School board clears state‑required attendance edits, sends parent‑excuse questions to policy committee

The Katy Perry School Board executive committee on Oct. 21 moved to accept language changes to several policies required by recent state legislation while referring further questions about parent‑written excuses and child‑performer absences to the policy committee.

Board member Miss McLean asked that proposed revisions to policy JBD (attendance and excuses) be discussed in depth by the policy committee rather than finalized at Tuesday’s executive session. “I would like you to show me that data in the committee meeting when we potentially move this item to committee,” Miss McLean said, pressing staff for empirical support for the district’s changes.

District staff and Superintendent Burton said the clean‑up edits are driven by legislative action and not new district policy. “These changes in policy were all driven by state legislative action, not anything that staff is creating,” a staff member explained. Staff described specific edits to the bullying/hazing and child‑abuse policies that remove prior requirements and clarify reporting responsibilities for school resource officers.

The most contested point was a limit on parent‑written excuses. Under the revised language staff described, parent notes would be treated as excused but would be limited to three per semester (or three days); additional absences would need verification such as a doctor’s note. Superintendent Burton defended the limit as a response to abuse in prior practice and cited early attendance data: “Just in 19 weeks, we have cut down about 150 absences on average, just for 19 weeks based on our changes of policies and practices,” Burton said while agreeing to provide the underlying data to the committee.

Board members also flagged child‑performer language that could allow multiple excused absences (for example, two days in multiple months) and noted that the net allowance across a school year could be substantial. Members agreed to approve the narrow statutory edits now so the district complies with state law and to convene the policy committee on Nov. 4 at 10:00 a.m. to examine outstanding concerns and review the data staff referenced.

The committee’s next step is a policy committee meeting on Nov. 4 to review the attendance figures, discuss whether the three‑day limit is appropriate, and consider any further edits to JBD and related policies. The executive committee did not adopt final policy language beyond the statutory clean‑ups and directed staff to prepare the data and any clarifying amendments for the committee discussion.