THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512210168
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Virginia Beach students could still fail a class because of excessive absences, but they will not be penalized for missing classes due to school-sponsored activities.
New attendance regulations adopted by the School Board Tuesday also changed the appeal process for students who collect too many absences so that a principal will have first say on whether there is reason to waive the regulations in individual cases.
The changes were not enough to satisfy six of the 21 teachers, principals and parents appointed to study the issue and recommend any changes. Those six committee members submitted a minority report that offered several punishments and interventions for absenteeism but stopped short of lowering grades.
Board member Karen O'Brien said as a parent she would be upset if her child failed because of absences, but that she agreed with the new regulation.
``I think there has to be a penalty,'' O'Brien said. ``I see it as a positive policy.''
Early in the school year, a group of parents protested attendance regulations that had been used at most high schools but were new to the district as a whole. Among other things, the rules counted both excused and unexcused absences against a student's limit, included school-sponsored activities in the absences and had a teacher committee as the first line of appeal in the waiver process.
Critics of the policy said that students should not lose an earned grade for absences and that parents should have the right to pull their students from school as they saw fit without penalty. They also warned that counting absences for school events against students sent the wrong message about extracurricular activities.
The School Board charged Interim Superintendent James L. Pughsley with revisiting the policy and he turned it over to the committee to study the issue.
The board adopted the new policy on a 10-1 vote Tuesday with Robert Hall opposed. Hall said he did not want to see earned grades lost because of absences.
Key points of the new regulation are:
Middle and high school students with more than 12 absences (excused or unexcused) from a class in one semester or six absences from block scheduled classes will receive a failing grade that semester.
Elementary school students with more than 24 absences who also do not meet grade level standards at the end of the year may be denied promotion.
After a student has collected two-thirds of the maximum number of excessive absences, the parent, student and a school representative will come up with a corrective plan.
Requests for waivers for extenuating circumstances, such as a serious illness, will be made first to the school principal and can be appealed to the school level coordinator and then to the superintendent.
Excused absences because of school-sponsored or related activities, authorized visits with school personnel or recognized religious holidays will not count.
Board member Joseph Taylor said many of the calls he'd received about the previous regulations dealt with concerns over the waiver process, but that the changes had addressed those issues.
``That allows the failing grade to be OK with me,'' he said. ``Now you really have to have excessive absences, and it should be punishable.''
Larry Smith, who leads a grass-roots group that opposed the regulations earlier this year, spoke on behalf of the six parents who offered a minority report.
The minority report recommended a regulation emphasizing intervention, offering rewards for good attendance and prescribing increasingly stringent punishments for unexcused absences based mainly on detention and in-school suspension.
KEYWORDS: ATTENDANCE VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS by CNB