Credit loss from absences

8|opinions Excused absences shouldn’t count towards loss of credit

Anna Diorio ’23 Broadcast Director

At the beginning of this school year, I came down with an aggressive virus that kept me out of class for an entire week. In the wake of this unfortunate obstacle, I missed more days of school in order to recover—both physically and mentally because missing so much school heavily impacted my mental health. By the end of the rst marking period, I had already racked up nearly 60 absences total; all of them were excused, of course.

Students are only allowed 20 absences for a full-year course before it counts towards a loss of credit. is includes both unexcused and excused absences. Being that we had only just nished our second month of school, you can probably imagine how worried I was. So my question is: What’s the point of having unexcused and excused absences if they’re both going to count towards loss of credit? If I’m sick or I have a doctor’s appointment in the morning, my mom or dad has to call in or write a note stating my name, my grade and the reason for my absence or lateness for it to count as “excused.” Only then can I walk with my head high into class with that little green slip of paper with “EXCUSED” in bold at the top. ( ere’s nothing more shameful than walking in with a red late pass). But besides the temporary embarrassment that these attendance policy ful llments save me from, what is the purpose? ough it is not explicitly stated in the Student Handbook, apparently the distinction between the two types of absences allows for students to receive additional time to make up the work they missed and not have any assignments marked as a zero (this I know only from experience, but rarely has the school taken the time to clearly and directly inform students of these attendance rules, until it’s too late). But whether unexcused or excused, in my nearly four years at Staples, I’ve found that an extra day doesn’t mean squat when all of your makeup assignments and assessments are simply piled on top of tomorrow’s work. According to the Staples High School Student Handbook, absences that count as excused include “student illness, death or critical illness in the family, response to a legal process, medical appointment (which cannot be scheduled outside of the school

day), college visit beyond two (juniors and seniors only)” and several other instances. Any absence that does not align with any of the excused absences is considered unexcused. Perhaps, I can see its advantages in how it might compel students to miss school only when they have to. But this lose-lose situation can also cause people who do have But this situation can good reason to stay home also cause people who do have good from school to attend anyways— reason to stay home fearing the from school to attend anyways—fearing the loss of credit. is is especially conloss of credit. cerning when an ill student is contagious and still goes to school, which—coming from a Senior at Staples—is rather common. It’s not fair to the student who must sacri ce time to recover nor is it safe for the rest of the student body and sta . ough students who have accumulated more than the allowed number of absences have the right to appeal to have credit reinstated, it seems impractical to have to go through this process—one that requires four teachers and one administrator present. In a school community that is plagued with constant stress and anxiety, the added stressor of such ambiguous attendance policies and “excused” and “unexcused” labels are just another unnecessary contributor to the fear-backed obsession over numbers and letters that dominates Staples’ hallways.