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 excused absences ("EU"), and said the district will use those codes to give the state better information on reasons for excused time away from school. By consensus the board decided not to list family vacations as an excused absence in the policy’s default options; principals retain discretion to approve individual cases and staff said documentation may be requested.

Administrators noted the district currently allows nine excused absences per year before additional steps are taken; they also reiterated that the district notifies child protective services when a student accumulates 10 unexcused absences. Staff emphasized that the DOE now wants more granular reporting so the district can better analyze patterns rather than masking reasons under a single excused/unexcused label.

Religious instruction during the school day was a consequential thread. Indiana law allows up to 120 minutes per week of release time for religious instruction; meeting participants discussed whether the district should permit high-school students to earn elective academic credit for coursework completed during release time. After reviewing administrative burdens — syllabus review, criminal-history checks for instructors, liability and transportation insurance, and a requirement that instruction align with district review standards — a majority of the group recommended not granting academic credit for release-time religious instruction at this time. Staff said the district could still permit release time without awarding credit.

The meeting included a long discussion of incentives and operational tactics to improve attendance: targeted outreach by family liaisons, quarterly or monthly recognition, small business-donated gift cards, certificates for employer references, and practical family supports such as alarm clocks and help with bus connectivity via parent apps. Board members and staff expressed interest in experimenting with short-term, targeted incentives (for a quarter or six-week block) and with more robust data reporting to identify families who need more direct support.

What’s next: staff will incorporate the board’s choices into a revised draft of policy 5200 and bring the language back at the next policy meeting. The district will also continue building the DOE reporting codes into its attendance tracking and return with a plan for proposed parent/student incentives and the mechanics for documenting absences.

Ending: The board’s direction preserves principal discretion for unusual family circumstances while tightening formal documentation requirements and declining to make family vacations a routine excused absence. Staff will produce a revised draft for formal adoption at a later date.