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August 25, 2010
The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the state Department of Education passed a new attendance policy, which includes a controversial rule regarding doctors’ notes, for Louisiana schools for the 2010-11 academic year.
Ill students who turn in a doctor’s note are required to miss at least three days of school before returning to have the absences excused; if a student with a doctor’s note only misses one or two days, the time missed will be recorded as unexcused absences.
“We are going to try to get [the doctor note policy] changed,” said Frank Pasqua, child welfare supervisor for Lafourche Parish Public Schools. “I’m going to use my authority [to excuse absences], and I am going to excuse one or two days. I will waive those days, at least for this year.”
Terrebonne Parish Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance Linda Joseph said she agrees with Pasqua and will also use her authority to waive unexcused absences according to the doctors’ note rule.
“Our main responsibility is student achievement,” Joseph said. “We can’t do that if the students aren’t here.”
Pasqua is also the chairman of the Louisiana Association of Child Welfare and Attendance Personnel.
The association voiced its concerns to BESE Monday in Baton Rouge, but no changes can affect this policy this year.
The revisions also require 4×4 students to attend two more days than were required last year, 83 per semester. Students taking full-year classes must attend 167 days, seven more than 2009-10.
The Lafourche Parish school district has 178 school days. High school students are allotted six unexcused absences per semester and the elementary students get 11 for the entire year.
In Terrebonne Parish, school is open for 177 days. Therefore, high school students are allowed five absences per semester. Elementary students have 10.
In addition to excused and unexcused absences, the state offers temporarily excused absences. Temporarily excused absences, which are granted with a parent’s note, still count against the allotted total, but students will be able to makeup the work they missed.
Excused absences include a valid doctor’s excuse, special and recognized holidays of the student’s own faith, visitation with a family member in the United States Armed Forces or National Guard who is returning from or deploying to a combat zone, travel for education, death in the immediate family or a natural disaster.
Suspended students also qualify as temporarily excused, and will be given partial or full credit for the make-up work they complete.
Stricter attendance policies have school officials and parents alike scratching their heads. One change in particular would require students to miss three days with a doctor’s excuse. FILE PHOTO
