Iowa state senators are advancing changes to a law they passed last year that aims to address chronic absenteeism in schools.
The new law says if a kid has unexcused absences for at least 15% of the grading period, the school must call a meeting to try to get the student to school. The bill would give schools more discretion—saying they’d only have to hold a meeting if the absences are hurting the child’s academic progress.
Margaret Buckton with the Urban Education Network and Rural School Advocates of Iowa supports the bill.
“We have scarce resources in schools, and we shouldn’t be coming up with intervention plans for students who are succeeding academically. Maybe they’re a member of a team that is in a National Spelling Bee competition and they miss some school, but if they’re doing great, we should be using those scarce resources for students who really are impacted by chronic absenteeism.”
The bill would add more exceptions to the policy too—for military service and for traveling to weddings and funerals. And it would strike the requirement for schools to contact parents by certified mail.