Quincy Public Schools proposes lowering unexcused-absence threshold, shifts consequence from grades to credits

Quincy Public Schools officials presented proposed revisions to the district attendance and high-school grading policies at the May 7 policy subcommittee meeting, recommending a drop in the unexcused-absence threshold from seven to four per marking period and a move from grade reductions to credit reductions as the principal academic consequence.

The draft policy would define students as expected to be “in class 100% of the time” and say that students with “4 or more absences not school approved from class or school during a marking period shall receive a reduction of 1.25 credits for each class missed,” according to the materials presented by district staff. The presenters also recommended tracking yearly totals in addition to quarter totals, promoting credit-recovery options, and standardizing how course-level absences, tardies and dismissals are counted.

The changes matter because state chronic-absenteeism rules identify chronic absence at roughly 10% of the school year (about 18 days), and the committee’s presenters argued the current policy allows students to be chronically absent without academic…