Absences
By: Alia Bonanno, David Chen, Maya Cohen
The Academy altered student absences protocols due to the schoolwide switch to remote learning.
According to Dean of Student Health and Wellness Johnny Griffith, who serves on the Attendance Committee, the Academy will notify parents when students receive two unexcused absences, as opposed to the traditional four. Coaches and teachers are also now required to submit absences on the same day they occur, instead of at the end of the week.
“We have enacted these two changes so that we know more quickly when absences occur, so we are able to check in with students more quickly and hopefully provide support before students accrue an excessive number of absences,” Griffith said. “And, parents/guardians know more quickly about absences and can help provide the support students need while they are home and not here on campus and can be in touch with us so that we can work together.”
In previous years, students have served restrictions after accumulating four unexcused absences. Now, although academic records still reflect all accrued absences, students will not serve restrictions while school is remote. Attendance committee member Cooper Walshe explained that, “we didn't want people to come back to campus and have restrictions as soon as they got back. We thought that it'd be better for their mental health that the [could] start fresh.”
Walshe emphasized that the committee was working to accommodate student needs with the new policies. “We're not just there to handle restrictions. We're also there to talk people through the process,” he said. “We're taking more interest in attendance this term to make sure that people aren’t falling off the wagon.”
Griffith noted that students can clear absences if a parent or guardian contacts either the health center or the Dean of Students office. If a technical issue resulted in the student’s inability to attend class, teachers can also vouch to clear absences.
“It is important for students to know that teachers are asked not to ‘excuse’ absences and cannot do so once an absence has been recorded. Once a student has been issued an absence, they should be in touch with me if they believe the absence was reported in error, or they can check in with their teacher and then, if appropriate, ask their teacher to be in touch with me,” Griffith said.
Post-graduate Claire Wiest expressed that some teachers did not recognize or did not understand the challenges she had to confront. “I had four sinus infections in a month and many health center visits, and teachers did not seem prepared to deal with it, [such as] one teacher taking personal issue with my illness. By that. I mean teachers would expect me to either participate or just skip the class, which I didn’t want to do because I didn’t want to get too behind,” she said.
“I’ve also struggled with absences for the entire time I’ve been in high school (8th grade - PG year) so I am used to missing a lot of school and have found ways to not fall too far behind, but that didn’t seem to match up too well to the expectations for students here,” Wiest said.
Other students reported mental illnesses and personal struggles that complicated their ability to attend. “According to the school, PEA is not legally required to accommodate mentally ill/disabled kids much, which was explained to me as the reason why they couldn’t make academic changes to support me,” lower Aster Mahoney said.
“I think it’s a combination of people being unprepared for any illness because we’re all so separated all the time and no one being able to tell when someone is actually sick because nothing’s in-person,” Wiest said.
“The most important thing for us is that we don't view [the revised policy] as a punishment; we view it more as help [to] guide people back on track and to get them back in class... to make the most of their Exeter education because it's really valuable, and shouldn't [be] taken for granted,” Walshe said.