Board reviews attendance data and approves first reading of compulsory attendance policy

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education received a district attendance report and approved the first reading of Policy 4.410, Enforcement of the Compulsory Attendance Law.

District staff presented attendance data covering August through February showing a 7.9 percentage-point increase in satisfactory attendance districtwide compared with two years prior, with elementary gains strongest. Staff also reviewed severe absence trends (students missing 20% or more of school days) and said the district has taken multiple steps to reduce chronic and severe absences, including attendance focus groups, school attendance teams, teacher outreach scripts in multiple languages, attendance contracts and a pilot program for home visits.

“Schools do have attendance plans designed to improve attendance,” a district staff presenter said during the briefing, describing changes such as linking some high school incentives (parking, athletics and exam exemptions) to attendance and aligning attendance initiatives across high schools.

The staff recommended several changes to align district policy with recent state revisions and to remove punitive language. Among the notable policy edits presented were clarifying unexcused tardy-to-absence conversions, formalizing mailing of the 3-, 6- and 10-day notices to families, identifying school social workers as attendance points-of-contact, and removing language that would impose out-of-school consequences for truancy and tardiness. Staff explained the edits were intended to comport with state law while reducing punitive discipline for attendance issues.

At the end of the discussion the board voted to approve Policy 4.410 for first reading as amended. The motion passed unanimously. Board members discussed retaining flexibility for in-school interventions at the building level but removing out-of-school suspension or expulsions as consequences applied solely for tardiness or truancy.

Why it matters: Attendance is a district priority tied to academic outcomes and state reporting. The board’s action moves the policy into the formal revision process while signaling a preference for supportive, rather than punitive, responses to attendance problems.

Board members asked for continued attention to groups with lower gains — multilingual learners and students with disabilities — and for monthly data reporting by school. Staff said monthly pivot tables are already shared with schools and that targeted supports will continue for groups with higher rates of severe absence.

The policy will return for subsequent board consideration following the first-reading approval.