MCPS Announces New Attendance Plan and Policy on 8/22

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, that document is sure a document. It took longer to design than to write.

One of the most recent documents ever created.

It's not bad, per se, it's just what you'd start with if you had absolutely known idea what was going on and needed to get started. Feels a few years late.

*No idea

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my high school we were told today there will be a lot more individual family outreach to get kids back in school.

We were also told, that any kids that don't show up for 10 days are going to unenrolled automatically. "must be" rather than can be". Staff are going to have more pressure to keep attendance accurate. Contact counselors after three days of absence.

Do you know if that is 10 days consecutive or 10 unexcused absences throughout the year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my high school we were told today there will be a lot more individual family outreach to get kids back in school.

We were also told, that any kids that don't show up for 10 days are going to unenrolled automatically. "must be" rather than can be". Staff are going to have more pressure to keep attendance accurate. Contact counselors after three days of absence.

Do you know if that is 10 days consecutive or 10 unexcused absences throughout the year?

We were told the same thing today. I believe the 'automatic' unenrollment is for 10 consecutive days.

[Anonymous]

Automatically unenrolling kids is a great way to make the absentee rate look better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my high school we were told today there will be a lot more individual family outreach to get kids back in school.

We were also told, that any kids that don't show up for 10 days are going to unenrolled automatically. "must be" rather than can be". Staff are going to have more pressure to keep attendance accurate. Contact counselors after three days of absence.

Do you know if that is 10 days consecutive or 10 unexcused absences throughout the year?

We were told the same thing today. I believe the 'automatic' unenrollment is for 10 consecutive days.

I'm not opposed to this, but MCPS is gonna have to make sure its attendance data is way more accurate before they start unenrolling people, otherwise I can see lawsuits for unenrolling students based on inaccurate attendance data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Automatically unenrolling kids is a great way to make the absentee rate look better.

If they don’t want to be there, and their parents, don’t care, and enrolling is a good solution.

The real question is if they can enroll again right away?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Automatically unenrolling kids is a great way to make the absentee rate look better.

At what point does unenrolling a child affect state aid? Wasn't there done issue with them over counting students to the state?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a summary of the new policy?

It's amazing stuff! They're completely on top of things. Way to go MCPS!

[Anonymous]

Here's the first report making some sense of the press conference: https://moco360.media/2023/08/22/new-mcps-attendance-action-plan-to-reevaluate-grading-policies/

While the plan does not immediately change any existing grading or attendance policies, school officials say those will be reevaluated as part of its implementation.

Attendance rates were gradually declining prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but have doubled since the return to in-person learning, according to Damon Monteleone, associate superintendent of Well-Being, Learning and Achievement. At a press conference Tuesday, he cited national data identifying one in three students as chronically absent.

Superintendent Monifa McKnight said the new MCPS attendance action plan— called All Together Now: In Schools Together, Learn Together, Achieve Together—represents the school district’s effort to “transform our thinking” when it comes to school attendance.

Well there you have it. We waited for a plan that changes nothing, but could, eventually, maybe, later, on a school-by-school basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they want kids to attend, then they need to add a consequence for being absent! Kids can be absent as often as they want and still earn high grades (or passing grades if that’s what the child is trying for). There’s no motivation to attend.

Many chronically absent children have no choice in the matter. Parents do not send them and they are too young to just walk out the door. Or their parents keep them home intentionally to care for sick younger siblings.

I’m not going to give adult consequences to an 11 year old child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my high school we were told today there will be a lot more individual family outreach to get kids back in school.

We were also told, that any kids that don't show up for 10 days are going to unenrolled automatically. "must be" rather than can be". Staff are going to have more pressure to keep attendance accurate. Contact counselors after three days of absence.

Well that certainly will improve the metrics. Even better than counting a 0 as a 50, count a 0 has not enrolled.

How would YOU enter grades for a student who has never attended?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Automatically unenrolling kids is a great way to make the absentee rate look better.

If they don’t want to be there, and their parents, don’t care, and enrolling is a good solution.

The real question is if they can enroll again right away?

We were told yes. But there’s paperwork involved - I’ve been through this with one of my kids who has medical issues and was unenrolled previously a couple of times due to extended leave for medical treatment.

[Anonymous]

MCPSTV went and uploaded the press conference since they disabled the livestream:

Watching now to see how they came off.

[Anonymous]

Are kids allowed to have mental health days? I think that would come up more frequent now than ever. Also what’s wrong with being able to achieve high grades while skipping? Shouldn’t the counselor re-evaluate the student’s course work for being not challenging enough? I think many kids are bored with what’s being taught, and/or going to college isn’t their thing, why keep them in school as long as they are safe. It doesn’t apply to those who mess around on the street, but some kids are in school just because they aren’t the age of graduating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Automatically unenrolling kids is a great way to make the absentee rate look better.

It’s also a great way to discourage kids from bothering to come back to school.