Posts
Two Issues:
1. 2015 Community Meetings
2. Follow-up from Oct. 27, 2015 Attendance Discussion with Judge Bazelle
2015 Community Meetings
District personnel will be holding community meetings at every school in the district over the next month. The purpose is to provide information about the projects that were part of the 2011 bond. Where we are, and what was done. It is also to provide information about our growth situation and to provide the community information about how we plan to address those needs. One of the options would be a bond next year. The board has not yet decided on a direction, but this is a good opportunity to see what the concerns are, and to voice your opinion on these issues.
In my area, two of the schools, Ridgeline and Highland, have already had their meetings. The rest are as follows.
Thursday, Oct. 29, 10:00 am: Lone Peak HS
Thursday, Oct. 29, 1:30 pm: Mountain Ridge JH
Thursday, Oct. 29, 1:30 pm: Timberline Middle
Thursday, Nov. 5, 1:30 pm: Deerfield Elementary
Friday, Nov. 6, 10:00 am: Cedar Ridge Elementary
Thursday, Nov. 19, 10:00 am: Westfield Elementary
Thursday, Nov. 24, 10:00 am: Alpine Elementary
Here is a link to all the meetings taking place in the district. Feel free to attend whichever one is the most convenient for you. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzUjUSlTes-4QlZEV1dHZ2xYc0k/view?usp=sharing I ask that you share this information on the community meetings with at least 5 of your neighbors.
To provide follow-up on the meeting, please use this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1pqI5BzSttELzPm0dED0frhCltcf05U5H1AWr75bc48M/viewform
Attendance Policy Follow-up
Quite a few people showed up for the Study Session last Tuesday for the discussion with Judge Bazelle about our Attendance Policy. We had 9 people comment in the public comment portion of the Board Meeting, 7 of those specifically on the current Attendance Policy. But all commenters, including those who came about the Cherry Hill ALL program, were in support of keeping our current attendance policy as it is. I appreciated all the comments from my fellow board members about keeping parents in charge. The Judge also said that it has been shown that the Judicial system should be the path of last resort because those that can be helped out prior to getting into that system are better off. She would prefer that the schools work through a non-judicial process for helping any children that might need it.
It is important to note that the Obama Administration has an attendance initiative. And a lobbying organization, Attendance Works, regularly lobbies the state legislature to pass laws tracking chronic absenteeism, not just truancy. It is important to keep this in mind and to follow these developments. I greatly appreciated the comments last evening because it will help our Board should we need to weigh in on any proposed attendance legislation come from the State or the Feds.
One final note on attendance, most studies either do not include parent-excused absences or they don't separate them out to see whether there is any difference between parent-excused absences and truancy on academic outcome. Of the three studies that I have found that do delineate between excused absences and truancy, there was not any correlation between excused absences and performance. None! In fact, one study said they couldn't tell whether the academic performance drove the absence or the absence drove the academic performance. In short, if a parent is excusing their kids, there is no risk, despite what you are hearing. Please confirm this for anyone who is concerned that there is no difference. There is no difference for the majority of the studies because they failed to track excused absences separately from truancy.
Showing posts with label Attendance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Attendance. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Friday, October 23, 2015
Attendance Policy
This Tuesday, Oct. 27 @ Deerfield Elementary (4353 West Harvey Blvd, Cedar Hills), the Board Study Session will include a discussion with Juvenile Court Judge Bazelle about the current attendance policy. The Study Session begins at 4:00pm, and the Judge will be there at 4:30 pm.
The regular board meeting with public comment will take place at 6:00 pm.
Why should you care? One major issue that keeps coming up from parents and taxpayers is attendance. I have had many complaints about the strictness of our former policies, and the inconsistencies of the application of our current policy. Some parents have sent their kids to a different school specifically because of the harshness of some of the attendance policies. I have not had anyone complain that our attendance policies are too lax...until now.
State Law allows certain things as valid excuses: illness, death in the family, etc. It also allows "any other excuse established as valid by a local school board, local charter board, or school district." In our district, our policy says, "The Alpine School District Board of Education has determined that the parent or legal guardian of a student can excuse an absence for reasons they deem necessary."
At our board meeting on Sep. 22, Board Member Taylor reported that in a meeting with Judge Noonan (who oversees that Orem area), concerns were raised that our policy is working great for about 95% of our students, but there are 5% that they can't help because our policy is too lenient. (To listen to the audio, go to http://board.alpineschools.org/2015/09/18/september-22-2015-board-meeting/, click on 'Additional Media', and the second audio file is the Board Meeting. The report begins about 1 hour into the meeting.)
While I have found that our district policy is not being implemented as stated, that is more of an internal issue. However, at the end of the day, we passed the attendance policy in order to support parental rights. We do no one a service when we try to insert ourselves into the realm of the family, prematurely, where we actually do not belong.
In other states where there has been no distinguishing between excused absences and truancy, many children have become 'collateral damage' to a system that is hoping to make sure that increased attendance is the ultimate good. But how many innocent parents and children will be harmed in the process? http://www.nebraskafamilyforum.org/2011/12/chambers-family-in-bed-sick-at-school.html
The question I have is whether we can find a non-judicial way to help those families that may need that help, without jeopardizing the rights of the rest of our families. Those who find themselves in extreme circumstances do not need the added concern of the County Attorney looking for reasons why they are unfit, if the only indicator is attendance. Attendance alone, if excused by parents, is insufficient to predict negative consequences for kids in school or later life (current internet talking points notwithstanding.)
At the end of the day, how many good families and how many parental rights are we willing to sacrifice? Do we start with the premise that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, unless they have children in our school system? I think the same standard needs to apply. Can you imagine the pain and heartache in your family if you were threatened with the loss of custody of a child? Do you believe that only the 'bad parents' are possibly at risk? The evidence shows otherwise.
Justice Dallin H. Oaks, ruled, "Family autonomy helps to assure the diversity characteristic of a free society. There is no surer way to preserve pluralism than to allow parents maximum latitude in rearing their own children."
Parents have the fundamental right to manage their children, including their education. Until that parent has violated that trust (and it has been proven, with evidence), the state does not get 'veto' power over parents. The laws come from We, the People, not The State. We either value parental rights and support them, or we subject ourselves to the power of the State. This is an important discussion for us to have. Please join me on Tuesday!
The regular board meeting with public comment will take place at 6:00 pm.
Why should you care? One major issue that keeps coming up from parents and taxpayers is attendance. I have had many complaints about the strictness of our former policies, and the inconsistencies of the application of our current policy. Some parents have sent their kids to a different school specifically because of the harshness of some of the attendance policies. I have not had anyone complain that our attendance policies are too lax...until now.
State Law allows certain things as valid excuses: illness, death in the family, etc. It also allows "any other excuse established as valid by a local school board, local charter board, or school district." In our district, our policy says, "The Alpine School District Board of Education has determined that the parent or legal guardian of a student can excuse an absence for reasons they deem necessary."
At our board meeting on Sep. 22, Board Member Taylor reported that in a meeting with Judge Noonan (who oversees that Orem area), concerns were raised that our policy is working great for about 95% of our students, but there are 5% that they can't help because our policy is too lenient. (To listen to the audio, go to http://board.alpineschools.org/2015/09/18/september-22-2015-board-meeting/, click on 'Additional Media', and the second audio file is the Board Meeting. The report begins about 1 hour into the meeting.)
While I have found that our district policy is not being implemented as stated, that is more of an internal issue. However, at the end of the day, we passed the attendance policy in order to support parental rights. We do no one a service when we try to insert ourselves into the realm of the family, prematurely, where we actually do not belong.
In other states where there has been no distinguishing between excused absences and truancy, many children have become 'collateral damage' to a system that is hoping to make sure that increased attendance is the ultimate good. But how many innocent parents and children will be harmed in the process? http://www.nebraskafamilyforum.org/2011/12/chambers-family-in-bed-sick-at-school.html
The question I have is whether we can find a non-judicial way to help those families that may need that help, without jeopardizing the rights of the rest of our families. Those who find themselves in extreme circumstances do not need the added concern of the County Attorney looking for reasons why they are unfit, if the only indicator is attendance. Attendance alone, if excused by parents, is insufficient to predict negative consequences for kids in school or later life (current internet talking points notwithstanding.)
At the end of the day, how many good families and how many parental rights are we willing to sacrifice? Do we start with the premise that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, unless they have children in our school system? I think the same standard needs to apply. Can you imagine the pain and heartache in your family if you were threatened with the loss of custody of a child? Do you believe that only the 'bad parents' are possibly at risk? The evidence shows otherwise.
Justice Dallin H. Oaks, ruled, "Family autonomy helps to assure the diversity characteristic of a free society. There is no surer way to preserve pluralism than to allow parents maximum latitude in rearing their own children."
Parents have the fundamental right to manage their children, including their education. Until that parent has violated that trust (and it has been proven, with evidence), the state does not get 'veto' power over parents. The laws come from We, the People, not The State. We either value parental rights and support them, or we subject ourselves to the power of the State. This is an important discussion for us to have. Please join me on Tuesday!
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