Emphasis placed on attendance

By Sam Waller

The spring semester of a school year offers plenty of opportunities to get out of class for extracurricular activities.

That makes meeting attendance requirements that much more important, and Albany ISD administrators stress the need for students to be in attendance in order to fulfill those requirements.

State law requires students to be in attendance at least 90 percent of all planned days per school year to receive credit for courses taken. The law previously was based on a minimum of 180 school days but was changed six 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.

Albany superintendent Jonathan Scott said local  policies have remained unchanged since the new law was enacted.

Whether it be called spring fever, senioritis, or a case of the blahs, the desire to cut class is something educators constantly battle, Scott said.

“We monitor attendance, and we know it’s important for students to be here,” Scott said. “The spring semesters is tough as it is with all the events like stock shows kicking in. When those extracurricular days take students out, they need to make sure they’re here when they can be.”

Exacerbating matters is restarting school in the midst of cold and flu season, and Scott said COVID is still an issue.

“If a kid is sick, we want them staying home getting better and not sharing it with everybody else,” he said. “If they come to school with the flu, then they’re infecting 10 more, and it just grows and grows and grows. If someone just doesn’t feel good, has a stuffy head or something, they can work through that, but if they’re contagious, absolutely stay home.”

Days missed to illness may be excused with a doctor’s note. But whether excused or unexcused, absences make it more difficult for students to keep up with course work. That’s compounded by returning from the holiday break and trying to get back into the daily school routine.

Albany ISD offers Saturday School once each six weeks to give students an opportunity to make up missed time. Summer school is also an option.

The situation is not confined to just the secondary grades. Students at Nancy Smith Elementary School who have excessive absences are also required to make up the time to receive credit, principal John Gallagher said.

“We send notifications each six weeks when we look at our attendance,” he said. “We send notifications to parents of students who have too many missed days to try to correct that. If the situation continues, then we have parent conferences to try and find solutions.”

Elementary students can make up time through the NSES after-school Cub Academy program, but attendance at Saturday School or summer school may be needed to meet requirements.

“Summer school and after-school Cub Academy are the two biggest things we look at to try to get some hours back,” Gallagher said. “But if they can be here during regular hours, we definitely want them here.”