatment given to a failing student with 20 absences and a straight A student with 6. The tone and lecture I receive when I pick up my child early from school is absurd and they can pound sand. I am the parent and will do as I see fit.

It has nothing to do with grades. To many absences and the school can get investigated by the state.

If a school alienates its parent body so much that they don’t see value in having their children there, maybe they should be investigated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school did not send that message because of racism or discrimination. They sent it for 2 reasons, 1: Attendance rate is a part of a schools accreditation. FCPS wants to ensure all of its schools are accredited. 2. Their is a direct correlation between attendance and gpa. Sure there are some outliers but the majority of students need to be in school to do well and missing school creates gaps in their learning.

This actually isn’t true for smart kids. The curriculum moves so slowly and there is so much “makeup” time built into the schedule (for all the slackers) that a bright kid can easily miss school here and there without missing a beat. Towards the end of a quarter or near a longer break teachers will often announce it’s going to be a “catch up day” and I don’t make my kids go because they have nothing to “catchup.”

[Anonymous]

In ES, the week before Christmas break is movies and parties and pajama days. My kid likes it but don't tell me they're learning a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My problem is the uniform treatment given to a failing student with 20 absences and a straight A student with 6. The tone and lecture I receive when I pick up my child early from school is absurd and they can pound sand. I am the parent and will do as I see fit.

It has nothing to do with grades. To many absences and the school can get investigated by the state.

The fact that attendance is put on the schools is ridiculous. Parents control this. Schools cannot force kids to come to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My problem is the uniform treatment given to a failing student with 20 absences and a straight A student with 6. The tone and lecture I receive when I pick up my child early from school is absurd and they can pound sand. I am the parent and will do as I see fit.

It has nothing to do with grades. To many absences and the school can get investigated by the state.

If a school alienates its parent body so much that they don’t see value in having their children there, maybe they should be investigated?

Do it. Investigated by the state means that the state will come in a monitor the schools practices. Which means more significant (draconian) policies will be put in place. More oversite means more nonsense, not less. So if you want a state run school in your neighborhood, well good luck with that.