The attendance policy at Lakeland Regional High School has gone back to pre-COVID requirements, following the State of New Jersey’s Board of Education (BOE) requirements.
The current Attendance Update, which can be found on Lakeland’s website, has been in effect since 2008 but administration had become more lenient in the years COVID-19 was present. During that time, if a student was sick or appeared to be unwell, the school encouraged them to stay home and rest. The staff wanted to make sure that everyone in and out of the building was safe and healthy while the pandemic was prevalent. Although these sentiments have not changed, the caution in being in contact with those who are ill has.
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Mr. Michael Novak, shared that during the pandemic and years following, LRHS’ absence numbers had risen to 24%, where the goal set by the Board of Education is to have that number around 10%. It’s important to note that this was happening in districts around the state and nation, and not just isolated to LRHS. In order to restore these numbers LRHS decided to not only reinforce pre-COVID attendance policy, but also starting new initiatives to encourage attendance, such as approving Ms. Jessica Geyer as the Community Outreach Coordinator and meeting one-on-one with students who have multiple absences. Currently, the district has been able to drop the number back down to 13.1%.
According to the State of New Jersey Board of Education, students are allowed a total of 18 unexcused absences. To be in compliance with the state, Lakeland Regional High School set the attendance policy to allow eight absences in an A/B day schedule classes, as they alternate every other day, and 16 in semester classes. In failure to adhere to this policy, students may receive a loss of academic credit. If the class is required for graduation or needed for credits, it may lead to the students needing to attend summer school or retake the class the following year.
All students who lose credit due to absences have the opportunity to appeal with the LRHS Attendance Appeal Committee.
Mr. Novak also shared with the Ledger the importance of student attendance. He described attendance as a lifelong responsibility that brings in a sense of accountability. Additionally, LRHS staff want all students to be able to reach full academic potential achievement, and academic credit is necessary to maintain academic consistency.
