Most parents do not always pray to be in the position where they would have to persuade their kids to go for classes in the school. Although having their kid absent from school once in a while isn’t a big deal, especially if the absenteeism is caused by ill health or other significant factors. Sometimes it is inevitable not to miss school, as there is a tangible reason to backup your purposes of missing school. Whether you have expelled yourself from school or not, skipping school once in a while isn’t bad but when it becomes more frequent, extended, or noticeable, then there might be a danger somewhere. Let’s know How Many Days of School can you Miss?
Missing school activities can easily impact your child’s education and it would severely hamper your kid’s overall performance, and his/her attendance record wouldn’t look good. Although this doesn’t mean your child is a bad student, there are many reasons why it isn’t so cool to be skipping school frequently. If your kids miss school for enough days, he/she might be labeled absentee or truant, which most often can be a bad record for the kid. This piece will discuss how many days you can miss school and not be labeled an absentee by your classmates and the school teachers.
How many days of school can be missed?
I am certain you want to know how many school days you can miss conveniently without being tagged the absentee child in school. However, your absentee rate depends on the state where your educational institution is located in the United States. This has great determining factors on how many days you can miss school. Different schools have their policies on how many days a kid can remain absent from school. However, most schools only tolerate 10 percent absenteeism out of school in a year. This translates to about 18 days in a year which also depends on the number of days used for academic activities in the school. Any absenteeism above this set percentage of days you or your child can skip school for can affect him/her moving up a grade. For instance, you are only allowed to miss school for ten days with an excuse in the state of California. Meanwhile, the excuse you would have to offer at your school must be genuine and sufficient to convince your school administrator.
After you have exceeded the required grace period of missing school and you consistently miss school, then there would be great concern about your academics and how you intend to cope after missing several days out of the school calendar. There is no certain number of days you can miss in school that will land you into trouble but there is a great danger if you fail to attend school for up to 40 days. If you are in the senior class and you have skipped school for more than 40 days, you wouldn’t be able to graduate with your colleagues.
If you are academically poor as a student and you have many absences on your attendance record, the school administration might call only to explain why you have skipped school. Whatever the case, you should keep the school admin in the loop if you have problems preventing you from attending school activities regularly.
If you have absented yourself from school for more than 13 days, whether you have been excused or not, the schools would have to send you a truancy letter through the administrators. These letters are automated, expected to be sent to students who didn’t show up in school after many days.
Why is it important to attend school activities regularly?
You as a student might think skipping school does not affect your academics, possibly you know how to catch up on what has been taught in school. However, there are other reasons why you should attend school regularly. Attending school regularly and participating in the school administrators’ activities is important because it would help you develop.
- Important skills that would aid your learning and retention of knowledge
- It would also help you develop social skills, emotional skills, resilience, and good communication with your colleagues.
- More so, you would develop teamwork spirit as you would be part of different teams to achieve a task.
Most often, students who go to school regularly have various advantages to benefit from, which include but are not limited to;
- Access to better opportunities both in school and outside the school environment
- Better health is also another benefit for students who attend school regularly again because they get access to exercise their brain and function effectively daily.
- With access to better opportunities, such students are positioned to earn better income after school.
The best thing is that there are not good numbers of days you should consider when you can miss out on school. Each day you miss out on school, you would miss out on your academic activities, and it could take extra time and effort before you can catch up. Meanwhile, missing school repeatedly would eventually affect your overall grades as a student.
Meanwhile, some other conditions can be responsible for your school absenteeism, which will be discussed in the next section of this piece.
Chronic Absences
A student might miss school because he/she is ill. Based on statistics, about 6.5 million students from grade school to high school at one time or the other suffer from chronic absences. This figure accounts for about 13 percent of the entire student population in the United States. This has therefore become a chronic problem for both parents and the school administrators.
Aside from the teenagers who miss school, statistics have also shown that 10 percent of kindergarten and first-grade students also miss school. So the question then remains why students miss school.
Most often, there are some valid reasons why a student might decide to miss school, and these reasons can easily be attached to mental stress, bullying in the school, illness, medical emergencies, high fevers, and many more. Besides, chronic illnesses such as allergies, asthmatic attacks, contagious diseases, and other health challenges are some factors that contribute to why a student might miss school.
What to do as a parent if you find out that your child has been missing school unknowingly?
If you have found out that your ward has been missing school for a big chunk of time, it is very important that you understand what the root cause can be and look into how you can provide a long-lasting solution. For example, in some cases, many children undergo mental stress and they miss out on school activities as a way to have peace and regain themselves.
Aside from this, some students have learning disabilities and can’t cope with the learning activities taught in school which most parents often overlook or consider insignificant. In addition, children who are suffering from Autism or ADHD, anxiety, depression, or some other emotional challenges often prefer to miss school than their counterparts. Most of the time, the fault isn’t supposed to be laid on the child as a big chunk of the school year isn’t interesting, so they prefer to stay away.
Conclusion
Students miss school based on various reasons that might not be known to the parent or the school administrator, which can easily impair their academic performance. Students suffering from depression and other related emotional trauma can also find it very easy to skip school often. Meanwhile, students who skip school more than 10 percent of the entire academic calendar might have issues moving to the next grade.
FAQS
What happens if you miss school for too many days?
In many states, if you miss school for too many days, you might be referred to the juvenile court and end up in foster care. For every absence you have, there must be genuine reasons for it
Will my parents go to jail if I miss too much school?
Your parents would be charged for the civil violation but not a crime, and they can be fined up to $250, and other things might be declared by the judge such as community, counseling, and many more for neglecting their duty as a parent.
