Starting in early April, parents or guardians can expect a call from the attendance office for each class period a student is marked UA (unexcused absence).  

“I have always believed parents needed to be notified sooner if there is a UA, rather than wait until the end of the day,” Principal Bacon said in an email sent to all City High parents and students Monday night. 

Previously parents or guardians would receive a call from the attendance office at the end of the school day if the student had received one or more UAs. 

“I think that this isn’t beneficial to the parents and students to be notified for every UA the student gets,” Alison Kenaston ‘21 said. “It can be annoying if the student is just out for a doctor’s appointment and the attendance office forgets to mark the absence as excused because that’s definitely happened to me before.” 

Principal Bacon explained the two main reasons for the change in procedures. The first is that parents or guardians sometimes forget to call the attendance office to excuse their student for the call. The new procedure notifies parents/guardians of the UA and allows them to call the attendance office to change the UA to an excused absence. After the change, they would no longer get UA calls for the remainder of the school day. 

“It’s not going to be harmful to keep the notification at the end of the day,” Kenaston said. “It can be fixed or addressed with the student the next day.” 

The second reason for the new system is to inform the parent or guardian of the student “skipping” class. The administration hopes that with the calls parents or guardians will help the school in contacting the student and helping them come back to school. 

“I do not want to irritate parents by sending multiple calls in a day,” Principal Bacon said, but he also urges that this new system is meant to ensure the safety of students and to keep the parents or guardians informed. 

These UA Calls will not only go out to in-person students, but also to fully online students.