THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9408300189
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
Be there or be square - and risk getting a big fat F for cutting classes.
That's the message Norfolk School Board is sending to students and their parents with a tough new school attendance policy adopted last week.
The revised policy, with teeth provided by a new set of administrative rules, reduces by five days the number of absences a student is allowed before risking loss of course credit.
Last year, a student could rack up 15 unexcused absences per 18-week semester before losing class credit.
Once school begins Wednesday, students who accumulate 10 absences - regardless of whether they are excused or unexcused - could flunk their courses. Principals will have some discretion to decide whether or not a student should lose credit.
If that seems Draconian, you've gotten the drift.
In South Hampton Roads schools, the only system that's stricter is Virginia Beach, where students can fail a course for accruing four unexcused absences over a 9-week quarter.
``I understand this is a very tough policy, and that's what it should be,'' Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said. ``It's definitely not a carrot. It's intended to be a stick to get students to realize they can't just lay out. I think 20 days (of absences) out of a 180-day school year is reasonable.''
Norfolk's attendance rate is the worst in the area, according to records kept by each school system.
As part of the change, Norfolk school principals will be told not to suspend students for missing school.
Instead, truants will be assigned in-school punishment, including Saturday detention hall, a successful program introduced last school year in Norfolk's eight middle schools.
``Kids hated giving up their Saturdays so much that principals felt it was effective at reducing disruptive behavior,'' Nichols told School Board members during their recent summer retreat.
Records kept during the year show that attendance violations in the middle schools dropped 28 percent, to 2,126 from 2,937.
Overall, disruptive behavior and other offenses dropped nearly 8 percent in the middle schools.
In the past, truants in Norfolk were suspended for up to three days after a first offense. But that just increased the number of school days they missed and made it more difficult for them to catch up, Nichols said.
The move toward in-house punishment in part was intended to prevent kids from getting so far behind in school work that they become discouraged and drop out. It also keeps kids off the street and presumably out of trouble.
The get-tough attendance rules come on the heels of a truancy crackdown started last March with the help of Norfolk police.
Under the program, youths on the street during school hours were picked up by police and taken to a central location, in some cases the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court building. Parents were then called.
During the first two months, police picked up about 100 students - fewer than three a day. School officials acknowledge that it made only a slight dent in attendance problems, but it will continue this year.
In the 1993-94 school year, truancy accounted for 21 percent of the 36,188 student offenses reported, which included fighting, assaults on staff, weapons violations and other disruptive behavior.
High school students accounted for two-thirds of the 7,742 attendance violations during the last school year. Elementary students had only 36.
Overall, Norfolk schools last year recorded a 91.7 percent attendance rate, virtually unchanged from the previous two years. The five high schools consistently have had the worst attendance record; last year it was 86.1 percent.
Norfolk, Nichols said, compares favorably to most inner-city school systems nationwide, where attendance rates of 75 percent to 85 percent are common. A goal in Norfolk, he said, is to increase average daily attendance in high schools to at least 91 percent, in middle schools to 93 percent and in elementary schools to 98 percent. MEMO: OTHER SCHOOLS' POLICIES
New language in Norfolk's attendance policy states:
School attendance is the responsibility of students and their
parent(s) or guardian. When a student is absent she/he misses class
experiences that will never be duplicated. Not only does the absent
student miss these experiences, but valuable instruction time is taken
from the class to assist the student when she/he returns.
Here are attendance policies in other South Hampton Roads school
districts:
Suffolk: High school students with more than 10 excused or unexcused
absences a semester will fail the class. Middle and elementary school
pupils who miss 20 days will be retained at the grade level.
Portsmouth: Students who miss more than 20 class periods per year
without a valid reason will not be given credit for the class.
Chesapeake: Students with more than 15 excused or unexcused absences
per semester without a valid reason will not receive credit for the
class.
Virginia Beach: Students with four unexcused absences in a nine-week
period fail the class. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Superintendent Roy Nichols Jr.
Thinks 20 absences is reasonable
by CNB