"Schools should also provide excused absences for students who are sick, avoid policies that incentivize coming to school while sick, and support children who are learning at home if they are sick."
-- Centers For Disease Control
It should not have taken a worldwide pandemic to convince us that sending children to school when they are sick is a really bad idea. What seems like a harmless inconvenience to a healthy child could have devastating consequences for someone else whose health is compromised. This could be the child's teacher, classmate, or family members of those in the classroom.
Unfortunately, school-attendance policies often encourage sick children to come to school. Perfect Attendance awards incentivize children who do not skip school even when they should. Even worse, some schools punish students for missing "too many" days of school with no exception made for excused days off. Students who exceed their allotment of sick days may be denied the opportunity to walk the stage at culmination or graduation ceremonies or to participate in after-school activities.
While many of these policies were smartly suspended during the COVID-19 crisis, they are now starting to return. As the coronavirus becomes part of the new normal, common sense preventative measures are being jettisoned and the message to stay home when you are sick is being lost.
As part of its iAttend program, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) "is encouraging school sites to engage in activities to promote attendance awareness, including parent workshops, contests, announcements, awards/recognitions, and attendance incentives". The district's website defines an "Excellent Attendance" rate as being "0 absences." A Flyer entitled "Attendance Matters!" is being distributed that admonishes parents to "Keep It Under 7 Absences." None of these materials remind parents to keep their children home when they are sick, especially if they "have symptoms of respiratory or gastrointestinal infections, such as cough, fever, sore throat, vomiting, or diarrhea."
San Pedro High School takes its attendance policy one step further by requiring that students "maintain an in-seat attendance rate of 96% or better to be eligible to participate in school activities." Most notably, "absences that have been excused/cleared ARE INCLUDED in the total count." No exceptions are made for students who are sick with symptoms of COVID-19. Students who exceed the allotted number of absences cannot attend the Winter Formal, Homecoming, Senior Prom, Senior Field Trip, Senior Activities, or Graduation Ceremony.
It is understandable that we want to encourage students to be in school whenever possible, but we can do this without endangering the health of our school communities. The district needs to include health warnings with its messaging and San Pedro High School must not punish families that do the right thing.
What is most frustrating about the situation is that the district is not using the technology that it was forced to put in place during the COVID shutdown. Many school districts in the east and midwest have eliminated snow days, opting instead to switch to remote learning when roads become unsafe. Has the LAUSD abandoned all the work (and money) that went into creating the remote infrastructure, or is it still possible to use it to accommodate children who are staying home because they are sick? It seems to me that if students in Ukraine can learn remotely during a war, students in Los Angeles can also do so to protect their classmates, teachers, and other families.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.