Howdy Leona,
-> With the recent cuts in school funding, principals have been looking
-> for more & more creative ways to increase attendance; the more
-> students who attend a school, the more money the school qualifies to
-> receive.
Ahh, true, true. Obviously doesn't apply at my school.
SK> BTW, I notice that you wrote _UN_excused absences. Are these
SK> parents not covering up for their children and saying they were
SK> "sick" or something? We have a fair number of parents who do
SK> that at our school.
-> State law says that a parent may keep a child out of school for
-> almost any reason, but they must notify the school, either in a note
-> or phone call, what the reason for absence was.  (Dratted book, still
-> can't find it.)  Most of the parents who have been receiving the
-> letters neglected to excuse the absences.
Geez. No wonder their kids have the problems that they do. If the parent
can't even be bothered to notify the school...
Is there a time limit (within so many days of the absence or something?)
Can a parent send in a note _after_ it has been called "unexcused" and
have it reversed to "excused"? Some parents do this at our school. I'm
not sure how wide a berth the attendance secretaries allow on this one.
I think one additional day, or something very short like that.
-> SK> know if students feel they can get around this AIM program in AZ?
-> So far, it's helped a lot.
That's good to hear. They've talked about revamping attendance policies
at our school many times over the years, and they've even implemented
some "changes", but as a classroom teacher, I haven't noticed the
difference. In homeroom and my rememdial algebra classes that I was
teaching there was a fairly high degree of absenteeism. In the honors
classes, not too much. However, the few honors kids who were frequently
absent had great difficulties in the class and a strong attendance
policy might've helped them get back on track. But what can you do when
the parent is always writing notes saying the kid is sick? Not much, I
guess.
Sheila
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