Stressed, sick, burnt-out, tired. Each is a reason that students miss school; each is important in its own way. Over 25% of students in Bartow County are considered chronically absent, which means they missed over 18 days of school in a school year, according to the Georgia Department of Education. These students aren’t slackers – they’re struggling. The weight of being a high schooler is heavy on teenagers’ backs. Stress can lead them to break down in school, and sickness can hit even the healthiest of students. That’s why the attendance policy needs to change. The policy states that each day a student misses, whether it is excused or not, they will have to have a better grade in order to skip their finals. In theory, this policy is great, but in practice, it leads to some issues.
Students do not want to take their finals. Ask any teenager at Cartersville High School, and they’ll tell you themselves. The great thing is that Cartersville offers an exemption for students, so long as they have good grades and little to no absences. However, this becomes a problem when a student wants to skip their final with a B, but then becomes sick. Many students will still come to school with a fever just to not have to take their finals. They then spread that sickness to other students, and the cycle repeats.
Furthermore, burnout is a very common problem among high schoolers. Classes are harsh, and people are harsher still. But students cannot take days off to rejuvenate, because to do so would mean sacrificing their ability to skip their finals, something that studying for can make a person even more burnt out.
To be clear, I am not saying to get rid of the chance for students to exempt finals. It’s a great privilege to have, and something most schools don’t provide. Rather, I’m proposing a change – instead of counting all absences, excused or not, to tick against a student, allow a certain amount before beginning to take away their privileges. Of course, this amount shouldn’t be too much – but 3-5 excused absences should do the trick. Most students get sick around once or twice a year, so this amount could help account for that fact.
As a personal statement, I’ll say this. Last semester, I got sick with a fever above 101 degrees, and I had to miss school for four days. I had good grades, but that didn’t stop the worry that I wouldn’t be able to exempt my finals, as I still had to take an EOC for a class. I was under the impression that if I got below a 90 on the exam, I would have to do my final for my class, something I was dreading for many reasons. When the day of the EOC came, I was stressed, which led to a freak-out before the exam. I did well on the EOC and was told I wouldn’t have to do the final, but it didn’t make up for the stress I felt before I got the results. I hadn’t missed school for any other reason than being sick, but that amount of time led to more stress than it deserved. This is sadly something many students go through. A simple change of policy can help fix the issue quickly, appeasing both the school and the students.
