Policy review committee reviews broad revisions to student attendance policy

The Stratford School District Policy Review Committee on March 19 discussed a draft rewrite of the district's student attendance policy intended to increase clarity, align local practice with state guidance and strengthen family engagement.

Sam, a district staff member who led the review, told the committee the draft incorporates feedback from state attendance officials and aims to make policy language more user-friendly. "Temporary withdrawal is strongly discouraged unless the student is permanently transferring out of the district," Sam said, summarizing state guidance the draft is intended to reflect.

The proposed changes address multiple topics across grade levels. Sam said the draft clarifies that tardies should not be counted toward daily attendance at the secondary level and that, at the high school level, "every three unexcused tardies will count as one unexcused class absence," preserving a local mechanism for class-level discipline while keeping daily attendance calculations consistent with state rules.

For middle and elementary schools, the draft separates class absences from daily attendance and removes language that in some previous local practice had caused tardies or short-class absences to be aggregated into full-day absences. Sam said that will bring the policy into compliance with the state's reporting guidance and the PSIS/Appendix L reference the district uses.

The draft also would add a definition of chronic absenteeism and describe a layered response: teacher contact, school-level team interventions, and a district-level team. Sam recommended a clearer requirement that schools hold meetings with families within 10 school days if a student meets the district's truancy threshold so that interventions happen earlier.

On course credit and secondary consequences, Sam told the committee the existing thresholds (lose course credit after exceeding 18 full-year absences or 10 half-year absences) should explicitly state whether excused absences count toward those totals; the draft proposes that excused absences be included in the tally and that options for credit recovery be listed (additional sessions, community service hours, or participation in intervention plans). Sam also proposed a clearly defined appeals process: requests filed within five school days of notification, decided by a committee that includes teachers, administrators and support staff.

The draft addresses military-related absence language, proposing that students whose parents are on active military duty be required to request assignments in advance and complete them before returning, with the board having discretion to grant additional excused absences. Sam said she is also citing a 2023 statutory change on withdrawals for 17-year-olds: parents may withdraw a 17-year-old only if they can document enrollment in an adult-education program or another educational setting until age 18.

Committee members raised questions about language describing "synchronous virtual classes." One member asked whether the provision could be read to allow regular remote learning; Sam said the intent is to cover students in Alternative Instructional Programs (AIP) or district-approved connected-learning placements, not a broad remote option from home. She encouraged the committee to edit the remote-learning wording to avoid implying a permanent districtwide remote option.

Members also discussed how the policy should treat family-initiated extended vacations. Sam said state officials advised the district to discourage temporary withdrawals and instead mark students absent (excused or unexcused) if they remain residents of the district and plan to return. Several members said they prefer discouraging withdrawals rather than permitting them because withdrawals remove students from the district's reporting data.

Sam said she will provide the committee with a marked draft and sample language from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE) and statute references she consulted. The committee did not vote on the attendance policy; members agreed to review Sam's revisions and continue the item at the next meeting. Sam said subcommittees or additional review sessions may be used before the policy moves to the full board.

The committee also discussed related operational items such as summer recovery programs, retention practices (noting research-based reluctance to retain students at elementary levels because of social-emotional impacts) and that secondary credit recovery is often a pay-to-attend summer option.

The discussion closed with committee members thanking Sam for the draft and asking staff to circulate the revised text ahead of the next meeting so members can prepare suggested edits.