Now that the first quarter is wrapping up and we’re starting the second quarter, you may notice that your grades might have been affected by our new attendance policy here at SHS. Students can have up to 65 hours of absences before absences become unexcused. Starting this year, doctors’ notes must be turned in within five days after the appointment or it will be counted as an unexcused absence if a student has already missed 65 hours. Students won’t receive credit for any assignment or assessment that is an unexcused absence.
Dr. Carla Rodenbucher, one of the assistant principals at SHS said the policy has been implemented because of how many kids have been missing school these past few years.
“Assessments were sitting down there [test center] and we were kinda tracking people down to get stuff done,” Rodenbucher said.
Students not getting their assignments done is one of the biggest reasons why they have decided to make this change.
Another one of these reasons for our attendance policy change is that students will turn in their doctor’s note, but they will do it months after the appointment.
“Once students reach a certain amount of hours, students would come and say that they have a doctor’s note from October then the parents don’t want their kids to have a consequence, it just got really messy,” Rodenbucher said.
Now that they have made these new rules, students have mixed feelings about it. Katie Desatnik is a sophomore here at SHS and thinks the new rule will make kids miss less school.
“I think the new rules will help make kids miss less school because of the severe punishments for missing too much,” Desatnik said.
Some punishments that the school can give out for unexcused absences after the 10 days are detention, suspension or even expulsion.
While Desatnik does agree that if students miss too much school and there should be a consequence– she also thinks that it could be excused if they have a good reason for it.
“I think it’s somewhat fair unless there is a good reason why someone is late, then it should be excused,” Desatnik said.
Teachers are also noticing a difference in students’ attendance. Teresa Pace, an English teacher at SHS, said she’s noticing a difference in students’ attendance now that these new rules have been implied.
“I think that students are taking their absences more seriously,” Pace said, “I think before if they were absent, they were absent [without concern], and the burden was on the teacher. Now to make up work, the expectation is for the student to reach out to the teacher.”
They have only started implementing this rule this year, but Rodenbucher said it’s already been very effective in getting more doctors notes in.
“Mrs. Weiss said more doctors’ notes are coming in,” she said. “I was keeping up with it in real time and I think it’s going pretty good.”
