Unexcused Absence Policies Involving Extra Curriculars

Recently, NHS, along with other schools in surrounding towns, has implemented new, stricter policies for unexcused absences. These policies make it very difficult for students who participate in sports or activities outside of school to miss class when that extra curricular conflicts with the school day. 

The NHS Attendance Policy 2022-24 lists the schools specific policies for all absences. The attendance expectation lists the following for absences that do not fall under the AE (Absence Excused) policies. 

• Unexcused absence Policy:

• At 4 absences (A, AU, CT included) in a term, students, families, and staff are notified and interventions are initiated

• At 6 absences in a term (A, AU, CT included), students lose 1 credit in the course

Absence excused policy (AE- Absence Excused): Student is absent with approved documentation. The school recognizes certain absences with approved documentation as excused. The following types of absences with documentation will not be counted toward loss of credit:

• Medical absences 

Students and families must communicate with the school and respond to communication from the school about medical attendance related matters and submit documentation from a health care provider for excused absences. 

• Bereavement absences

• College visit absences (up to 3)

• Religious holiday/observance absences

Please note: family vacations are not excused absences, will count towards absence accumulations, and may result in credit loss. 

The NHS policy states that if someone has six or more unexcused absences (consisting of an Absence, Authorized Absence, or Cut) in one class during a single  quarter of the school year, they will lose one credit for that class that year. After speaking with my guidance counselor, I also learned that if a student misses six or more classes  during the term, they will have to work out a way to make up for the absences during the next term. These requirements are also part of the new pilot that began after COVID, a sort of trial run to help begin a more structured policy after the more accommodating policies during COVID over the past couple of years. 

Throughout the four years of high school, NHS requires students to accrue a minimum of 92 credits to graduate. Although there are many reasonable circumstances for the school to assign  an unexcused absence, such as skipping class without a parent’s notice, vacation, or sickness with no medical document, there is no specific listing for absences having to do with extracurriculars. The AE policy also does not list that the school  exempts students with extracurricular conflicts even if a parent, coach or sports organization excuses them. 

These listings are inconsistent with the school handbook’s policy on absences as well as the MA guidelines for absences. The school handbook says: Students who have excessive unexcused absences in a specific course will automatically lose credit in that course:

• 12 absences = Loss of 1 credit from that course

• 18 absences = Loss of 2 credits from that course

• 24 absences = Loss of 3 credits from that course

• 30 absences = Loss of all credits from that course

This is different from the document above that states that having six absences will lead to a credit loss, while the handbook allows 12 absences from a specific course. These contradicting rules can be very confusing and they lead to a lot of gray area when it comes down to students missing six or more specific classes. The NHS handbook claims are also different from MA Department of Education’s guidelines on attendance. Linked at the top of the student attendance page is the Guidance for Attendance Policy Word doc. This document has a very unclear, minimal outline on what its actual policy is, besides saying that missing > 10% of school days (18 days in a year) is considered chronic absenteeism. 

There have been a number of students already impacted by these newly-instated policies. Two sophomore students had to miss a week of school at the end of last year for rowing nationals, along with various other days for rowing regattas. One of the rowers, who wished to be kept anonymous stated that when she originally reached out to NHS, the school was flexible about them missing class, but then none of the absences ended up being excused, so her parents had to reach out again to make sure the absences were in fact excused so she would not lose credit. Helen Hays, the other rower, had the same issue and her parents also had to call the NHS to work around it.  I also interviewed a freshman, who is a nationally-ranked athlete for fencing. She said that starting in this past March, she had to plan out all the absences she was going to have  this year, based on the tournaments she will be competing in so she doesn't lose credit. She has not had to miss any days so far for tournaments, but she expressed her frustration regarding the difficult-to-manage policy and having to avoid credit loss while still being able to participate in the required number of tournaments to be able to advance to nationals. She stated that she’d like for NHS to edit their policy to make it more accommodating for people like her,adding, “If you can show the documentation that you're going to a national-level tournament, and the scope of the tournament, and how important that tournament is, as well as have a coach reach out, it could be good way to allow the absence to become excused.” She also stated, “At NHS sports are important to almost all of the student body, and having these policies slightly edited to encompass more outside-of-school athletes would probably benefit a lot of people.” She added, “In whatever sport you do, if you make it to the national level, it means you have worked hard to get there. The attendance policy is almost preventing students from  being able to continue competing at that level and potentially making them choose between their sport and the well-being of their academics and future academics.”

As a competitive figure skater who has had to miss numerous days for various competitions and other skating events, I relate very closely to the points this student made. I have worked very hard over the past couple of years to make it to the level where my theater on ice team has been able to qualify for the 2024 Theater on Ice World Championships. This April, as a team, we will be traveling to France to compete under Team USA. This is a huge honor, achievement and once in a lifetime opportunity for myself as well as the rest of my team, and we are excited to be able to compete against teams from all over the world. That being said, we will also have to miss six days of school in  April, which may lead to credit loss in some of my classes. 

From my perspective, although I will have to miss school, this opportunity is a great and different form of the educational experience. While we are in France for the competition, we will be exposed to new cultures, languages, traditions, and so much more. We will also learn the aspects of teamwork and how to function in a new environment under pressure. There will be so many lessons as well as real life scenarios that we will face as a team that can be just as important as lessons learned in school. 

Experiences like these, including traveling internationally or nationally for a sport, competing in high level tournaments in new environments under pressure, or learning the aspects of how to adapt and work as a team, are all valuable life lessons that can't alway be achieved in the classroom. Granting the students who have worked extremely hard and passionately for their extracurriculars to be able to pursue the opportunities they have achieved can be super beneficial to their growth in both the extra curricular as well as academics with their newfound knowledge from the experience.  

Even though school may be missed, I am confident that the ideas and life lessons taken away from the activity the students pursue will make up for the missed school time. If the absence policy is preventing students from being able to continue their extra curricular in fear of credit loss, there is a good chance that students won't actually gain an equivalent amount of insight into the world as they would if they had had the ability to miss a few extra classes. Overall, having these profound experiences will be more positively impacting for the students' mental and physical health, as well as allowing them to be more well rounded and prepared for the real world they will one day step into.