Some Morgan County parents angry at district attendance policy

Some parents of graduating seniors in the Morgan County School District are upset after they learned their students would not be able to walk with their classmates at graduation.

Morgan County students must have a 90 percent attendance rate in order to walk during their graduation under district policy. The new attendance policy was put in place during the 2017-18 school year.

“They’re able to graduate,” parent Chris Smith said. “They’re able to go to the ceremony, but they’re not letting them walk across the stage.”

Smith’s daughter is one of eight students who will not be allowed to walk in her graduation. According to the school district, there will be about 80 students graduating in May.

Smith’s concern is that most of the days his daughter missed because she was out sick with mononucleosis, an illness that can last weeks.

According to the school district, students are allowed to miss long periods of time at school if it is military-related or because of chronic sickness. In the school handbook, rules say students who are sick must turn in a doctor’s note or have a parent or guardian call the school by 9:30 a.m.

Smith said he and his wife were not able to call in by 9:30 a.m. every day because he works out of state and she goes to work at 4 a.m.

“And when you have mono, you are totally drained,” Smith said when asked about his daughter calling the school. “I’ve seen it with her. She’s totally drained of all her energy.”

Another parent contacted ABC 17 with similar complaints.

Jamie Anson wrote in an email that the superintendent and principal will not accommodate her daughter.

She said her daughter is not going to be allowed to walk because of similar issues with doctor’s notes.

“She wasn’t worried,” Anson said of her daughter, “because we did as told. Get doctor notes and you’ll be excused.”

Superintendent Joyce Ryerson said the policy is meant to bolster attendance, part of how the state evaluates districts for accreditation.

“I think it’s becoming more and more of an issue because as schools are being held to higher attendance standards by the state, we’re kind of judged on the quality of the school by whether or not each of our students have 90 percent attendance,” Ryerson said. “That’s where these (policies) came from.” Ryerson said the district researched other schools with similar plans. Warsaw has the same attendance policy as Morgan County and the School of the Osage has a 95 percent attendance policy, she said.

Anson, who said she drove a school bus in the district for several years, said the policy as it is written in the student handbook lacks clarity, including about how to appeal the decision barring students from walking with their classmates.

Ryerson said six of the eight students not allowed to walk appealed the decision. Senior McKayla Hall said the appeals process was confusing. She said she met with the school board about the handbook language, which reads: “Students and their parents will be notified prior to the imposition of any consequence and given the opportunity to appeal the imposition of the consequence to the superintendent. On appeal, the student and his or her parents may present evidence that the student has missed fewer days than the district’s records show or that an absence recorded as unexcused should have been recorded as excused. An appeal will not be taken based on whether the reason for the absence justifies an exception to this rule.” “Whenever I read that to them, they said that was for discipline,” Hall said. “But nowhere does that state that that’s for discipline. If you read that to any person, that’s going to sound like that was for the appeal that was taken for the end of the year for the seniors.” Hall said several of her absences were because of military basic training she took part in during her junior year and the beginning of her senior year. Ryerson said those military absences are excused. Ryerson said her own son took part in a similar program, and the students’ allowed six absences per semester take care of some of the missed days. Hall, Anson’s daughter and Smith’s daughter all have petitions on Facebook to let the students walk.