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Board approves revised attendance policy limiting parent excuses and defining chronic absenteeism
Summary
The Rowan County Board adopted a new attendance policy in a second reading, cutting allowable essential parent excuses and setting a 10-day medical-excuse cap while clarifying chronic-absence at 10% of the school year (about 17 days).
The Rowan County Board of Education voted June 17 to approve a revised student attendance policy that reduces the number of essential parent excuses and clarifies medical and chronic-absence rules.
Why it matters: the change tightens the district’s attendance expectations to align with efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, and it sets clear limits and processes for families with medical needs.
What the board approved: Miss Archit, who presented the policy, said the revisions decrease essential parent excuses from seven to five; three of those would be parent excuses and two would be accounted as mental-health days. The district will limit non-chronic medical excuses to 10 days. Miss Archit explained how the district will accommodate long-term medical needs: physicians can complete a chronic-illness form so students do not have those approved absences counted against the 10-day limit.
Miss Archit defined chronic absenteeism as “10% missing 10% or more of the school days. . . if a student misses 17 days or more, they are considered chronically absent.” Board members asked for and received confirmation that once a chronic-illness form is approved, those absences would not count against the 10-day medical excuse cap.
Board action: The motion to approve the second reading of the proposed attendance policy passed by voice vote after a motion from Brad and a second by Brenda.
Next steps and context: The attendance change will be incorporated into the district’s discipline code book and will be enforced beginning with the 2025–26 school year (the board treated this as the second reading and approved the policy at this meeting). Staff said the policy aligns Rowan County with nearby districts’ approaches to mental-health days and medical-excuse procedures.
