A recent episode of KSL Radio’s Doug Wright Show discussed a policy at an Alpine School District school that denies credit for students who have repeatedly been absent or tardy, even if they otherwise received good marks.
The discussion of attendance policies begins roughly two-thirds of the way through the third hour of the Doug Wright Show from Tuesday, February 15. Click here to find the audio podcast.
The Utah State Office of Education’s legal team says, while a school’s motives may be good, these kinds of policies could violate student property rights. From the September 2010 edition of the Utah School Law Update:
[Per a 1983 Utah Attorney General’s opinion and case law], a policy that withholds a student grade based solely on absences is unreasonable.
Further, a policy that allows a student to re-earn the grade by attending a class or seminar completely unrelated to the academic class could be viewed as arbitrary and held to further violate a student’s substantive due process rights.
In short, teachers should base student grades on academic performance and no other school official should alter those grades.
From the October 2007 edition of the Utah School Law Update:
A: No. Grades must be based on academic performance standards, not on tangential items that may not be within the student’s control. While students and parents should pay their fees, the teacher will have to find other ways to encourage payment beyond docking the grade. If the student is earning one grade based on class assignments, tests and other related measures, the student has earned that grade and may not be denied it based on requirements that have nothing to do with the curriculum.
My daughter got No Grades for several of her classes due to absences. She was required to pay a fee and attend “make up” hours in order to have her No Grade changed to the actual grade she earned. Failure to pay the fee and attend the class ultimately resulted in the No Grade being changed to an F. Is the school district allowed to deny a grade that was earned because the student fails to attend make up hours and pay the fee?
I am so frustrated with Alpine School District’s attendance policy. I believe it also takes the rights away from parent’s to determine whether their child should stay home due to illness or family matters. A student shouldn’t be denied good grades because they missed days and were tardy. It isn’t a reflection of their hard work or intelligence. My daughter had A’s in her class but got an F or NC because of missing school due to being sick. Is there any way to rid the school district of this policy?
Thank you!
Thank you for your comment! I will forward this on to our legal team to see if they can answer your question.
Elizabeth Ziegler
Social Media Specialist
Utah State Office of Education
elizabeth.ziegler@schools.utah.gov
801-538-7500
(This answer is from the Utah State Office of Education’s Legal Team. Your question will be in this Friday’s UPPAC Q&A Post on http://UtahPUblicEducation.org. USOE’s Legal Team answers questions about public education every Friday. Here are some recent UPPAC Q&A posts: http://utahpubliceducation.org/?s=UPPAC+q%26A&submit.x=0&submit.y=0)
This is a difficult issue—both legally and philosophically. Schools are responsible for students during the school day. Additionally, public schools are told in state law (§53A-13-109(3)(g)) that they must teach students to take responsibility for their actions and that promote a desirable citizenry. Certainly many people feel that requiring young people to attend school regularly and fulfill academic responsibilities is a positive attribute of an American citizen. Sometimes attendance, even when work is complete, is desirable. And the courts that have addressed this issue (no Utah cases and no US Supreme Court cases), have various opinions. Some say that attendance and behavior are significant enough life skills that schools can FORCE, through grades, students to attend. Others say that academic grades should reflect academic achievement. There is an old (1978 or so) Utah Attorney General’s Opinion that supports this view. The opinion states that if individual teachers can make a case for attendance in their classes because the class emphasizes performance (e.g. choir, CTE, language classes, PE classes) that attendance COULD be (some) part of those academic grades. It’s harder to make the case for an algebra class where the student may master the material, get A’s on tests, even without attending. This means the teacher should get busy and make her class meaningful!
But until someone files a lawsuit and we have some informative state law, the issue is decided locally by a local board of education or a local charter board. If you think this policy is anti-family (rather than pro teaching students dependability and consistency w/obligations), you should contact your local board members. Discuss with them a policy that would make attendance and behavior issues a separate (but possibly required for graduation) citizenship grade or number of credits. Then a student could excel academically even if she did not attend regularly, but the citizenship grade could reflect that she attended sporadically.
Yours,
USOE Legal Team
I also am a very frustrated parent. My son is currently ready to graduate but has NGs from long ago that are holding him up. I called his former high school today where the NGs occurred and was told it is too late for them to be lifted. My son now has to make up those classes even though he passed them the first time! My child started experiencing severe panic attacks and because of this missed much school. At the peak of his panic disorder he was completely unable to function. He lost 40 lbs. in a two month span. I always called the school to excuse his absences which I now realize was pointless. I wish someone would have informed me that even a parent excused absence can result in a No Grade. The law is ridiculous. Isn’t the goal here for kids to graduate and on time? How does the No Grade policy help kids? Apparently attendance (and money the school receives for attendance) is more important than a student’s mastery of the subject!
So how many days can a student (9-12th) miss from school and still receive credit? if the class is a lab taught class, meaning its performance based how does that weigh into the decision. So really I’m asking two questions.
Cheers,
Hello Greg,
Good question. I’ve forwarded it on to our legal team and I will post the response here when I receive it. Thanks for reading our blog!
Elizabeth Ziegler
Social Media Specialist
Utah State Office of Education
801-538-7500
contact@schools.utah.gov
My daughter attends a charter school. So I am not sure what laws still apply. She is in seventh grade which means we pay school fees now. My daughter has a missing assignment in art. As I looked to see what the assignment was, it was paying $15.00. Is it legal to make an assignment paying money to help buy supplies? Shouldn’t this have been a fee we paid at the begining of the school year with the rest of the fees?
My daughter has missed a number of classes due to illness, yet the teacher will not let her make up the missed quizzes. It was my understanding that with excused abscences a teacher had to provide an avenue for the student to complete the missed course work. Is this not correct?
I drop a leave a response each time I like a post on a site or if I have something to add to the conversation.
Usually it is caused by the sincerness communicated in the
article I read. And after this article Should students lose
credit for missing school or being late? – UtahPublicEducation.
org. I was moved enough to leave a comment ;-) I do have a couple of questions for
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