Why You Should Keep Track of How Many School Days Your Child Has Missed

Often many people don't realize why it is important to take the time and keep track of how many school days that you child miss. Unfortunately you don't realize that they have missed enough to possibly keep them in the same grade for the year until it's too late. I decided to speak to some parents and school officials in my area on this topic and see what they though about it.

The first thing that I quickly found out was the school feels it is the parent's responsibility to keep track. The parents felt however that it was the schools responsibility to make sure that they are notified if they are approaching the danger limit so to speak.

The one thing that I did not hear was either side saying that they should work together to make sure that children do not miss too many days of school. Of course in different states the number of days that a child is allowed to miss from school does vary. Some schools also will not allow your child to have unexcused absence such as those that do not have a doctor's note when they return to school to show that they were sick. Some schools do this because they don't want kids missing weeks for school just to go on vacation with the family.

A lot of parents feel that it really should not matter how many days a child is absent as long as they are not falling behind and they still have passing grades. Just to hold a child back because they missed one or two days over the limit does not seem fair according to some parents. School officials feel that these are the rules and guidelines and those parents need to stick to them. One school official stated that when these children grow into adults they will need to learn how to be at work, even when they are not feeling very well. If you think about it your job only allows you to miss a certain number of days, and some of these have to be scheduled. So school officials feel that they are just preparing your child for what they will have to deal with as adults.

Obviously trying to get both sides to agree seems almost impossible. If you have children why not post what their limit of excused absences they are allowed in a year and how you feel about it. You can post your thoughts below in the comments section.