Board debates attendance codes and religious release time; keeps written-excuse requirement and limits vacation as excused absence

Richmond — Richmond Community Schools policy reviewers spent substantial time on draft policy 5200, addressing how the district will count absences, whether parents may claim religious release time for credit, codes for planned and unplanned family absences, and ways to increase student attendance.

Board and staff agreed that the district will require written documentation for absences rather than accepting only verbal explanations as the primary record. Administrators said phone messages will remain an operational convenience, but the formal record for excusing absences should be written documentation filed with the school.

The group debated whether to allow vacations taken during the school year to be automatically excused. Staff described new Department of Education attendance codes that separate planned, excused family absences (named during the meeting as “EP”) from unplanned family…