School officals to consider change in elementary attendance policy

By Lynn Hotaling

Social workers proposed one amendment that would take effect immediately, and a series of recommendations that they'd like to see become policy in August.

The group recommended school board members amend the current policy to eliminate a provision for a school committee to determine whether a student's grades should be reduced due to excessive absences.

That provision is too subjective, social workers said.

School board members are expected to consider that recommendation during their Feb. 25 meeting.

Additional changes are needed to the elementary attendance policy to provide an opportunity for social workers to get involved with delinquent students and their families before students miss an excessive number of days, social workers told school board members.

The group asked the board to approve three other changes that would become effective in August.

Social workers proposed requiring elementary students to produce a doctor's note for all illness-related absences in excess of five days per semester. If a doctor's excuse is not submitted, the absence will be counted as unexcused, the draft policy states.

The reason for requesting the change is not to be punitive but to improve student learning, since class attendance is a factor in successful performance, social workers said.

"Fifty percent of kids with more than 10 absences are failing one or more subjects," said Cullowhee Valley social worker Lib Jicha.

Under the current system, illness-related absences are excused on the parent's say-so, social workers said.

As long as absences are excused, social workers have little recourse, they told board members. But once a child has 10 or more unexcused absences, charges can be filed. In many cases, preliminary work done before charges are filed resolves the problem, social workers said.

"Right now we excuse them all, and we can't get to the point where we can intervene," Jicha said.

If the proposed change is approved by school board members, principals would retain discretion to excuse additional absences due to extenuating circumstances, Jicha said, but it would be up to parents to contact the school to discuss the situation.

Social workers also want to change the policy concerning head lice. Under their proposal, the first and second days after lice are detected would be excused, and any additional days would be unexcused. After three instances of lice in one school year, further absences would be excused or unexcused at the discretion of the principal.

"We had one kid with 70 absences, and she couldn't afford that," one social worker said. "It was already her second time in second grade."

The third policy change the social workers recommended would apply to children who are home-schooled. Because North Carolina has a mandatory school attendance policy, social workers asked the board to require a copy of the acknowledgment from the N.C. Division of Non-Public Education before the child can be withdrawn from school. Otherwise, social workers told school board members, there is no proof that such children are receiving an education.

Jackson County's school board will next meet Monday, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. at the Central Office.

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