Principal Points: Using the Internet

You and I probably take attendance at school as a given. If kids are healthy, they’re in school with very few exceptions. Some schools face horrendous absenteeism rates. Teachers don’t know from one day to the next which students will be in attendance. That makes instruction exceptionally challenging, and it makes it impossible to bring students to a high level of achievement.

I am thankful that, at AKCS, getting kids to attend school is not a major problem. Parents value the education their children are receiving; in fact, they have made a significant financial sacrifice to ensure that their children receive the best education possible—one that includes both excellence in academics and in character development.

The role of attendance in student achievement is so critical, that one can actually chart a fairly close correlation between attendance and achievement. We haven’t done this extensively here, but the preliminary data show this to be true. There is a virtual one to one correspondence between days in school and achievement. That, of course, won’t apply to every individual student, but when taken as a whole, it is clear that, in general, better attendance will result in better achievement.

This fact is one of the reasons why we encourage parents to take holidays when students are also on holidays and to make doctors’ appointments after school. However, the realities of life don’t make this always possible, and teachers will then try to ensure that students can catch up what they missed. Unfortunately, independent study is never a substitute for the in-class contact with a skilled teacher.

The Attendance Policy in the Parent Handbook indicates how the Board has attempted to meet the needs of students, teachers, and parents. The policy recognizes that some absences are unavoidable and therefore Excused, while others can be avoided and are therefore Not Excused. In principle, this seems straightforward, but in practice it gets tricky! What about holidays? (There were lots recently!) Some of these are within a parent’s control, but many are under the employer’s control. Should this be Excused or Not Excused? And frankly, what difference does it make?

The key difference between Excused and Not Excused has to do with how marks are recorded and how teachers are expected to accommodate the absence. Every absence of a student puts additional work on the teacher either to prepare work beforehand, or work with a student to get them caught up. (Everyone still expects that the school will maintain its standard of excellence, and teachers take that responsibility seriously.) If an absence is Excused, then teachers are expected to do whatever is needed to get a student caught up without penalty. If it is Not Excused, then there is no requirement on teachers to accommodate the students, and missed assignments are usually marked as zero.

Holidays, however, are different. While they are generally considered Not Excused, they can severely hamper a student’s success in school and significantly affect their marks if no accommodation is made. On the other hand, because of their length, they are more disruptive and require more work from teachers than other absences. So in an effort to address the needs of all, and to ensure consistency across the school, we will use the following process to address holiday absences:

Absences for elementary students can be arranged with the homeroom teacher.
Absences for secondary students should be arranged through the principal.
Teachers will use their discretion in providing either work in advance or makeup work after the absence, but work in advance is usually preferable.
Students & parents are responsible to ensure that makeup work is done and handed in within a reasonable amount of time.
Missed work will be assigned a zero until it is handed in. At that point, it will be marked, and a late penalty of 20% assigned.
Minor classroom assignments which cannot be replicated will be recorded as a zero.

I trust that this approach reasonably balances the needs and concerns of students, teachers, and parents. As always, holidays should be scheduled during school breaks whenever possible, but when that doesn’t happen the school will make some accommodation and students will not receive zeros for major assignments.

Finally, exceptional situations merit exceptions. Requests to excuse an otherwise Not Excused absence should be made in writing to the principal two weeks in advance.

Brian Hazeltine, B.Ed., M.A.
Principal, Airdrie Koinonia Christian School