SHS implements new attendance policy

Mr.+Leeds+Taking+Attendance.

Mr. Leeds Taking Attendance.

Stay in School! That’s right, you guessed it. Effective at the start of this new school year, Stroudsburg High School has implemented a new attendance policy!

This is all due to the State of Pennsylvania adopting a “Future Ready Index” to measure school based on three things, and one of them happens to be ‘Chronic absenteeism.’

Now this will all be determined by the total number of students who have missed more than 10% of school days throughout the entire academic year.

Okay, what’s new you ask? Well, The Stroudsburg Area School District has decided that “Any educational trips beyond five school days may be considered unexcused or unlawful and may not be approved.”

The district will be monitoring the 10% FRI expectation, very closely to ensure that we stand out as one of the best schools in Pennsylvania.

“I think that limiting [Educational Trips] to five days actually helps students, due to the fact that it allows less time out of school more time here for extra curricular activities. Which counts towards our ranking overall for our school.” said Ms. Jessica Smith, who is in charge of Educational Trips.

It also helps [Students] socially and your first job is to be a student here,” said Smith. “So limiting time away from school helps you achieve all those goals’

The board policy #204 is still fully in effect and it states that “A maximum of ten days of cumulative lawful absences verified by parental notification shall be permitted during a school year.”

As stated in the handbook: “All absences beyond ten cumulative days shall require an excuse from a Doctor.”
If a student goes over the ten day limit, “the student will get called down to speak with an assistant principal, and a letter will go out to the parents for them to come in for a meeting.” said Ms. Lauri Hall, the attendance secretary “ It is so that everyone is on the same page and we can know what’s going on.”