Tardies add up at school district

Published 4:54 pm Monday, November 24, 2008

By Mary L. Grady

One student at Lakeridge Elementary School has been late 27 times since last September.

At Island Park Elementary, there are about 10 families who seem to be late all the time.

At Mercer Island High School, there are 90 unexcused absences each day. That number does not include excused absences, associate principal Dan Peterson said.

Concerns about attendance at the high school are made more complex by the way the campus operates. The school is run more like a college — schedules are sometimes different from day to day. There are different schedules for days with assemblies, early dismissal and block days. There are no bells. And some of the clocks are out of sync.

But having students who are habitually late for class, or who are simply truant, disrupts class and makes more work for teachers and administrators.

“The paper trail for absences and follow through is extensive,” said Peterson. “We probably spend an average of two to three hours per day doing just attendance discipline. We easily could spend much more time.”

As it stands now, it is up to the individual teacher to determine whether or not a student is tardy or absent, Peterson explained.

The attendance committee of the high school site council has been working on this issue and is about to make a set of recommendations for next year, he said. “The goal is to have a consistent building policy defining tardies and absences.”

The high school has begun after- school detention for students with an unacceptable level of unexcused absences.

There are several high school students who are on the high school site council. They thought having detention was a positive thing, said Peterson.

Lakeridge Elementary principal, Ralph Allen, said he struggled himself to get to school on time even when he lived across the street from the school he attended. Allen has empathy for those who are late, however, following up on absences and tardies is to support, as well as protect, students, he said.

At Islander Middle School, absences and late students are issues for only a very few students, said principal Sharon Gillaspie.

Once tardies and absences reach a certain threshold, letters go to parents and say that students have to make up time lost after school.

“We hold kids accountable,” she said. “And we tell parents to hold their kids accountable, too.”

State law requires that tardies and unexcused absences are tracked as part of what is called the “Becca Law,” passed by the state Legislature about 10 years ago. The bill was named for a 13-year-old runaway who was found murdered.

The Becca Law includes strict measures about unexcused absences. Data on attendance is reported to the state. The new school Skyward software recently installed at the Mercer Island School District, will make it easier to keep tabs on tardies and unexcused absences.

All schools are required to send a letter to parents that informs them after three unexcused absences, that they must have a meeting with the principal.

If parents ask, the principal will meet with the student individually, Allen said. “Either way, it usually makes an impression.”

But it is not just dawdling students. It is also about culture and habits, Allen said.

Island Park Principal Kathy Morrison sent a memo home to parents last month stating that tardies and unexcused absences were a growing concern.

The new Skyward software makes it easier to track attendance, said Debbie Mackenzie, who keeps those numbers at Island Park.

The situation became better after the memo went home to parents about the problem, Mackenzie said. The school now has only two to four unexcused tardies each day.

At all schools, the ubiquitous line up of cars waiting to drop off students each morning, adds to the problem.

“The school buses are never late,” Allen said.