How to Handle Attendance and Tardy Issues

AUC has a general attendance policy that all undergraduate courses must abide by. What follows are ideas on how to enforce these policies and how to handle when students run into attendance problems. Note: The ELI has its own attendance policy.

Prevention

Students who are regularly absent or tardy usually suffer academically, and can also adversely affect the class. Therefore, it is best, if possible, to try to proactively prevent these issues. Here are a few ideas that can help:

• Emphasize strongly during the first few weeks of class the importance of attendance and being on time.

• Give a graded assignment or homework each of the first few days of class (including drop and add week) to show the importance of being in class.

• Make it very visible the first few weeks of class that you are taking attendance.

• It is usually fairly easy to see in the first few weeks who is going to struggle with attendance. When such a student is identified, talk to this student personally, even after just two absences or times of being tardy. Reaching out early and frequently indicates to the student that they have support.

• Keep your attendance record in an online format that students can access (turnitin.com, Google docs, Blackboard, etc).

​Warning Emails

The ALA strongly encourages all faculty to send warning emails to notify students when they are running into attendance problems (including attendance problems due to accumulating times of being tardy). We recommend, at a minimum, sending the following emails.

• An initial warning email when a student reached 3-4 missed classes (with a tardy counting as a half an absence).

• A final warning email when a student is at 5.5 or 6 absences.

Excused Absences vs. Unexcused Absences

All absences, whether excused, unexcused, prearranged, or not, are counted as an absence

In some situations, the Office of the Dean of Students issues a letter for when a student is away for an approved reason. Such and "excused" situation still counts as an absence; however, in this case, a faculty member is required to make reasonable accommodations for assignment deadlines. If the student does not have such a letter, then the absence is considered "unexcused" and a faculty member is not obligated to make assignment accommodations for that absence.

Excessive Absences

When students exceed six absences of any type (excused or unexcused), they can begin to face serious consequences that directly affect their grades. Specific consequences are often set at a departmental level. In the ALA and Core, we recommend the following:

• When a student exceeds six absences before the drop deadline, then this student automatically fails the course and should be encouraged to drop the course if eligible. Most students will drop at this point; however some will not. Some will simply just stop attending and get an F. While exceedingly rare, a student who has failed for attendance reasons may still decide to continue in the class until the end.

• When a student exceeds six absences after the drop deadline, then the student loses one full letter grade for each absence above six absences (or a half letter grade for each half an absence). The student should be notified with each grade reduction via email.

• When a student has missed so many classes and/or assignments that it is no longer possible to pass, it is best to communicate this to the student. Because the the student has already paid for the course, they are allowed to still come to class and even do assignments if they want, and feedback should still be given on such assignments. However, most students will stop attending once they have been notified that passing is not possible.

​Other Communication Guidelines

• Try to communicate the importance of attendance in class, out of class, via email, course websites, etc.

• Please keep copies of any attendance emails you send to students.

• You may consider copying the department assistants or the Core Office. You can also copy your Associate Chair and can even mention in the email that you are copying the Associate Chair. This sometimes makes it feel more serious to the students.