The Mount Vernon School Board approved adopting the language from the compulsory attendance from Iowa Association of School Boards and the Department of Education.

Matt Leeman said for many parents, the interventions that are implemented when students hit certain attendance thresholds will not be new.

“Prior to this, Mount Vernon already had an attendance panel that reviewed the data weekly and followed up with students and parents about why they be missing school,” Leeman said. “That will continue with this plan.”

If a student misses more than 15 percent in a grading period(seven days in a quarter, 14 days in a semester), the student, their guardians and a school official will discuss why a student has been absent so much and come up with a plan to get the student engaged in school.

Officials will remain in contact with that student’s guardian for the remainder of the school year to make sure they are following a plan to keep the student engaged.

Students will be warned at four unexcused absences in a semester that they are missing too many classes. If a student misses six days in a class, the student may lose credit for that class. At that time, a student can request a hearing which a counselor, an elective instructor, core curriculum instructor, principal and assistant principal will hear the case. The goal with the panel is to be as impartial to a student as possible, Leeman said. If students do not like the decision of the panel, they can appeal to the superin-
tendent and eventually the school board. Students will remain in the class until the panel has come to a decision. If a student loses credit to absences, they will be assigned to supervised study hall or online course work.

Students will have up to 10 days to complete make up work for any missed school days.

If a student misses too many days in a class, they will have the class marked as failed but have the opportunity to recover the credit in an in-person or online course.

One of the big concerns is what is an excused or not excused absence from the district. One of the ones that was a gray area for Mount Vernon was the difference between an athlete attending a state sporting event, and a student choosing to spectate at a sporting event.

For the state, the student spectating the event would be facing an
unexcused absence.

“We don’t want our policy to be punitive to students, we want our students to be successful,” Leeman said. Another gray area is the instances where a parent chooses to hold a student back because of the weather conditions on the ground if the school decided to still be
held that day.

“That’s a call we get from parents a lot at the elementary school,” Washington Elementary Principal Kate Stanton said.

Board member Tim Keegan asked to explain how days are accumulated as being missed. At the high school level, students are marked absent from each period, so if they were just missing one period for some reason, they are only marked missing for that. At
the elementary level, attendance is taken twice a day, so if a student misses attendance for the morning but was in by the afternoon, they are noted as missing for half a day.

Board member Jason Clark said he was happy with a number of changes that were made by Leeman to the policy from what was originally proposed. He was asking for help in defining absences that happen due to vacations to have more flexibility for students to have an opportunity to make up the work prior to the vacation.

“I know students aren’t penalized for the work they missed and have 10 days to complete the work when they return, but there are kids who like to complete that before they leave,” Clark said.

Leeman said the important piece is that the school has an action plan and making sure students and parents know there is an issue before any disciplinary actions are taken.

“Our goal is to make sure our students don’t slip through the cracks, as well as to not be punitive to our students,” Leeman said. “Our goal is to make sure they are learning and being educated.”

Board member Lance Schoff said as it’s outlined in writing, there are a lot of steps that must happen before students meet with any punitive action and they are informed along the way of what is to happening.