Anonymous wrote:I really wish they would screen out excused absences from these messages. My teen missed four days because they had pneumonia. Doctor’s note submitted, absences excused, and yet here’s the email anyways.

Anonymous wrote:There absolutely are parents who are taking kids on vacation and pulling kids out for that. I don't know if these texts make a difference, but I do think the first step is to make it clear kids should be in school and missing school is not ideal (but of course, it is unavoidable sometimes). The second step is consequences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The automated messages fail on multiple fronts:

1. They're not always accurate. I can't count the number of times my kid was actually in class but the sub just doesn't know how to manage the electronic attendance and just does it on paper instead of in the system, which triggers the automated alert.

2. It doesn't, to OP's point, distinguish between excused or unexcused absences. So even when I've taken the effort to call or email the school ahead of time, I'm still hit with the message, which assumes I'm unaware that my child was absent that day.

MCPS has no idea what its doing when it comes to attendance and these automated alerts are actually hurting and not helping, since they are dumb and often inaccurate.

The alert you’re describing is different from what OP is describing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone find these texts and emails from MCPS about excused absences to be at all useful? I can't imagine there's a parent out there saying "Oh, I didn't care if my kid went to school, but now that I've received this text, I will care!"

My kid caught COVID at school so missed several days, was back for a week or two and then caught the respiratory illness that everyone in her classes has, so is out again. The text notes that she has missed three days this quarter and asks if there is anything MCPS can do to ensure she goes to school....she's in a school with like a thousand kids, with basically no ventilation, each day she is exposed to hundreds of different kids, there's almost no opportunity to wash your hands because the teachers don't like the kids to go to the bathrooms....so, yeah, she's going to get sick.

I really hope they are not spending any money at all on this text/email system. If anyone from MCPS is reading, please know that I just find this annoying.

My goodness! Is there anything y'all do not complain about?
Doom if they do, doom if they don’t. Y'all MCPS parents are the worst.

There are thousands of MCPS parents. They annoying ones certainly have an out size impact but they don't represent all of us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone find these texts and emails from MCPS about excused absences to be at all useful? I can't imagine there's a parent out there saying "Oh, I didn't care if my kid went to school, but now that I've received this text, I will care!"

My kid caught COVID at school so missed several days, was back for a week or two and then caught the respiratory illness that everyone in her classes has, so is out again. The text notes that she has missed three days this quarter and asks if there is anything MCPS can do to ensure she goes to school....she's in a school with like a thousand kids, with basically no ventilation, each day she is exposed to hundreds of different kids, there's almost no opportunity to wash your hands because the teachers don't like the kids to go to the bathrooms....so, yeah, she's going to get sick.

I really hope they are not spending any money at all on this text/email system. If anyone from MCPS is reading, please know that I just find this annoying.

My goodness! Is there anything y'all do not complain about?
Doom if they do, doom if they don’t. Y'all MCPS parents are the worst.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone find these texts and emails from MCPS about excused absences to be at all useful? I can't imagine there's a parent out there saying "Oh, I didn't care if my kid went to school, but now that I've received this text, I will care!"

My kid caught COVID at school so missed several days, was back for a week or two and then caught the respiratory illness that everyone in her classes has, so is out again. The text notes that she has missed three days this quarter and asks if there is anything MCPS can do to ensure she goes to school....she's in a school with like a thousand kids, with basically no ventilation, each day she is exposed to hundreds of different kids, there's almost no opportunity to wash your hands because the teachers don't like the kids to go to the bathrooms....so, yeah, she's going to get sick.

I really hope they are not spending any money at all on this text/email system. If anyone from MCPS is reading, please know that I just find this annoying.

Anonymous wrote:The automated messages fail on multiple fronts:

1. They're not always accurate. I can't count the number of times my kid was actually in class but the sub just doesn't know how to manage the electronic attendance and just does it on paper instead of in the system, which triggers the automated alert.

2. It doesn't, to OP's point, distinguish between excused or unexcused absences. So even when I've taken the effort to call or email the school ahead of time, I'm still hit with the message, which assumes I'm unaware that my child was absent that day.

MCPS has no idea what its doing when it comes to attendance and these automated alerts are actually hurting and not helping, since they are dumb and often inaccurate.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone find these texts and emails from MCPS about excused absences to be at all useful? I can't imagine there's a parent out there saying "Oh, I didn't care if my kid went to school, but now that I've received this text, I will care!"

My kid caught COVID at school so missed several days, was back for a week or two and then caught the respiratory illness that everyone in her classes has, so is out again. The text notes that she has missed three days this quarter and asks if there is anything MCPS can do to ensure she goes to school....she's in a school with like a thousand kids, with basically no ventilation, each day she is exposed to hundreds of different kids, there's almost no opportunity to wash your hands because the teachers don't like the kids to go to the bathrooms....so, yeah, she's going to get sick.

I really hope they are not spending any money at all on this text/email system. If anyone from MCPS is reading, please know that I just find this annoying.