Attendance is mandatory
No Child Left Behind was created with the best of intentions - to identify bad schools and give parents the option to send their children elsewhere. NCLB rankings are determined by statistics and statistics can be manipulated. Attendance ratings play a part in these scores. They also have a real and immediate effect on money - schools get paid based on how many students are attending. Gae Fowler encountered a school administration at Maxwell Middle School in the Greenfield-Central School District that was far more concerned with funding and achieving a better attendance rating than it was with providing her daughter with an education.
My daughter is in the seventh grade at a school that was once rated as a four star school. The school is trying to get their four star rating back at all costs. My daughter has been ill quite a bit this year and at this point the doctors believe that it is a mono type illness. I’ve been harassed constantly because I have a sick daughter! She has missed quite a bit but I have sent doctors notes as required by the school. After the first week, I received a call from the principal of the school. He stated that they are trying to get their “rating” back and attendance is an important part. He said that parents can be prosecuted if they don’t send their children to school. I asked if he wanted me to send her to school with a fever. He said no, but I could send her and she can go to the nurse and if she’s running a fever and they’ll send her home.
Why would the principal want a sick girl to check in with the school nurse? Because if the student is present at roll call she is in attendance that day. Send the sick girl in, we’ll send her home after getting credit for teaching her.
Gae began to get harassed by the attendance office. The required doctor’s notes for all of the days that her daughter was absent. Of course there is no realistic scenario where a parent is going to take a sick child to the doctor every single day during the course of an illness.
I said that I couldn’t afford to take her to the doctor everyday and they couldn’t estimate the exact date she would get better with this illness. She said that I had to have the doctor write on the note exactly what was wrong with her. I thought that the notes would be sufficient because I’ve been following the guidelines as they were written in the student handbook. I took her to the doctor for the third week in a row and had the doctor write down exactly what was wrong and I called and spoke to the principal, he stated that everything was fine.
Why the insistence upon doctor’s notes? It comes down to parental disenfranchisement. Parents are not trusted to determine when their children are sick. It must be verified by a doctor (or, apparently, the school nurse). If the school gets a doctor’s note they can count the child as an excused absentee. Without the note they must count the student as an unexcused absence, a black mark for the attendance office.
Two days later, the principal came to my house with a probation officer and asked if my daughter was home. I said that she was and was still in bed. He told me that he was just out making the rounds and decided to stop by. He again went over the rules and once again said that I could be prosecuted for not sending my daughter to school if she wasn’t ill. I asked him if he wanted me to wake her up so they could see her throat (it’s been swollen to the point that she has difficulty swallowing for a month). He said no, he didn’t want to see a sick child.
Excerpted from the Student Handbook:
STUDENT ABSENCES AND EXCUSES
Regular Class Attendance - Students need regular class attendance to receive the best possible instruction. It is the responsibility of the student and the parent(s) or guardian(s) to ensure good school attendance. It is the responsibility of the school corporation to enforce the compulsory attendance laws established by the State of Indiana. The term “excused” will refer to any absence from school or class based on the following:
- Personal illness: The approving authority may require certification by a physician, dentist, or psychologist;
- Illness in the family…
- Quarantine of the home…
- Death in the family…
- General Assembly Page…
- Election Day Worker…
- Required Court Appearance or Probation Appointment…
- Observance of Religious Holiday…
- An emergency…
…
Excessive absenteeism is considered to be anything over five (5) days per semester or more than (1) day of unexcused absence per semester. After five (5) days absence within each semester…the student may be placed on attendance contract and parents will be notified…An attendance contract may include, but is not limited to, any or all of the following:
- A required doctor’s certificate for any future absence;
- The loss of credit in class or classes through due process…
- A recommendation or assignment to after school detention…
- Referral to the proper legal authorities; or
- The filing of charges for educational neglect.
Note that these punishments are for excused absentees as well as unexcused ones. The way the rules are written a benevolent authority can ensure that everything is being done to assure students’ attendance. In Gae’s case they were used in an orchestrated attack to either force a sick child into school or force that child completely out of school. Gae chose the path that was better for her daughter.
When did someone decide that the parents don’t have the right to judge what is best for their child? Why should I be harassed for keeping my child home when the doctors told me to not send her to school with a fever? I’m a single mother and love my children and want what is best for them. I’ve decided to home school her for the rest of the year. I understand that the rating system is important for a school but when it becomes more important than a child’s health, it is not a good system. I called and told the principal that I was going to home school her and made his day. I said that this should help your numbers and he actually agreed! Are other parents having this problem?
Another prisoner is paroled!
School officials are running scared because they are afraid they are going to lose their cushy jobs. It’s up to the kids to pull the fat from the fire for them.
I think that if this happened to me, I would tell the school that next year, I’d be looking for a school that was not under the jurisdication of the federal government and NCLB. Then I would do everything in my power to look for an affordable private school or homeschooling.
I’d certainly not let the principal or a probation officer in my home unless they have a warrant or an order from a judge. Maybe it’s time to contact a lawyer.
Seems like the ‘village’ has made us all biological parents of orphans.
How long before a lawsuit about exposing children to contagious illnesses? Would that kind of lawsuit even matter to this principle that cares nothing for the children’s well-being?
I think if I were the parent in this case I’d try to get local press coverage. I wouldn’t focus on the attempts to get my child back into school, I’d focus on the administration’s attempts to ensure that as many children as possible were exposed to my probably-contagious child and point out that I was not being given any choice in the matter.
If the administration would like to protest that of course I have choice, my counter would be that being presented with the two options of taking my child to the doctor every day and facing prosecution does not qualify as choice any more than any other decision under duress does.
I see no reason why the No Child Left Behind act can’t have exceptions to mandatory attendance, such as legitimate health concerns!
1) NCLB is bad from the getgo. It is rigid, mindless authoritarianism.
2) The people charged with implimenting it are incapable of making judgements based on individual circumstances. i.e. making a decision that fits the situation.
3) These same people are totally incapable of introspection or questioning rules. They parrot regulations that they cannot explain or logically justify.
4) ALL of the administrators and [many of the] teachers I dealt with at my daughter’s high school were simply incompetent - and untouchable.
In most States, this same policy is in effect. If you miss 10 days, excused or unexcused, you can fail the whole semester, or year.
Most States require attendance of 180 days. Good grades do not matter. It is linked to money. This was going on before NCLB.
This school may end up with a high Drop-out, rate. Which will also keep it from being four stars. Here again, most handbooks will state it is left up to Administators.
I’m no lawyer, but I have a (perhaps perverse!) interest in reading the law; maybe I’ll return in my next life as an attorney!
Anyway, from my read of it, Indiana has almost draconian compulsory attendance laws, compared to other states (well, at least compared to Texas, which is rather big on parent’s rights). But schools everywhere have become rather obsessed with attendance — especially since money is riding on it! Sometimes I think a school principal is more interested in attendance than education.
Check this out: http://www.neola.com/maconaquah-in/search/forms/fm2412F3A.pdf (or http://www.neola.com/maconaquah-in/search/forms/fm2412F3B.pdf ). Have they ever asked for one of these from you? This is all the state law requires in Indiana for your sick child. Anything else, and the school is going beyond the state law; for example, they shouldn’t require a doctor’s note each day; just this one certificate, for all the dates your child has been sick. That attendance contract, for example, sounds rather scary — doesn’t seem at all dictated by Indiana law.
On the other hand, if your child is really missing a lot of school, you should expect her to fall behind in classwork — unless you’re keeping up with homework? With excessive absences, I do see a legitimate concern about whether the child can complete her education; summer school may be required in order to catch up.
Of course, I like your approach: home-school your child. It’s healthier, and probably more educational, for her!
No way can the school make you present a doctor’s note specifically stating what her illness is. That violates Doctor/ Patient confidentiality. If the doctor signs a note saying she cannot go to school, that should be good enough.
“A recommendation or assignment to after school detention…”
That’s nice. The girl is too sick to attend school, so one of the schools options is to punish her for “excessive absenteeism” by assigning after school detention.
Texas has horrible attendance laws. There have been stories just like this one where parents must take their kids to school and let the nurse check them out. They keep them until 10 am and let them leave after that if they are ill. It’s all about collecting state aid. Now I guess it’s all about NCLB. NCLB is such a joke in Texas schools — lots of cheating on those tests, and not by the students. The “Texas Miracle” is a joke. Check out educationnews.org for stories about Texas.
There is now a bill in the Texas legislature to penalize under law ONE unexcused absence. Check out katyzertolerance.com. That means a kid could wind up in court for one unexcused absence.
Sometimes, school officials even have the gall to tell parents that even if they have a doctor’s excuse, that does not automatically give the kid an excused absence. They tell the parents only the school can excuse a student.
Texas might have a parent’s right law and a very easy homeschooling statute, but when you send your kid to a public school, parents’ (and students’)rights go right out the window.
Fines collected by the courts are split between the school and the court system. Nice little racket.
Private schooling and home schooling are the only way to go if you live in Texas as far as I’m concerned.
In more than one area schools have a contract with all the lawyers in the district, so they can’t be sued for anything they don’t want to be sued for. The lawyers can’t accept the cases because it’s a conflict of intrest. A parent would need to travel 100-500 to get out of the arena of influence.
That’s why parents wind up contacting firms such as the Rutherford Institute.
Wow, I didn’t realize that the problems were all across the country! Thank you all for your comments, I don’t feel so alone! I did send an email to one of our investigative news teams and haven’t had a reply at this point. I may try another station.
I also had enrolled my son in a private school at one point because he has dyslexia so I don’t have much faith in the Indiana school system. It took two years for the school to realize he had a serious problem. He was reading at a first grade level in the third grade. After two years of this, they finally agreed to have him tested. Their test consisted of an IQ test and a comprehension test. If there was a 20 point spread, he would qualify as learning disabled. The answer to this was to put him in a class at a different school and teach him slowly. He would be tested every three years. My son was hurting at the time. He thought he was stupid because he was being passed by the other children no matter how often I told him otherwise. He didn’t want to change schools but had to because his school didn’t have a teacher that was qualified to teach children with learning disabilities. I asked what the disability was and was told that they didn’t know. I asked how can you fix a problem if you don’t know what is wrong. They didn’t have an answer. One teacher asked if he had to take the state testing (a major concern for the school) and was told if he’s learning disabled, he didn’t have to take the test. I had another teacher tell me that I should put him on Ritalin (sp?) even though he did not have ADD nor was he hyper at all.
I knew he had dyslexia because I would listen to him read, he would sound out the last part of the word first. If a word would fit backwards, that was how he would read it, on was no, etc. He brought home a math paper where every problem was marked wrong and a big F was written at the top. It was two digit addition. I looked and he had every problem correct but had written the answers backwards! I don’t know how his teacher didn’t see it.
I had my son tested by a licensed doctor and the results were moderate to severe dyslexia. I took him out of the public school and sent him to a school that taught dyslexic kids. The change in him was immediate and dramatic!! He now goes to the public high school and is doing much better but when I went to a parents conference, not one teacher realized that he had dyslexia. Do teachers read their students files?
The public schools have let my children down. I want my daughter to be able to experience the prom and other school functions so I plan on home schooling for the remainder of the year. If the problems persist though, I will not hesitate to find a private school. It really seems that if a child doesn’t fit a certain mold, they are passed by and a parent no longer has the right to judge what is best for his/her child. My daughter is still ill. Her doctor said that this type of illness lasts anywhere from six months to six years. In all of my contact with the principal or secretary of Maxwell Middle School recently, not once did they ask how she was doing.
How did we get to this point? How can we expect to raise caring compassionate kids when they live in a world that is so unjust and so non-compassionate. It is a frightening epidemic going on in schools across the country. How can we stop this nonsense?
How did we get to this point? Simple.
Collectivism. The problem with NCLB, is it’s
really No SCHOOL Left Behind. The emphasis is on determining which SCHOOLS are failing. Schools don’t fail, students do. NCLB concentrates on the schools, which only further
blurs the concept of individual responsibility,
and creates these bureaucratic nightmares
Dweeb,
While I am certainly no advocate of NCLB, I must point out that the schools were failures well before NCLB, the attendance goons existed before NCLB, even ZT existed well before NCLB. Although I feel that politicians need to rethink NCLB, getting rid of it will not make our schools great again. NCLB was nothing more than a band-aid measure for a hemorrhaging system.
Gae, the common use of stimulants as a learning tool should be a heads up, parents are really desperate. Zero tolerance is a way of deflecting blame.
BTW, the Kildonan Institute for dyslexics teaches children to type. For example the letters b and d are in different locations on the keyboard so composing a work is no longer a visual experience.
This school is afraid of losing their fuding, huh? How much of their funding really comes from the federal government? Could they afford to lose the funding if they fired the people in the attendance office?
Ironically, it looks like you might be able to buy those doctor’s notes on the Internet. Look at the Google ads in the sidebar. There’s one for something called an EMR consultant.
If I could find one synonym for stupid, it would be “zero tolerance.”
I’m getting tired of this. OH NO, WE’RE LOSING OUR RATING! LET’S FORCE A SICK CHILD INTO SCHOOL! AND IF SHE DOESN’T COME, PROSECUTE HER PARENTS!
That has to be the most idiotic thing I’ve seen on this website so far.
Thankyou, everyone for this post. I am a student in Indiana, and I Have serious Breathig problems. THere are some days I wake up and cant actually Breathe, and i am dizzy. also I have asthma, so it dosnt help. Some of you may know that when people with asthma get a cold, it turns into pnumooa very fast.I missed 24 days last year all from pnumonia. I was hospitalized for most of it, and They still came after my mom. Its just not right. I saw the Probation officer walk in the hospital. He made my mom cry and threatend her. NCLB is a joke, i do my work and pass with all As, so why would they come after me? Money. In indiana, The kid has to be present Untill the school serves him/her lunch, then they get there money. This post really makes me feel not so alone.– Ill show this to mom. Thanx
school suxs
I am a single mother of a 10 yr.old honor roll student. He has missed ten days (in 7 mo.) of school due to illness. I can’t miss work to take him to the doctor for every sniffle, but I can’t send him to school w/ a fever either. His school is now filing educational neglect charges against me. They refuse to answer my questions over the phone or have a phone confrence; now I have to jepordize my new promotion (with a much needed raise) to attend a confrence in person. Don’t parents have any rights?
The attendance policies in Indiana/USA are ridiculous. We took my son to Washington, DC for some “real” education/experiences. As we were gone for 7 school days we got a nasty/threatening letter from the school welfare worker. It seems he had tripped the switch by “missing†10 days of school (he had two illnesses prior- documented). All future absences required a doctor’s note… so my wife (PhD) wrote notes for the next trip. We strongly believe not all of life’s learning can happen in a classroom. If you could’ve seen his face when he stood on L’Enfant’s center of DC in the basement of the capital you would know true insight. As for the school they backed off when we had a meeting with the principal and demonstrated our united front on this issue.