School District Mandates Failing Grades After Five Absenses

[tailfins]

Practice dropped for middle school, but continues for high school

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130502/NEWS04/130509706

[Thunderknuckles]

Practice dropped for middle school, but continues for high school

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130502/NEWS04/130509706
We have to keep in mind that these are unexcused absences. Even so, it seems far too punitive to fail a student with over 5.
There's obviously more going on here. The first question I have is why did they feel the need to institute such a hard line policy in the first place?
The article hints at a problem with immigrant students whose parents don't speak English and don't bother with writing notes to the school indicating a reason for an absence which would make this a problem with the parents rather than students.

[Kathianne]

We have to keep in mind that these are unexcused absences. Even so, it seems far too punitive to fail a student with over 5.
There's obviously more going on here. The first question I have is why did they feel the need to institute such a hard line policy in the first place?
The article hints at a problem with immigrant students whose parents don't speak English and don't bother with writing notes to the school indicating a reason for an absence which would make this a problem with the parents rather than students.

Many schools have a problem with families 'returning to home country' often for 3 weeks to a month. Too many of these families do so following Christmas break and again in the last 2-3 weeks in May/beginning of June. The problem of using the 'absences' to fail though, isn't right. Students, whether in kindergarten or high school have no voice regarding missing school. While true of many Hispanics, some African students also have similar, but less frequent occurrences.

The real problem is that their grades will fall in most cases, even if work 'is made up.' The more often this happens, the larger the chasm. The problem is that 'groups,' direct instruction, and discussions cannot be made up or discovered in a text. Timing too is a problem, missing the end of school, especially in high school, means the student is not being assessed for the following year. Not being in classes during January is a transition problem, as the first week is often a review of first part of year, from that point on the emphasis changes in nearly all classes. This is more pronounced in the lower grades when, depending on the grade concepts like fractions, time, money, cursive, etc. are introduced for 2nd half of year.