Attendance critical for school credit

By Donnie A. Lucas

Parents and students alike are reminded of the importance of school attendance due to the Texas Compulsory Attendance Law which mandates that students attend a minimum number of minutes each semester to receive credit for courses taken.

The state law requires students to be in attendance at least 90 percent of all planned days per school year to receive credit. The law previously was based on a minimum of 180 school days, but was changed three years ago to be calculated in minimum number of minutes of class time. Districts can now determine how many days are used to cover the required number of contact minutes.

“We pay attention to attendance because that is how our funding from the state is calculated,” high school principal Edward Morales said. “We have been running around the 95 percent attendance level, which sounds good, but the goal is really 98 percent.”

School officials stated that they obviously do not want parents to send students to school who may be ill, but asked that parents help stress the importance of attendance.

The attendance law has been in effect for several years and is listed in the student handbook. 

If a student is in attendance less than 90 percent of the required minimum time, the student will lose credit unless each and every class is made up in an approved manner such as Saturday School, summer school, or after school hours.

“We will start Saturday School on Jan. 11 for those students already out of compliance for the fall semester,” Morales said. “I am also checking to see if we can offer one evening each week for students to make up time if we have a teacher who wants to staff it.”

The principal stressed that students will not be allowed to make up time during Lion Academy which is held on Mondays through Thursdays to provide tutoring or extra help.

“The funding source for Lion Academy is very specific and can’t be used to recover time,” he said. “Students sometimes think they can just come during Lion Academy, but that doesn’t work since it is different funding sources.”

The principal said so far this school year only a few high school students are facing loss of credits because of excessive absences.

“We don’t have that many at this time, but there are a few,” the principal said. “This semester, especially with the seniors, we will schedule them for Saturday School as soon as they have missed too many days.”

He said that seniors will have to recover missed time that exceeds the 10 percent limit prior to graduation.

Students at Nancy Smith Elementary School who have excessive absences are also required to make up the time to receive credit.

“We generally don’t have the problem that the high school campus does because parents are bringing their students to school each day,” NSES principal John Gallagher said. “We will use our after-school Cub Academy to take care of most of this make-up time, but Saturday School and summer school can also be used for both academic and attendance credit recovery.”

Excused Absences

A local policy instituted several years ago requires parents to call or provide a doctor’s note in order for a student to have an excused absence.

“They have up to six absences that can be excused with just a parent’s note,” Morales said. “After that, they need a doctor’s note.”

However, every absence is still counted against the total attendance percentage even if it is “excused” by a doctor or by a parent.

If the student misses too many days of class, credits may be taken away even though the student makes a passing grade in the class.

Students and parents are also reminded that the school board passed a new policy at the December meeting that will limit the grade a student can make through credit recovery at 70 rather than the actual grade. Students are being encouraged to obtain credit the first time in a course and not to depend on passing it solely with a computer software program at a later time.

Tardies

Morales said that excessive tardies can also result in problems for students. 

“They have to serve detention for tardies,” the principal said. “If they are more than five minutes late, it counts against exemptions for final exams. If they are more than 15 minutes late, they are counted as absent.” 

Parents can find attendance policy information at albany.esc14.net on the district’s home page. They can also choose to receive e-mail “alerts” if their child is late or absent for a class, go online and check the total number of absences and tardies for the first or second semester, or look for that information on the student’s report card. 

Attendance Committee

Class credits are taken away by the state, but a locally appointed attendance committee does have the authority to reinstate the credits if it finds extenuating circumstances and if certain conditions are met by the student.

Each of the two campuses has an attendance committee.

The attendance committee will review the student’s entire attendance record and the reasons for absences to determine whether or not to award credit.