BRUNSWICK COUNTY — Brunswick County school district is refining its attendance policy, prompted by high student absences in the 2023-2024 school year.
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During the first semester, the district observed 20.1% or roughly 873 high school students classified as chronically absent. In the middle school range, 10.62% or roughly 293 students were identified as chronically absent, while 5.95% or around 330 students fell into this category at the elementary school level.
The district defines chronically absent as missing 10% of enrolled days, regardless of whether the absences are excused, unexcused, or due to suspension. If enrolled in a full school year, this is about 18 days or three and a half weeks of education missed.
Chronic absenteeism will now be addressed in the updated policy.
For grades K-8, students who are considered chronically absent could be held back from proceeding to the next grade. However, they can engage in academic and attendance interventions, such as taking part in a school improvement plan that teaches and supports academics, behavior, social skills, and emotions.
For grades 9-12, students considered chronically absent will lose credits toward graduation but can make it up by by completing credit recovery — including CTE courses — or making up hours after school or on Saturdays. These students can also earn lost credits with a waiver from the principal if they have extenuating circumstances with documentation.
“The bottom line is, we want our students to be successful and we want positive student learning outcomes.” Superintendent Dale Cole said at the meeting. “We can have the best teachers in the world and the kids, if they don’t come to school, we can’t help.”
Currently, the policy states a student is subject to a performance and grade evaluation after missing eight days of school, excused or unexcused and for any K-12 grade. It also outlines acceptable reasons for an excused absence, such as illness, religious observance, and educational opportunities.
The updated policy will enhance this by implementing a limit of 10 absences for grade 9-12 students, requiring students to compensate with additional hours or risk failing the course if they surpass the threshold.
Students who are absent are required to bring a signed note by a parent, guardian, or medical professional. The new policy will mandate it’s brought in within five days of the student returning to school.
At the meeting board member Robin Moffitt said she heard concerns about attendance from guidance counselors.
“It’s been very frustrating for them, trying to get the kids back on track and trying to support them so they were pretty excited as well,” Moffitt said.
In March, surveys were distributed to gauge agreement and disagreement from stakeholders and feedback was collected to shape the policy changes. Stakeholders included principals, assistant principals, district administrators, school social workers, school improvement teams, teachers advisory council, and the parent advisory council.
Meredith Lloyd, the district’s director of student services, noted, out of 180 survey respondents, the highest number of disagreements with updates was 18 — and they were primarily focused on the structure of the policy.
Stakeholders also questioned the appropriate format to send in parent notes, make-up time procedures, and tardy policies. Lloyd noted the proposed upgrades to the policy only cover absenteeism for now.
“In the future we can look at tardies, but right now we are focussed on kids being in school for the school day,” she said at the March policy committee meeting.
Jonathan Paschal, the assistant superintendent, emphasized the need to begin marketing the policy change now in order to implement it in the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.
“We are ready to hit the ground running in May,” he said, “because we need to let parents know,”
At the meeting, Paschal mentioned school administrators get the message out to high school students who would have failed this semester had the new policy been in place. He said it would serve as an “eye-opener.”
“I think that’ll be impactful when you alert the kid: ‘Had this been in place, this year, this was what would have happened,’” Moffitt said.
The school board will need to vote on the updated changes at the next meeting, May 21.
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