Watauga’s activity buses lined up ready to transport sports teams. Photo Credits: Rebecca Billette, Watauga Powderhorn
Rebecca Billette, News Desk Lead for The Watauga Powderhorn
Starting in the spring semester, Watauga High School will implement a new statewide attendance policy. This will affect the eligibility of all student-athletes. Student-athletes at Watauga should take note of these changes.
“What essentially has changed with the attendance policy is student-athletes are required to be in attendance for 85% of the previous semester,” said Dustin Kerley, athletic director of Watauga County Schools. “That rule has always been in place. However, what’s going to change is how those absences are viewed as far as excused and unexcused.”
In previous years, only unexcused absences could count against an athlete’s attendance record. However, beginning this spring, excused absences will also affect a student’s eligibility to play sports.
“I think that excused absences counting against you is unreasonable because if you’re out for a medical condition or a family emergency, those are reasons that you should be missing school,” said Cody Talton, senior. “You can’t help that. It’s just life.”
Talton, a member of the men’s tennis team, like many student-athletes, has questions about the implications of the policy. While many, like Talton, are unfamiliar with the policy, others are also unaware of the specifics. Students and teachers alike have expressed concern about the spread of information.
“I want everybody to be aware of it,” said Eric Breitenstein, Watauga High School football coach and science teacher.
Since the policy deals with percentages and not fixed numbers, it is difficult to know until the semester is over, exactly how many days of school a student can afford to miss.
“If we had ninety days in the first semester, you would need to be here for 76.5 of them to be eligible. And that’s based on if we had a 90-day semester,” Kerley said. “So you don’t know until the end of the semester, but it’s usually right around twelve. Twelve’s a good magic number.”
To add to the uncertainty, a few days of inclement weather could change that magic number.
“It doesn't matter one way or another, excused or unexcused, and that's a really big deal for us because we potentially could miss days. If we miss days at the end of the year, that shortens the amount of time, and it's going to change the number of days that gets us to that 85%," Coach Breitenstein said. "I think that’s one thing kids need to be aware of.”
Kerley clarified that missing an entire day of school counts as one absence. Each block a student misses counts as ¼, or 0.25, of an absence. For example, missing both 1st and 2nd periods results in half an absence, which contributes to the total number of absences.
Although the policy won’t go into place until the spring, athletes need to start monitoring their absences now.
“When the second semester starts, your attendance will be looked at and evaluated from this first semester of the 24-25 school year. Winter sports too. If you start in October, that season goes until about February," said Kerley. "You would start the winter season under our current policy, but halfway through the winter season, it changes. So, you could essentially start the winter sports season eligible, and then become ineligible halfway through if your absences were an issue.”
Moreover, Kerley explained that this policy was not a local decision. The North Carolina Board of Education has informed the North Carolina High School Athletic Association which informed high schools across the state that this policy needed to be implemented.
“I’ve had some people ask questions: ‘What about medical issues?’, ‘What if something happens and I’m in the hospital for a week or two?’ and that's a very real possibility. We understand that,” said Kerley. “But as the way the policy is written, it doesn't matter if it's excused or unexcused. However, there is an appeal process that can go before the NCHSAA and then it’s up to them as to whether they would consider that appeal or not.”
Since the policy is a requirement from the State Board of Education, appeals will not be considered locally.
“It's not like your coaches and your local board gets to decide this- if you hit that threshold, it’s going straight to the state,” said Breitenstein. “At the end of the day, it’s not you appealing to somebody that loves and cares about you; it’s you appealing to people that don’t know who you are at all.”
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