The board of education moved to review the district’s policy on attendance at its meeting on Aug. 8.
The discussion came after Superintendent Ken DiPietro asked the board to affirm its support for attendance being part of a student’s grade.
“It would let the faculty and staff know that the board stands behind a model that accepts that attendance is part of the grade process,” DiPietro said. “Students are graded on tests, their performance in class, their work, their efforts, their participation. If they don’t go to class, what are they learning?”
The truancy rate in Plainfield has risen to 15 percent. That is a threshold number requiring the town to submit a plan of action to the state. If a student is absent four days in one month, or 10 days in one academic year, the state deems that student truant.
DiPietro estimated that between half and three-quarters of that 15 percent were unexcused absences.
Plainfield High School Principal James Worthy said absent students who are ill or have extenuating circumstances are deemed excused by the school. The state makes no differentiation between excused and unexcused absences.
DiPietro wants the district to come up with a penalty and recovery system that will motivate students to attend classes. It would be for students with unexcused absences. Such a system will be different for the elementary, middle and high schools.
“It wouldn’t make sense to have the same system for everyone,” he said.
Elementary students are graded on performance standards and getting to and from school is the responsibility of parents. That model shifts in high school.
Worthy said he and teachers and guidance counselors were able to talk with several seniors who were in danger of not graduating this past spring. Their parents were brought in to the sessions. The students were given a path toward graduation that included strict attendance guidelines, daily class participation and the completion of all assigned work. The sessions motivated five students to complete their graduation requirements.
“We had the ability to say to students and their parents that attendance was keeping them from graduating,” Worthy said. “We provided the encouragement to change bad habits and the parents were behind us.”
BOE member Matthew Radant expressed some hesitance over a penalty system that might impact students who “were in a variety of uniquely terrible home circumstances.” Chair Christi Haskell and Cynthia Arpin voiced concerns about grade reductions tied to attendance.
The board’s policy subcommittee will review the attendance policy to see where and how improvements can be made to help students, teachers and administrators.
Worthy said Chartwell’s, the district’s dining service, is looking into the possibility of providing dinners for some qualifying students. The poverty rate in Plainfield is at 48 percent.
“If we had Tuesday, Thursday sessions ending with a light dinner, bring in the parents, maybe we could come up with a plan to reverse the situation,” he said. “The hard, cold fact is that you need to show up at school and in life. There are consequences to not showing up.”
