With the start of the new school year, there has been a slight change to the City High attendance policy. This change comes from a new Iowa law that changes how absences are defined. According to the Gazette, this law’s purpose is to target chronic absenteeism, but it also makes understanding the rules around attendance more confusing.
“It’s actually pretty confusing, and I think it induces a lot of fear where there doesn’t need to be fear,” Taylor Scudder said. “They were trying to do it to be more equitable. One of the things that legislation did was take out the difference between excused and unexcused absences.”
While the goal of the law was to make attendance policies more equitable, students have differing opinions.
“I think it’s weird because if you’re excused, that means a parent had to be okay with you missing school. And so that means it’s more justified; where it’s unexcused, it is just skipping.” Malorie James ‘27 said.
On the topic of unexcused absences, Scudder’s job is to keep track of student attendance and contact parents when students are not going to school or not showing up to class.
“I first reach out to the number that we have on file, and I call; if I can’t get anyone, I leave a message, and then I document everything that I do. If a call doesn’t work, I use talking points a lot, because people respond to texts much faster than phone calls, and then I send an email, and most of the time, one of those three things will get me in contact with the family, and we can figure out what the barriers are,” Scudder said.
After Scudder talks to the family, the next step is overcoming challenges that stop students from coming to school. Some barriers, like transportation, aren’t always in a family or student’s control.
“Another barrier right now is with teenagers; your parents can’t go into your bedroom, pick you up, and take you to school like you can when you’re little. So finding ways to remind you guys why school is meaningful and how it impacts your future so that you want to show up every day is another barrier,” Scudder said.
Scudder notes how one way she reminds students how school is meaningful is by reminding them of the purpose of being in school.
“When you grow up, you have a job, right? And you have a reason that you go to that job every day. So you find your why. For kids, we have to find your why in school.” Scudder said, “Why are you taking those classes to focus on what career you want, on the future, or what you want after high school to look like?”
