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Committee declines immediate change to attendance policy; motion to remove child-performer exception fails for lack of second
Summary
After discussion, the committee left attendance limits unchanged, debated whether a 3-consecutive-day rule effectively creates a 9-day semester limit, and a motion to erase the child-performers 20-day exception received no second and did not pass; a teacher urged stronger attendance standards citing impacts on evaluations.
The Caddo Parish School Board policy review committee reviewed absentee rules and heard a motion to remove a special child-performers exception from the district's attendance policy (JBD). Committee members ultimately left the attendance policy unchanged at the committee level and the motion to erase the child-performers clause failed to proceed after receiving no second at the committee meeting.
Committee members clarified that a rule based on "3 consecutive days" incidents could functionally amount to a 9-day limit in a semester if applied cumulatively; one member suggested explicitly adding a 9-day cap to avoid ambiguity. Legal counsel cautioned the committee on equal-protection concerns and emphasized that any differential treatment of students would require careful legal review.
A committee member described persistent attendance problems at large schools such as Huntington, Turner and Walnut Hill and noted an extreme example in which a kindergarten student missed 54 days last year. "What did that baby learn? Nothing," the member said, stressing the practical impact of chronic absence on instruction.
During public comment Jordan Thomas, a teacher, said student attendance affects teacher evaluations and referenced state-level context: "if a student has 10 plus absences in a semester, that student cannot be counted towards a teacher's evaluation," citing HB 391 as related legislative context. Thomas told the committee that a teacher cannot be effective if students are not in the classroom.
Speaker 5 moved to remove the child-performers clause (the clause would allow child performers up to 20 absences per year), but the motion received no immediate second and did not advance. The committee discussed absentee thresholds and agreed to keep the current policy language in place for now; any future substantive changes would be brought to the full board for consideration.
The committee did not adopt a final attendance-policy change at this session; further revisions would be considered by the full Caddo Parish School Board if proposed.
