Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
But let's take one step back. What is the goal of public education? I would posit the goal is for every child in the system to leave with certain base skills that will allow them to be a functioning member of our society.

Now, if we fail the kid who is late because they were working at their parents' restaurant the night before, and we fail the kid who left school early because they are the emergency contact for a younger sibling who got sick at school, then we are actually failing society as well.

Strict enforcement of the rules works great if your only goal is serving the 75% who turn up to school regularly and on time. But if you want to capture the remaining 25%, there has to be some flexibility.

Is this really the main cause for all these unexcused absences? Kids working late in their parents' restaurants? I really doubt it.

When I was in HS, I had a few friends whose parents were recent immigrants and worked almost all the time in the restaurant, gas station, or convenience store they owned, all for their kids. The one thing they never did was ask the kids to forego schoolwork to work there. They instead made the sacrifice and worked super-long hours, so their kids could focus on their schoolwork.

Looking at how common the high unexcused absence rate was at Einstein featured in the WP article -- I just really doubt this is due to all those kids working late in their parents' businesses.

Anonymous wrote:
But let's take one step back. What is the goal of public education? I would posit the goal is for every child in the system to leave with certain base skills that will allow them to be a functioning member of our society.

Now, if we fail the kid who is late because they were working at their parents' restaurant the night before, and we fail the kid who left school early because they are the emergency contact for a younger sibling who got sick at school, then we are actually failing society as well.

Strict enforcement of the rules works great if your only goal is serving the 75% who turn up to school regularly and on time. But if you want to capture the remaining 25%, there has to be some flexibility.

Anonymous wrote:When I was in MCPS (ok, 20 years ago), 3 unexcused tardies = 1 unexcused absence, and 5 unexcused absences = fail the course.

If someone was out due to medical issues or the like, that was an _excused_ absence so they wouldn't fail the course.

It sounds like these are unexcused absences. Why aren't the rules being strictly enforced? It's unfair to both good students and bad students if the rules being set aren't being followed.

Do these same students skipping school all the time think they can pull the same student when they have a real job? We're not preparing students for the real world if we raise them with that mindset.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was in MCPS (ok, 20 years ago), 3 unexcused tardies = 1 unexcused absence, and 5 unexcused absences = fail the course.

If someone was out due to medical issues or the like, that was an _excused_ absence so they wouldn't fail the course.

It sounds like these are unexcused absences. Why aren't the rules being strictly enforced? It's unfair to both good students and bad students if the rules being set aren't being followed.

Do these same students skipping school all the time think they can pull the same student when they have a real job? We're not preparing students for the real world if we raise them with that mindset.

There was a PP on page one who had a great, and nuanced, response to this very issue. When rules are STRICTLY enforced, the burden falls on those with the least capacity to work the system.

But let's take one step back. What is the goal of public education? I would posit the goal is for every child in the system to leave with certain base skills that will allow them to be a functioning member of our society.

Now, if we fail the kid who is late because they were working at their parents' restaurant the night before, and we fail the kid who left school early because they are the emergency contact for a younger sibling who got sick at school, then we are actually failing society as well.

Strict enforcement of the rules works great if your only goal is serving the 75% who turn up to school regularly and on time. But if you want to capture the remaining 25%, there has to be some flexibility.

This! These are the vulnerable kids that we claim to be most concerned about. Let’s act in ways that are constructive rather than punitive.

Anonymous wrote:Of course we ask why. They tell us that school is long and boring. I guess it is compared to watching You Tube videos and playing FortNite all day. We also have chronic latenesses even though the families live within walking distance. The kids are used to being late and when they show up, their attitude is “Well, I’m here!” They don’t come in 10 minutes late. They come in 2-3 HOURS late. Why? Mom/Dad didn’t want to get up early.

Anonymous wrote:When I was in MCPS (ok, 20 years ago), 3 unexcused tardies = 1 unexcused absence, and 5 unexcused absences = fail the course.

If someone was out due to medical issues or the like, that was an _excused_ absence so they wouldn't fail the course.

It sounds like these are unexcused absences. Why aren't the rules being strictly enforced? It's unfair to both good students and bad students if the rules being set aren't being followed.

Do these same students skipping school all the time think they can pull the same student when they have a real job? We're not preparing students for the real world if we raise them with that mindset.

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher here are legit reasons that a kid might be absent from the classroom and get marked absent by mistake. Attendance, behavioral or emotional issues can exacerbate these:
1. Make up testing
2. Meetings with guidance.
3. Meetings with admin
4. Meetings for therapy (speech pathologist, in school therapist, etc.)
5. Field trips
6. Late to class but marked absent since the teacher forgot to change it. Lates are often due to meeting with a teacher after class.

Theoretically, these should not be absences but it really hard to keep up with for attendance secretaries and teachers.

Anonymous wrote:Not MCPS but parents know that nothing will happen if their kid has uneducated absences. I’ve had a student who has missed the equivalent of one school year in the last three years. Nothing has happened. Apparently there are worse cases so get in line. Not surprisingly, this student is below grade level. This is the typical line I get at parent conferences- “Larla doesn’t like to go to school.” Oh yeah? Well it is your job as a parent to send her whether she likes it or not. I would rather stay home and play on my tablet all day too. Most of my conferences end up as us giving out parenting advice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is what I have observed as both a teacher and a parent:

When middle class and affluent students are absent often, the parents know how to work the system. We often notify the school in advance and provide excuses or documentation that satisfy the attendance secretary. This allows our children to be marked excused absent and make up missed work. Even when the absence is clearly not considered excused under MCPS’ own rules, a way is found to kosher it. Our children are excused for family vacations, grandparents’ anniversaries, and attending siblings’ graduations. Mine was excused this year to interview for a summer experience. If our children are struggling with social emotional issues that lead them to be late to school or not go at all on a particular day, we use terms like “school refusal” that present nonattendance as a health issue rather than a behavioral problem. Recently, when DH has a serious health setback, my child’s counselor suggested taking a day off for DD to process.

In my experience, low income families often do not know how to use (or outright manipulate) the system this way. Students return from short illnesses (1-4 days) without the parent note that excuses the days missed. Students do not bring a doctor’s note for longer illnesses (5+ days), even though they may sport a hospital wristband. For students with chronic conditions like asthma, a lot of days may be racked up that should be excused, but just lack the paperwork. Families of low income students, particularly immigrants of color, may not realize that schools do bend rules to excuse absences for trips abroad, graduations, etc. They just know that their child still needs to accompany the family and they hope the teacher will excuse the missed work. They certainly don’t seem to know the magical phrase “school refusal” when their child won’t leave home in the morning. So they get sent scary letters about attendance while the parents of a middle class student with the same or more days absent is not.

I don’t know how to fix this. I do my part throwing starfish back into the ocean by contacting families to beg for notes or bringing up “school refusal” when we have our team meetings and someone uses skipping to characterize certain students’ absences and not those of others. I urge my colleagues to be aware of how our school and their own practices might be inequitable when it comes to dealing with absences that are technically inexcusable. If Larla can be excused for a five day trip to Israel for a cousin’s wedding under the excuse of religious observance, why can’t we do the same for Larla to miss one day for her godmother’s funeral?

All very true, PP.

My child has special needs and sometimes missed school, and there are times I forget or can’t be bothered to notify the school attendance officer. His grades have never suffered because his teachers know he’s a serious student who will make up all work.

However, there does seem to be something extra going on at certain low income high schools. It’s not hard to realize that some students skip school and get a diploma they didn’t study correctly for. To me this says that there should be more school counselors in these schools to provide psychological and emotional support for at risk students.