“So I Don’t Have to Come to School?” Answering Your Questions About the New Attendance Policy

Watauga’s attendance monitor, Ms. Molly Russell, sits at her desk taking care of attendance for the day. Her job consists of making sure students are present and accounted for. Photo Creds: Abbi Clark

Abbi Clark, Sports Desk Lead for The Powderhorn

For many students at Watauga, coming to school can feel like a chore, and skipping class may seem tempting. The fear of failing a class due to absences may have been the encouragement needed to get some students out of bed in the morning. Recently, a new state policy has been enacted that removes the failure of classes based on absences. 

“The North Carolina Department of Instruction reviewed FF, which is a failure due to attendance,” said Dr. Scott Strickler. “The state said that students can no longer fail for attendance only.” 

 The previous attendance policy for Watauga stated that once more than 8 absences were obtained in a class, an attendance appeal was required to prevent loss of credit and failure of the class. These attendance appeals were usually approved, preventing class failure. However, many students still didn’t want to go through the process of obtaining one.

“I don't think we ever solely would factor in attendance, but we would have attendance appeal meetings,” said counselor Dan Crail. “And depending on how those go, the committee could decide to issue an FF for a student who might have a passing grade in a class, but because of attendance and missing an egregious amount of time, the committee feels like the FF would be fitting. So now that is not an option.”

In previous years, an attendance appeal meeting would consist of a committee of counselors and teachers that would meet with the student and their parents or guardians. The group would discuss the number of absences and the reasoning behind each absence to determine the necessary actions to address the absences. An FF grade was rare, and usually the student would just be encouraged to consider their actions and attend school more frequently.

“We're still supposed to have [attendance appeal meetings],” said Strickler. “I've talked to the admin team about how we can start meeting with small groups of students when they start hitting those attendance issues. If we're a quarter in, can we look at the kids that have already missed five or more days and then just pull them in and say, like, ‘hey, how can we help you?’ Because I think that's a lot better than at the end of the semester having all those meetings.”

If a student has a failing grade and excessive absences in a class, then they can still receive an FF grade, but both conditions must be present for that to happen, making the FF grades harder to obtain. Other consequences have been considered to discourage excessive absences by students.

“I talked with the admin team about juniors, next year's seniors, and whether they lose the privilege of having an off-campus or Caldwell block,” said Stickler. “None of those have been put into place. And I know they wouldn't be popular, but that might be a motivator.”

Some students prefer this new policy, especially in comparison to the previous one. Certain factors are beyond our control and can cause students to miss school. The fear of missing school can add a challenge to already stressful situations.

“I felt as though 8 absences were too limited for one semester and didn't account for the amount of illness, emergencies, and other things warranting absence from school that a student may undergo within the period of 18 weeks,” said senior Emmy Martinez. “I worked to keep my attendance under 8 absences, and it caused me to come to school sick multiple times, limiting my learning and cognitive ability.”

Although the fear of missing school may encourage students to show up even when sick, the admin has been willing to work with students and won’t punish them for things that are out of their control. 

“We really only look at unexused absences,” said Stickler. “I know students who have been diagnosed with COVID more than once in a semester. That knocks you out sometimes for a week plus. So I'm not talking about that kind of stuff. That's not your fault.”

Whether or not a student will fail their class or receive other consequences, they should still be encouraged to attend school as much as they can. There is so much more to school than just the classes and grades, and students should embrace what they can.

“I want every kid to have some kind of connection like that,”  said Stickler. “It doesn't matter if it's an athletic team, a club, a class they love. The more you're not here, you can't even begin those connections.”