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Board reviews pupil progression changes linking grades to attendance; members seek more data
Summary
District staff proposed edits to the 2026–27 pupil progression policy that would allow schools to withhold passing grades for students with excessive unexcused absences; board members asked for local usage data and said the provision is discretionary and will be refined before final adoption.
John Morris presented proposed revisions to the 2026–27 pupil progression plan, highlighting a provision copied from NEOLA policy 5200 that ties course passing to attendance. "It states that a student who has 10 or more days of unexcused absences within a semester ... may not receive a passing grade for the course if he or she cannot demonstrate mastery," Morris said, emphasizing the word "may" and that schools would review individual cases rather than automatic grade changes.
Morris walked the board through related clarifications: how tardies and parent notes would be counted (maximum two days to convert an absence), how block schedules use a five-day threshold, and how suspensions (OSS) are treated for makeup-work purposes. He also outlined unrelated but adjacent edits — removing dated desegregation/busing language, renaming "foreign language" to "world language," updating graduation charts to match Florida Department of Education guidance, and noting that an access diploma is treated as a standard diploma with access courses.
Board members asked several clarifying questions. One member confirmed the 10-day threshold is per semester and noted that, on an annual basis, elementary students could reach 20 unexcused days. Another asked whether excused absences (for example, a parent note) would reduce the count; Morris confirmed those days would be excused and therefore not count toward the 10 unexcused-day threshold. Several members voiced concern about unintended consequences for elementary students when parental action drives attendance records and urged that the discretionary language be preserved and local data be reviewed before moving from "may" to "will." "That way it's not something that's necessarily punishing the kid because the parents not writing notes," one board member said during the exchange.
No formal vote was taken in the workshop. Board members signaled interest in additional local data on attendance patterns and operational impacts before any final adoption; Morris and staff said they will return with more information when the item is scheduled for board action.
