Between doctors’ appointments and trips to the guidance office, many of us exceeded our limit of seven absences per quarter. While the new attendance policy may allow for less absences, it is certainly more forgiving and definitely better than the previous one.

Previously, students automatically failed after receiving more than seven absences in a quarter. While the Board of Education thought they were encouraging students to be present in class at all times, in reality it was a threat to much of the student body. Even though we have less allowed absences (ten per semester), the new attendance policy will allow students to keep the grade they earned and instead lose the course credit. While losing course credit can be harmful for some students, it is much better than failing the course altogether, especially if you are considering going to college. Rather than seeing a huge “F” on your transcript, colleges will just see “LC” (loss of credit).

In addition, the administration will now acknowledge that you completed a course and will not make you retake it in order to move forward with the curriculum. For example, if you have too many absences and lose credit in Algebra I, you can still move on to Geometry the next year. This benefits many students because rather than being held back and wasting time to retake courses, the students will be able to advance in classes and not lose out because of absences that may not have even been their fault.

Another benefit to the new attendance policy is the new categorization of absences. There are, and always have been, three kinds of absences:

• Exempted absences are absences that are fully wiped from your record, as if they had never happened.
• Unexcused absences are those absences without a reason or have not been brought to the attention of the Dean of Students.
• Excused absences are absences that have been brought to the Dean of Students’ attention through a note/email from a parent.

However, excused absences still count against attendance records, making the process of excusing an absence unimportant to students. Previously, most absences were considered excused which only negatively affected students. These excused absences included doctors’ appointments, college orientations, and even trips to the nurse’s office. These were unavoidable scenarios, but rather than understanding, administration would simply turn the absences against students. Fortunately, the new attendance policy is more forgiving; almost everything (college visits, doctor’s appointments, short-term illnesses, student-initiated appointments) are either exempt or easily appealable. This benefits everyone because rather than having to stress out about receiving absences for simple trips to the nurse, we know that we won’t be penalized for something unavoidable.

So, while the new attendance policy allows for less absences, it also allows most absences to be exempt, thus making the new attendance policy clearly superior.