Truancy Trouble

Not many students want to go to school but they go anyway. Others, don’t go but depending on the circumstances, don’t face severe punishments. Somehow, depending on the reason why they missed school, some don’t get in trouble. This doesn’t mean that everyone has a good reason to not go to school, but more types of excuses should be accepted. It has become more common for students to first have a letter sent home either from their school or board of education, then a meeting for the student with their parents and a truancy officer or a probation officer, then it leads to having to go to court.

Some students miss a lot of days due to health issues. I think that even if a recent health problem or personal reason occurs and isn’t documented, then if an excuse is present, it should be excused. Any type of excuse that is present, should definitely be excused. The following are excused: COVID, military leave, school buses not running, and certain handwritten notes. But, what aren’t excused are vacations, unexcused absences, home problems, and certain excuses. School functions are excused as well.

How and will the number of unexcused absences be raised? Personally, five days isn’t enough throughout the year. Especially with more illnesses being spread during the winter and we can’t control if something, like a death in the family, comes up. How do some students get by with missing more than the limited number of days, but for others, they get in trouble for missing single-digit days? Sometimes chronic sickness plays a large factor as to why there are many absences.