Attendance Policy??

[Anonymous]

My kids' MD public school failed the second semester in a row to make its requirement of 96% attendance rate. It had something like 89%.

As a result, I just got a letter from the school. Due to my child's high absentee rate (out 7 times the first quarter mostly due to flu, with dr's note, plus 2 days off for family trip) and NONE the second quarter (because I got a nasty gram about him being out so often the first quarter, I started sending him to school sick with Tylenol, they are calling me in during the day to examine our recent utilities bills etc to determine that we actually live in the school district. They say that when a child has a frequent pattern of illnesses, it often means that the parents have moved out of the attendance zone and are having trouble getting the kid to school. Also that if my child continues to have absences, they will continue to pull me in to prove I live there.

My question is -- is 96% really considered a reasonable attendance rate for an elementary school that includes Kindergarten? I admit I took my kid out of school for 2 days unexcused. But he's reading and doing math above grade level and I didn't think it would be a problem for the school's test scores. The other days he really, truly was sick. I thought I wasn't supposed to send kids to school when sick -- but kids do get sick.

[Anonymous]

If most of the sick days were excused by a dr's note, I am surprised they are coming after you for 2 unexcused days. Maybe they are doing this to everyone w/ more than ____ days missed. Is your school a low performing school? I am assuming it is b/c schools around here have better things to do than this. I guess in the future, you should inform the teacher of an upcoming absence unless he/she is sick.

[Anonymous]

I believe the monitoring systems in No Child Left Behind include an attendance component. I don't know what level is required (whether it is that high.) But schools have to watch it.

[Anonymous]

OP here . They aren't coming me after the 2 unexcused absences, but because of the 7 overall absences. It doesn't matter for No Child Left Behind attendence requirements if the absences are excused or unexcused, apparently.

The school needs to have 96% attendence overall for the year. That means on average kids can only miss school -- for any reason -- 4% of the time. I think the school year is something like 180 days, so 4 % of that is something like 7.5 school days.

So it is like they are saying, kids in my son's school are only expected to take 7 sick days per year; after that they will be in violation of the requirement for 96% presenteeism.

I just think 7 sick days per year is a little low for elementary aged children. Who came up with the 96% attendence goal for elementary schools? We're supposed to keep kids home when they are sick, and for 24 hours more after they have had a fever. If a kid just gets two "bugs" a year that could easily bring you to 6 days (2 days for being sick and one day for recovery.) Is there some research that says, on everage, elementary school kids only get sick twice each year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If most of the sick days were excused by a dr's note, I am surprised they are coming after you for 2 unexcused days. Maybe they are doing this to everyone w/ more than ____ days missed. Is your school a low performing school? I am assuming it is b/c schools around here have better things to do than this. I guess in the future, you should inform the teacher of an upcoming absence unless he/she is sick.

No the school is not an underperforming school. Apparently though this year, it has missed it's attendance goals. It only had 89% of kids present this part quarter, and its goal this year (don't know who set it) was 94% or 96% daily attendence.

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/13/AR2008101302863.html

Stephen Knolls recorded an average attendance rate of 80 percent in the 2007-08 academic year, 14 points shy of the state standard. Attendance is a little-known facet of the federal accountability system, which is chiefly focused on reading and math, because it is a standard most schools easily meet. Last school year, 27 of 1,145 Maryland elementary and middle schools failed to make "adequate progress" under the law because of attendance. Repeated failures plunge a school ever deeper into the machinery of accountability and trigger escalating sanctions.

[Anonymous]

I don't know what is reasonable, but seven sick days per year seems like more than enough per kid. I don't know any kid in our neighborhood who missed that many days except one that had a serious medical problem.

This is good to know though. Thanks for sharing and starting this discussion, OP.

[Anonymous]

We are in Arlington and my Kindergarten son is on sick day #8 today, including 4 days for H1N1 and 4 days for various other illnesses including strep throat. If they prefer I send him to school and infect the rest of the class, that can be arranged.

And I'm taking him out for 4 days in early June because we have a family wedding on the west coast that he is in. I've never heard of these numbers, but I'll be curious to see if we hear from school about all the sick days.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I think it's overreaching on the government's part. If a child has a note from a parent and the child is not in danger of failing, that should be enough. Period. That's the way it was when I was a child- and I missed NO school until eighth grade (got measles over Christmas and Chicken Pox over Spring Break before that) when my mother took me out for a vacation. Parents should be able to do this if the child is adequately performing. I was also absent a great deal in Junior and Senior years due to an undiagnosed medical condition. Seems unfair to ding the school for something like that.

[Anonymous]

My PreKer is asthmatic and is on her 10th missed day this year. There is just no way an asthmatic in early elementary school is going to have the attendance rate. I was asthmatic as a child too -- and I missed 30 days of 1/2 day kindergarten in 1981. I did fine academically. I don't know why, but this infuriates me. I;m doing everything I can to keep my kid healthy and in school. Give me a break. I know this doesn't apply to us yet (and maybe never due to private schools), but I think this is crazy bureacracy. I'm sure my ped is going to be thrilled to have to be providing notes all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what is reasonable, but seven sick days per year seems like more than enough per kid. I don't know any kid in our neighborhood who missed that many days except one that had a serious medical problem.

This is good to know though. Thanks for sharing and starting this discussion, OP.

Well, my child had the flu in October. He had a fever of over 100 for 4 days. The next day (Friday) his fever went down to normal and it stayed down for anotehr day. Then Sun afternoon his fever came back again, and he complained of a sore throat. So I kept him home again Monday, when he still had the fever (although lower), and took him to the doctor and the doctor said "it's probably swine flu". I kept him home again Tuesday because he still didn't seem OK; still had a sore throat, even though his fever was all gone. By Wednesday he seemed OK. So that was like 6 days right there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My PreKer is asthmatic and is on her 10th missed day this year. There is just no way an asthmatic in early elementary school is going to have the attendance rate. I was asthmatic as a child too -- and I missed 30 days of 1/2 day kindergarten in 1981. I did fine academically. I don't know why, but this infuriates me. I;m doing everything I can to keep my kid healthy and in school. Give me a break. I know this doesn't apply to us yet (and maybe never due to private schools), but I think this is crazy bureacracy. I'm sure my ped is going to be thrilled to have to be providing notes all the time.

Well, I'm sorry for sending my possibly sick child to school, where he might infect yours. But from now on that's what I'm going to do, because apparently my child has missed his fair share of sick days. )-;

If my child has a fever, I'll drive him to school, send him in to be marked "present" and wait in the nurses office for him to tell his teacher he feels sick, and get sent to her office to have his temp taken.

[Anonymous]

I thought that excused absences did not count against a school for NCLB - it was unexcused ones (eg: missing school for a family trip)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought that excused absences did not count against a school for NCLB - it was unexcused ones (eg: missing school for a family trip)

No, at least not as far as I understand it. The school's "attendance rate" is just a measure of how many children are present divided by how many children are enrolled, each day. It is not a measure of truancy or unexcused absenses.

In looking for a citation for this information, though, I came across this memo on the VA Dept of ed website, which seems to me to be saying that according to the rules of NCLB, states MUST include a measure of reading and math in their assessment of school's yearly progress, but have a choice as to which ither areas to choose -- they must choose one other indication, either attendance, science, history, or writing:

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/administrators/superintendents_memos/2008/adm025.html

For a school to make AYP under NCLB, all schools that do not have a graduating class must meet the participation rate and the annual measurable performance objectives for reading and mathematics, plus their selected other academic indicator. The choice of attendance, science, history, or writing as the other academic indicator also will apply to the safe harbor AYP calculation.

If I'm reading that and understanding it correctly, that would make me really mad, if Maryland chose "attendance" when it could have chosen to measure, say kids' progress in history or science.

[Anonymous]

Attendance Rate

Attendance Rate is the percentage of students in school for at least half of the average school day during the school year. Attendance is an AYP measure for elementary and middle schools. Yearly targets are set for attendance so that by the end of school year 2013-14, the state, schools, school systems will achieve an attendance rate of at least 94%.

http://reports.mdk12.org/2008PrintReports/03/SchoolReports/English/030809_2008ReportCard.pdf

So the child needs to come to school for the half the day in order to be included as present for that day.