Bremen Public School officials discussed their attendance policy during a Saturday session in February.
Superintendent Dr. Jim White said their policy used to be that parents could call in and indicate their student would be staying home and that would be considered excused. However, board members changed the policy to help ensure absences are legitimate.
Dr. White explained, “The board had made policy where anytime a student is not in school, if there’s not a doctor’s note or if it’s not something in state statute that’s excused, then they’re marked as unexcused.”
Dr. White indicated that the doctor’s note policy hasn’t noticeably improved attendance and it’s increased the amount of meticulous secretarial work so they’re considering switching back to a call-in policy. He added that sometimes a sickness doesn’t require a doctor’s visit so that’s another reason the policy may be changed back over.
With either policy, students will face consequences, such as losing a class credit, if they have too many absences recorded.
School board members didn’t vote to make any changes during their Saturday session but Dr. White said the matter will be addressed more in future meetings.
