New Attendance Law Sparks Controversy

Senate File 2435 redefines truancy and establishes chronic absenteeism.

On May 9th, 2024 Senate File 2435 was approved; in division VII of this file, they made amendments to section 299 of the Iowa legislature. These amendments made changes regarding chronic absenteeism and the definition of a truant. Just what is chronic absenteeism though? According to Senate File 2435, chronic absenteeism is “any absence from school for more than ten percent of the days or hours in the grading period established by a public school.” So if in a typical 180-day school year you were to miss 18 days you would be deemed “chronically absent”. In a 60-80 day semester, if you miss 6-8 school days you are also chronically absent. If a school has a shorter grading period such as it being divided into quarters like Waukee High School, you could miss around 3-5 days and be deemed chronically absent. There are a few exceptions listed that won’t result in a child being labeled as chronically absent. These exceptions include students who have already completed graduation requirements or have a high school equivalency diploma, students who are excused by a judge or court of record for a sufficient reason, students who cannot attend school while attending religious services and receiving religious instructions, students with interfering medical reasons, students with an individualized education program affecting their attendance, and students with a 504 plan that affects their attendance. Other reasons for an absence such as vacations, college visits, family emergencies, and funerals are all considered non-exempt absences.

What exactly would it mean for you if you were to be deemed chronically absent? Well if at a point a student were to become chronically absent a school official would send a notice over certified mail to their guardian or to the student if they were emancipated. It would contain information pertaining to the student’s absence and the policies and disciplinary measures relating to further absences. A school official may also send a notice if a student is at risk of chronic absence. If a student were to miss fifteen percent or more of school days or hours then a school official must try and figure out the cause of the student’s absence. The school official must also invite the student to a school engagement meeting and come along as well. This meeting should find out what is getting in the way of the student attending school and what they can do about it. At the meeting, they will all make and sign a prevention plan called the absenteeism prevention plan. The plan will state what is causing the absences and what each party has to do moving forward to treat the issue. If at the school engagement meeting the parties involved do not sign an absenteeism prevention plan, do not show up, or violate the absenteeism plan at some point, they can be prosecuted for a public offense. The school official will make sure that the parties involved continue to comply with the terms for the rest of the school year and they will check in weekly until the school year comes to an end.

Aside from chronic absence they also redefined truancy. The amended section 299.8 of the Iowa legislature in Senate File 2435 states a truant to be “Any child of compulsory attendance age … who has been absent from school, for any reason, for at least twenty percent of the days or hours in the grading period.” If a student is deemed a truant they may be taken into custody without warrant by a truancy officer and put in the charge of the school principal or principal’s designee. This truancy officer would be a suitable person appointed by the school board. The truancy officer will then institute proceedings against the truant or truant’s guardian.

A lot of students have some doubts about this law. Nike Ntumba, a sophomore at Waukee High School, isn’t entirely sure about the law. “It is really 50/50 because, at the same time, there are students who don’t care about school. I feel like if you’re given the opportunity to learn you should take it; I think it’s good that the school steps in. But then I think that the kids with situations at home may suffer from this, especially if checked on weekly for something they did once that may not have been in their control,” she said. Ntumba also noted his opinions on some of the nuances of the law. “I think the weekly check-up might be a problem, I think they should check up every now and then, but not for the whole school year. Just like six weeks max unless it happens again,” Ntumba stated. He didn’t know if the law would do much to prevent truants. “Honestly I’m not sure because I saw like three kids skip class just yesterday and the teacher didn’t notice or stop them. I feel like the kids who are skipping don’t care about education much and they’ll be more angered with the law and checkups,” she told me.

Brogan Turcotte, a junior at WHS, isn’t fond of this law. “I really don’t like it. I personally think that they’re way too harsh when deciding what is excused and what is not excused. I get not accepting vacations because they’re technically something you could do over break, but family emergencies and funerals cannot be planned long-term in advance or moved to a later date usually. I’m also not a fan of the sick day rule considering getting a doctor’s visit could not only take forever but cost well over hundreds of dollars,” he put. Turcotte thought that this law could cause many issues for students here in Iowa. “I think students who can’t afford doctors visits for sick notes are beyond screwed. Also, this law is forcing people to go to school while sick which is just going to spread the disease and cause more people to stay home from illness. This could also cause students to miss once-in-a-lifetime important events like funerals and weddings, I know that people say school should be the highest priority in your life but I think that’s false; the most important thing about life is making memories that aren’t just you sitting in a classroom violently ill because you used up your sick days last month for the flu,” Turcotte described. He didn’t have high hopes for the law succeeding at what it was trying to do. “The students who skip class really aren’t going to change their behavior. They may be present physically but they’re all still mentally checked out messing around on their iPad, phone, or talking during class. Missing school is already enough consequence for skipping in my opinion, you choose to never show up? You fail. This law can also make attending much more stressful for students with chronic absenteeism due to mental health reasons due to the negative enforcement related to the law. You want kids to show up and be present? Maybe fix the system which causes kids to want to get sick or injured to miss a day just to skip school,” he commented.

Mark Weber, WHS assistant principal, is a bit more hopeful about this new law. “I think the intention behind it is good because it’s trying to reinforce that coming to school is important. It’s really detailed so it can be confusing for people; for students, for parents, even for us at times. Like any law that we have it’s only effective if it’s enforced, and that will be possibly the tougher part. There’s a good amount of students who aren’t going to school or whose attendance is low, it’ll probably overwhelm some of our systems,” Weber explained. Weber believes that school is important for children to attend. “Attendance is just such an individual thing that some students will have issues and some won’t at all. This law is unique in that it affects everyone. As a school, we want kids to go to school because we know that the more students go to school, the better results they have. The data shows that kids will succeed more when going to school,” he expressed, “What I hope it means is that they can continue to understand that attendance matters, showing up matters. Even on days when it’s hard, especially on days when it’s hard.”