Subcommittee reviews consolidated attendance-truancy regulation, flags remote-learning and mental-health-day language

The chair said the district is reviewing a blended regulation that combines policy 5112 (ages of attendance), 5113 (truancy) and related regulations on chronic absenteeism and student attendance; the document consolidates definitions and administrative steps in one place.

The draft adds a reference to "Mental Health Wellness Day" and includes limited language about remote learning. The chair said most districts cannot report remote-learning days to the state for required student-day counts, so the approach is meant to allow narrow exceptions (for example, a hospitalized student who participates virtually as part of an individualized education program). "If we had a student who was hospitalized and the only way they could attend school was through some sort of online, would that be allowed and that might be written into an IEP," the chair said.

Committee members raised questions about how remote learning would function in practice and whether the draft left the door too open; the chair said she would consult the board attorney and report back. Members flagged that the consolidated package includes statutory definitions aligned to state requirements and that new state homeschooling legislation could prompt a red-line update this summer.

The subcommittee did not vote on the regulation; members were asked to read the blended draft and return questions at the next subcommittee meeting.