Recurring absences have been a problem particularly among high school students and to amend this, AISD has made a change to their practice and procedures effective this year to keep students from not getting credit for the courses they are taking.

“Effective this school year no grade can appear on the summative report card for a class where there has been less than 90% attendance by the student,” AISD high school assistant superintendent Kathy Ryan said. “In reviewing all of our processes, we discovered that the practice AISD had in place of excluding some absences such as notes from parents on absences that are understandable, but technically not excused by the law such as being home sick, attending a major family event, home suspensions etc., from counting in the 90% attendance number, thus in essence ‘automatically’ granting appeals for those unexcused absences. Moving forward, all unexcused absences will ‘count against’ students.”

This change will affect students who don’t have at least 90% attendance and they will not receive a grade on their report card, however some students may be able to earn credit back depending on the circumstances.

“Campuses are informing their students and families, letters are being sent home.  We are also changing the format of our report cards and progress reports and they will now show percentage attendance in a class to date,” Ryan said. “As far as enforcing goes, students will still need to make-up absences and/or appeal to an attendance committee, depending on their circumstances. Credit for courses will not be awarded until that happens.”

AISD specifically wants to focus on students being in the class for at least 90% of the day’s the class is offered.

“I think the biggest concern is that students and families may have hard time understanding there really are few reasons why a student can miss school/class and it be excused.  They have been used to these other reasons being ‘automatically’ waived,” Ryan said.

However AISD is still figuring out exactly what they are going to do and how it will be carried out.

“AISD at large is still working out the logistics and procedures. The main message in regard to attendance has not changed for any grade level. Students need to be at school in each class every day unless they are ill. If students are ill, they need to bring parent notes or doctor notes within 48 hours. Once AISD has procedures outlined, the district will be sending out communication to all students and parents”, assistant principal Susan Leos said.

   There are a handful of absences that are excused district wide however, family trips, vacations, and attendance at non-school sponsored events are examples of unexcused absences.

“Absences are excused for medical reasons, religious holy days, court appearances, college campus visits, activities regarding US citizenship, military dependent, or a pre-approved reason,” according to the AISD website.

Previously the only absence reasons that were considered for credit denial were unexcused absence and immunizations, meaning they were counted as.

“We were always honoring these reasons for absences, but we were having issues with attendance counting documented illness and parents were not understanding why their child had absences that were unexcused when they should’ve been accepted as excused,” assistant principal Lawrence Britton said.

However, this change will consider documented illness, home school suspension, immunizations, made up hours, and other circumstances will now be considered as excused absences.

“We really aren’t sure exactly what AISD is going to do in the long run but all we know is that reasons accepted for excuses will be considered and hopefully this will fix a lot of problems regarding absence. All we know is what AISD tells us and we are waiting for them to authorize the change and finalize it, we know about as much as our students do about it right now,” Britton said.

The new change that AISD will be enforcing will affect many students whether they are absent a lot of not at all and could make students take class more seriously.

“I do think it will have a positive impact because many people skip class thinking it won’t be a deal but now that it’s dealing with grades I think many people will take being present in class more seriously,” sophomore Anita Yem said.

Students who have been informed about the change are unsure of what is to come from the change, but this will have a huge effect on them.

“This will effect me personally because I often find myself late to class because my mom is a single mother so getting me to school on time is sometimes difficult for her,” junior Danielle Bryant said.