There are some things we students don’t understand about school: people walking slowly in the hallways during transition, kids having unnecessary fights, and the list can go on. However, all students can collectively agree that attendance is confusing, and I’m not talking about the exemption policy. I’m talking about the policy of an excused absence. Let me explain. 

Most people have been absent from school at least once. It isn’t a big deal; unexpected things happen to people. But when does it count as an excused absence? For example, being sick is considered an excused absence, but it still counts against your attendance. However, when there’s a school trip, it’s excused and doesn’t count against your attendance. So what’s the deal? You’re excused, and it doesn’t count against your attendance when you take a school trip, but when you’re sick, it’s excused, but it still counts? 

Imagine you’re well enough to go back to school after being out sick for a week. You already have to get caught up on work and tests, but now you have to learn the new material. Just to take the final exam in the last week of the semester in all of your classes. That doesn’t seem to be fair. We can take precautions to keep from being sick, yet we also can’t control. Also consider the students who have health problems or doctor appointments. Can’t we give them a pass?

To be honest, I don’t think school activities are fully in the clear when it comes to attendance either. The trip to Alabama A&M’s College Fair, senior students left during their second block and came back during third block. This was excused because it was a school trip. However, during the senior meeting before school started, it was mentioned that some senior trips would excuse students from school, but it would still be counted against their attendance. 

It’s a school trip, but it still counts against our attendance. 

Now that you’ve read this, you see that it’s confusing to understand. Now, let’s be clear, this is a Madison County rule. Sparkman has no control over this. I’m not disrespecting the Madison County School System, but it needs to be addressed. You can view Madison County’s attendance policy here. (The most recent information on this was in 2022-2023) 

I’ve read through this, and some of my questions have been answered. For instance, it states for school field trips, “Enrolled students who participate in school-sponsored or school-authorized activities and are absent from school or class will not be counted as absent for the school day. Students will not be counted absent from classes missed during the field trip activity.” So that would explain why some school trips count against attendance; it has to be school-sponsored or school-authorized. 

But even though I read this, I still didn’t understand why the system would make rules like this. I’ve talked about it to a few family members, and they said it sounds like a job, which, when I think about it, makes sense. Depending on the job, location, and employer, a worker can be excused from work but doesn’t get paid. That could be the reason why it’s like this, trying to teach students the reality of the real world (or in this case, jobs). Jobs can make a stable life for a person, but it’s up to that person to be responsible and attend, just like school. It’s how things are sometimes; we might disagree with it, but those are the rules. I would agree that absences should have their rules and exceptions, but some of these rules can be changed. For instance, being sick or having doctor’s notes, of course, you should be excused, but don’t let it count against the student. 

We don’t understand everything about attendance or school rules in general. We would complain about what should be different or how they would do things. But instead of complaining, how about we try to understand why it is this way. Students would have a better understanding if they asked administrators or read the attendance policy themselves. I know that’s not going to be realistic because I had a hard time reading the policy, but it’s worth getting a better understanding of this, and maybe I can help others understand as well.