When Bremen School Board members met last Monday, they reviewed the new attendance policy that was implemented at the start of this school year.
The biggest difference between this year’s policy and the policy of the past is that when parents call to notify the school that their child is staying home, those absences are no longer counted as excused.
Bremen Superintendent Dr. Jim White said the policy also includes specifications about what to do when the school receives no notification whatsoever.
Dr. White explained, “They brought back the truant language, where if there’s no contact, no parent, no student and we don’t know where the kid is, we’re going to flag them as truant until we can understand where they are.”
Superintendent White said that in order for a student to have an excused absence they need to submit a doctor’s note. He added that the new policy has resulted in some additional work for administrative assistants and office secretaries.
The superintendent said, “They have to flag the kids multiple times. If we don’t hear anything during the day they’re tardy, then we hear from the parents then they’re unexcused, then maybe later we get a doctor’s note and now they are completely excused. So that’s caused a little extra work.”
Dr. White said that so far there hasn’t been a noticeable change in attendance, stating that it is still currently around 97 percent. He said no actions were taken about the policy since it is too early to tell if its effects are successful, unsuccessful or indifferent.
