Unexcused Absences

[luv8tir]

Looking for help with any cases involving the court and multiple unexcused absences...

[tigger]

What are your specific questions?

One thing I'll say about unexcused absences - they aren't always what they appear to be.  My son has three unexcused absences in one of his classes and I know he was either there (physically in the class) or he had been pulled out for a school event and was not supposed to have been counted absent.  Working on getting that fixed because I know my ex will try to use it against me . . . even though two of the days are his days.

[MixedBag]

I agree with tigger....down here there are specific rules about HOW to get absences excused and it took me a while to catch on that I wasn't doing it right to get the kids to LEARN how to do it right in high school.  I was writing the notes as I always did, they were turning them in as they always did, BUT once they got to high school, the rule was to get the doctor's office/ortho to stamp the excuse pass and return THAT to the office.  Yea, I got a little mad because that meant they didn't TRUST my note as a parent (for all parents of high school kids)  even though the first step is to always CALL the parent to confirm the note was written by a parent.  So no answer on the phone first by me, meant the child couldn't check out.....and I thought we were done until I saw unexcused absences which led to zero's for grades for work done in class that day.

[ocean]

I agree...call the school or teacher to find out before you bring it up in class. Here it can be EXCUSED only if you have sick note or religious day and it must be in writing. So if child was sick and other parent did not call/write note it would be unexcused. I also had issues when my daughter broke her foot at school (sports) and they marked her unexcused. Took me a few phones calls to straighten that out.

How many are we talking about? Here they school will send the parents a letter when it gets too high. So see if a letter was sent to other parent. 

[MixedBag]

yea -- that reminds me.  Last year my son had surgery for a broken wrist bone, and the school marked that day as unexcused.  Was up to dad to get it fixed, I am long distance.....But a classic example of well, doooo doooo happens.

When the absences are truly unexcused and the grades fall, THEN that's the time to document and pay attention.