Beginning on the first day of this school year, whisperings about the new attendance policy have echoed throughout Needham High. As someone who did not pay attention during that first homeroom of the year, I’ve been a little confused about the new attendance policy. Do six absences from a class mean lost credit? If so, will credit be lost for the entire year? What about unexcused absences? If students are nine-and-a-half minutes late to, say, wellness class, what will their fate be? Different teachers seem to have different philosophies regarding the need for tardy students to visit the office for a late pass. Do we still need those late slips if the “unexcused” box is checked off either way?
More importantly, what does this mean for students who have medical conditions that impact their attendance? What role should “mental health days” and trips to guidance counselors play in these policies? What about holidays where observant students are absent from school because they are attending services and celebrating with family? Was it really the best idea to crack down on attendance when COVID still impacts the lives of many students and families? Where was Taylor Swift on April 29th? Well, a look at the NHS 2022-2023 attendance policy may not help answer that one, but perhaps it will clear things up for some students, and stir up productive discussions between members of the school community about what a truly equitable and compassionate attendance policy should look like.
As stated by the current attendance policy, a student will lose one credit in a course if they receive six absences from that course in a term. Authorized absences, those with parents acknowledgement, do count towards this credit loss. Five unexcused tardies count as one absence, but a tardy is defined as when “a student arrives at class ten minutes or less after it begins.” If a student misses more than ten minutes of a class without authorization, it will be marked as a cut, which counts towards the six absences that factor into a student losing credit for a class. In order to receive a “tardy excused” for up to ten minutes late to a class or an “authorized absence” for lateness that exceeds ten minutes, the school must receive a call from a parent or guardian. Only medical absences with documentation, bereavement absences, religious absences, and college visits count as excused absences.
Most students aren’t concerned about missing more than six days of school per term due to illness, especially because COVID-related absences are excused and do not result in any credit loss. However, this credit loss becomes an issue for those with chronic illnesses that may keep them home sick more often. Many students utilize mental health days in order to maintain their mental wellness, and while it is unlikely that any student would need to take six mental health days per term, the anxiety of losing credit likely isn’t doing anyone’s mental state any good, especially those who already struggle with anxiety.
I am in no way suggesting that students should be free to miss class whenever they wish with zero consequence. However, there is already a toxic culture of competition and high achievement at the cost of mental and physical wellbeing here at Needham High, and this attendance policy is absolutely promoting that culture. Those most heavily influenced by that culture will avoid missing school whenever possible for fear of falling behind. One thing the pandemic has shown us is that it is vitally important to stay home when sick no matter what. Enforcing an attendance policy that excuses only a limited number of sick days is not helping any students follow that rule, especially the high achieving perfectionists.
I don’t believe that this attendance policy is completely out of line, but it lacks compassion that the school community, still in the midst of the COVID pandemic, is in need of. Students may be forced to care for siblings or parents or be dealing with significant mental health challenges that leave them struggling to find support, or going through otherwise difficult times, and the last thing they need to add to their plate is the pressure of lost credit. Even if the policy is flexible for students with chronic illnesses, it still makes school life much more difficult for such students, as they have to be extra cautious in terms of how their absences are recorded. The lives of all NHS students are still being impacted by the pandemic in ways that teachers and administrators may not realize, and cracking down on attendance is in no way helping to rebuild the school community.