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Need some advise re:school truancy.


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It's a huge problem for my district, and particularly for the school I teach at. 

 

It's why our board instituted a rule making it so that after 12 absences, excused or unexcused, the teacher can deny credit for the class.  We're talking about a kid being gone nearly 15% of the time, which is categorically ridiculous, IMO.  The policy works well as a deterrent.  It's the teacher's discretion as to whether or not to deny credit, and there is an appeal process in place. 

 

Why is that necessary?  If the kids have poor grades as a result of their absences, the D's and F's will effectively deny credit anyway...  (I assume D's are counted like F's in your district)

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You forget I went to school in SoCal and the kids' school here has been awesome.  They worked with my friends daughter and had her write a paper and do a presentation for the rest of her class.

 

If my kids miss they work with them too.  Its a small school so they are pretty easy going, they aren't all butt-hurt if they miss a day and they usually don't.  Each of my boys have had perfect attendance quarters several times.  However, we did take them to Hawaii last spring, they don't have spring break here, they only get a four day weekend, so they missed four days of school and they both were on the A honor roll at the end of the year so no, I'm not too worried about it.

 

They don't have spring break, wtf?

 

My daughter missed two weeks with pneumonia this year.  Her teacher gave us all the work so we could do it with her.

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Never two weeks.  This year was like seven school days but last year they got a five day weekend.  It really is weird here.

 

Have to remember that in the past the summer break had to be longer due to many kids working on their parents farm but that doesn't happen nearly as much anymore.

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it's much more expensive to chase down and do conferences/hearings/etc with kids who are gone a lot, including the ones who have parents that hand out excuse notes to them like candy.

i'm guessing it's similar in california.

 

but it's okay, cez. we have lottery money to supplement our school budgets, so everyone's a winner!

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You forget I went to school in SoCal and the kids' school here has been awesome.  They worked with my friends daughter and had her write a paper and do a presentation for the rest of her class.

 

If my kids miss they work with them too.  Its a small school so they are pretty easy going, they aren't all butt-hurt if they miss a day and they usually don't.  Each of my boys have had perfect attendance quarters several times.  However, we did take them to Hawaii last spring, they don't have spring break here, they only get a four day weekend, so they missed four days of school and they both were on the A honor roll at the end of the year so no, I'm not too worried about it.

 

just curious, but did your kids have to make up their work from your trip? did you let the teacher know in advance you'd be taking them out of school?

 

one of the problems i've faced is that parents have a conference to attend in some state and they want to take their kids with them. often, the kids sit by the pool or play video games for a majority of their time. getting those kids to make up their work is a 50-50 proposition, and then parents complain when junior doesn't do the work and gets a zero.

 

i've had just a few kids that have had to go out of town with their parents and asked for work. to some i gave school work, and to a few i gave them an assignment based on where they were going because i knew the parents would follow through with them. i never mind working with those kind of parents, and i imagine that's the kind you are.

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The sub pool is truly a gamble for most teachers. You can get one that will follow the lesson plan and keep the class on task or get the incompetent type that looses control of the class and gets nothing accomplished. My wife has had substitutes that raided her fridge and shelves and dolled out candy to the kids for no reason. For that reason she will go to school sick, not trusting a complete stranger in her room. You cannot make sub requests for anyone you trust, it is completely random.

 

i have an exceptional sub, and he's worked for us for several years now. when i was out because of my surgery, i knew he would follow all of my lesson plans because that's what he does, and he does it well.

 

had a sub about ten years ago, a guy i knew and played golf with. he'd been a professor at the college i attended while i was a student. great guy and very educated. the last time he subbed for me, he completely abandoned my lesson plans and showed the kids a richard gere movie about a knight. i came back and the kids asked me if we were going to finish watching the movie. i said "what movie?" and that's when they filled me in. told the principal that i didn't want him in my room again, and that took care of it.

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just curious, but did your kids have to make up their work from your trip? did you let the teacher know in advance you'd be taking them out of school?

 

one of the problems i've faced is that parents have a conference to attend in some state and they want to take their kids with them. often, the kids sit by the pool or play video games for a majority of their time. getting those kids to make up their work is a 50-50 proposition, and then parents complain when junior doesn't do the work and gets a zero.

 

i've had just a few kids that have had to go out of town with their parents and asked for work. to some i gave school work, and to a few i gave them an assignment based on where they were going because i knew the parents would follow through with them. i never mind working with those kind of parents, and i imagine that's the kind you are.

 

We let the school know way ahead of time and they did have to make up the work.  That was part of the deal for them getting to go to Hawaii.

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good to hear. 

 

we require parents to give us advanced notice of extended absences, but not everyone does. the kid suffers by having a ton of makeup work to do because their parents didn't take care of business. the kids don't usually fare well in these scenarios.

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Yeah it is 9 days here including the weekend.  Spring break is one week though.

 

my nieces in nebraska never had a spring break. they always got one day off, but the flip side was that they were finished with school by about may 20.

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I think kids are more perceptive than we realize and can see through the BS when teachers use their paid sick time as vacation days.  I remember my teachers doing this a lot, apparently with no opposition from the administrators. 

 

So if teachers can be truant and still get paid, what example does that set for the kids?

"Kids, get a degree and a good job so you too can take sick time as vacation daysI" 

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Just be glad they don't live in Texas where they are putting kids in jail for truancy when they can't pay the fines associated with it

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kendalltaggart/texas-sends-poor-teens-to-adult-jail-for-skipping-school#.uh250yAvRv

 

 

The 11th-grader in the courtroom wore braces, loved Harry Potter movies, and posted Katy Perry lyrics on Facebook. She also had a bad habit of cutting school, and now, a judge informed her, she owed $2,700 in truancy-related fines. But Serena Vela, who lived in a trailer with her unemployed mother, couldn’t afford to pay.

Serena was offered “jail credit” at a rate of $300 per day. She was patted down, touched “everywhere,” and dispatched to adult lockup, where she would stay for nine days, missing a week and a half of classes. The first school day after she was released, administrators kicked her out.

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Our truancy cases are tried in juvenile court and they will usually issue ankle monitors before sending them to juvenile hall.

 

We invite families with attendance problems to a parent meeting that is run by the District Attorney's office before we bring them to a SARB meeting.  There are a lot of interventions that are done before we get to that point.  

 

I remember at one time the Police Department was thinking about not sending an officer, but that day we had 2 families that had a parent who was either on parole or probation.  They always send an officer now. 

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That wouldn't happen in a public school in California.  If a student cannot attend school due to a medical issue, but is able to receive some instruction, there is something called Home/Hospital teaching.  The district sends a teacher to the home or the hospital to teach the student a couple of times a week, depending on the circumstances.

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I actually subbed in our system before becoming a full time teacher at my school, and also at spokane school district up north from me.

Teachers could request subs by their sub ID#. I got requested a lot because I could do social studies and english, and I also had music background with conducting and piano playing, and could sub for band/choir/etc. music teachers would request my constantly, lol.

Also, when I subbed, there were some teaching assignments I would flat out refuse because I knew the teacher had no classroom management, and the classes were always atrocious to sub for. Needless to say, they would also leave the absolute worst sub plans.

School of Rock!

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