In response to legislation, MFL MarMac policies look to curb chronic absenteeism
By Audrey Posten
Iowa school districts are tasked with implementing new state legislation to curb chronic absenteeism and truancy. At its July 15 meeting, the MFL MarMac School Board approved the first reading of policies that address the issue.
According to superintendent Tim Dugger, chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent of school days or hours in a grading period—five days per quarter in the case of K-8 students and nine days per semester for those in high school.
Fifteen percent bumps up to 14 days per semester at the high school level and seven days per quarter for K-8, at which time a school engagement meeting will be held between parents and school officials to develop a plan.
Truancy, continued Dugger, is defined as missing 20 percent of days in a grading period. In the high school, that is 18 days, while truancy for K-8 is 10 days per quarter.
“There are different actions that take place at each level,” Dugger explained. “This is straight from state law—straight from the state of Iowa. We’re not making it up. It’s not just MFL MarMac. Every student in the state of Iowa falls under this law, and we are going to follow it.”
The variation in days reflects two separate grading periods at MFL MarMac, said high school principal Larry Meyer.
“The elementary grades by quarters and high school grades by semester. The number of days, therefore, changes,” he noted.
At the elementary level, assistant principal Abbey Cottrell said students will be considered absent if they miss 75 percent or more of the school day.
“Let’s say they don’t come until 12:30 or 1 p.m. They are considered gone the full day because they’ve missed more than 75 percent of the day,” she said.
At the upper grade levels, along with counting full days, missed class periods will accumulate until they equal one day.
“Our kids have to sign in and sign out so we know where they are. We try to keep a close eye on it. And we will double check with teachers,” Meyer said. “We’ll be proactive with this. If we’re three or four days ahead of that, we’ll make sure we reach out and say, ‘You’re approaching this number.’ There are things that are really obvious and common sense, like if you’re in the hospital and have surgery.”
Cottrell said the same.
“We’ll make sure our reports are accurate with what [elementary secretary] Theresa [Rodas] has, the classroom teacher has. When we run a report on JMC, we can see they’ve been gone 15 times during first hour. We might have some parents who are chronically late, so that might be more of a conversation,” she stated.
Cottrell estimated around 5 percent of MFL MarMac’s elementary population falls under chronic absenteeism or truancy. Meyer said it’s a bit higher at the high school.
Parents have likely noticed greater enforcement in the past year or two. One in attendance cited letters that threaten jail time, although Cottrell said it mentions “referral to the county attorney as needed.”
“A lot of parents didn’t want to get these letters so, if their kids were sick, they sent them to school and it keeps on spreading. My suggestion is that letter is not so scary. That doesn’t seem right,” the parent told the board.
Dugger said the letter is not dictated to the district, but created by the administrative team.
“But we don’t have a lot of wiggle room,” he said. “We’re getting pressure from the state of Iowa. The governor is telling us this is what the laws are...If we’re not going to do it, we’re going to hear from the Department of Ed. I would tell parents, if you want this changed, talk to your legislator.”
“I’m glad it’s come to this,” Dugger continued, “because every school had a little bit different policy when it came to this. Now, it’s straight across the board.”
Meyer said he will discuss the policy with students at the start of the school year.
“This will be straight to the point. This is what it is. You have to be at school to be successful,” he stated.
School board member Jonathon Moser said parents also need to be aware.
“A parent can take their kid out for any reason and technically it’s excused. But that’s added up to those nine days if they’re in high school. If you get to the nine days, you look at it and send a letter and have a conversation, or vice versa,” he said. “That’s going to be a learning curve for a lot of parents, that any time your kid is not in school, it adds up to the total absent days and the state is on our butt to get on top of that.”
According to Dugger, another new state law that asks parents to sign off acknowledging that they’ve read the school handbook should help. The attendance policy will be included in documents when parents register students for the upcoming school year.
The updated attendance policy is the most notable change in the elementary and middle school handbooks, noted Cottrell. Meyer suggested a few more additions at the high school level. This includes not allowing students to go to their cars during the school day, expecting that all clothing be clean and appropriate for the school day and asking athletes to declare a primary sport if they are eligible to participate in multiple sports.
New this year, high school students will also be required to placed their cellphones in caddies when they enter classrooms. Common sense will be used in case of medical need, Meyer said.
“Technology is a huge issue,” he shared.
