Poor planning

[ana010]

I live in a state that has a law to prevent excessive absences. Students may miss 8 days per semester, unexcused. I am in a high school. I am completely out of patience and sympathy for these children with allergy or cold symptoms who have no fever and want me to send them home. I have asked student if he/she thought in January (when student missed 6 days) that he/she might be ill in April. Of course student does not care, but I will continue to pose these questions and maybe one kid will realize he/she needs to plan ahead!

Ok, rant over. Carry on with your day.

[scuba nurse, BSN, MSN, RN]

Absences are out of control here! I have a student that gets a daily med and she is out today for the 32nd time, she is in 3rd grade, no reason, just that "it was raining this morning and she didn't want to walk". UGH...eye roll!

[jess11RN]

We have a lot of the same issues here too. I just don't get it.

[BluebellRN, BSN, RN]

I'm REALLY glad I don't have to deal with absences. I overheard our secretary tell a mom who was coming in late today that the kid was at 64 tardies!

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

I learned to release any irritation I might have had with those students...specifically at the same time I learned that many of those students' parents felt that sweet baby should go home for every. little. thing.

It's a valuable life lesson, sweet pea. In the real world you may be able to take FMLA for something serious but continual absences are likely to leave you looking for work.

I have a K student who has missed 42 days!!!!! She is already older than all her peers b/c her mother kept her home an extra year, so she is 7 and now at risk for failing K b/c she has missed so many days. The really sad thing is we reported her to DCF for school neglect and they did nothing- passed the buck and told mom to call some agency for "resources" to help them get their $hit together to go to school. Well said agency was like no idea why you are calling us, we can't help and have a waitlist 6 months long. This is a case of a little girl who misses mom during the day so she cries until she vomits and then says she is "unable to walk". Mom falls for it and lets her stay home. I know I sound harsh, but I have spent hours meeting with them, counselling, offering support and in the end, mom just doesn't really care or see the big deal.

[CanIcallmymom, BSN, RN]

It's out of control everywhere, I think. I don't excuse them unless they meet criteria or I feel they are actually sick enough to go home, and I don't mind telling them and their parents that it will be unexcused.

[AdobeRN]

This time of year we have several kids on an "attendance contracts" - I hate it because if they are ill they come to me to be excused from school. So I am not well liked at times because I stick to the school policy regarding excluding for health reasons - basically if you are not feverish, vomiting, diarrhea or have lice the kid needs to be in school unless the parent wants to go get that doctors note to cover the absence (which many of them don't want to do).

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

1 hour ago, MHDNURSE said:

I have a K student who has missed 42 days!!!!! She is already older than all her peers b/c her mother kept her home an extra year, so she is 7 and now at risk for failing K b/c she has missed so many days. The really sad thing is we reported her to DCF for school neglect and they did nothing- passed the buck and told mom to call some agency for "resources" to help them get their $hit together to go to school. Well said agency was like no idea why you are calling us, we can't help and have a waitlist 6 months long. This is a case of a little girl who misses mom during the day so she cries until she vomits and then says she is "unable to walk". Mom falls for it and lets her stay home. I know I sound harsh, but I have spent hours meeting with them, counselling, offering support and in the end, mom just doesn't really care or see the big deal.

Good grief!!! Maybe she'll care when the kid is 10 and still in kindergarten?! I feel so sorry for that child.

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

23 hours ago, CanIcallmymom said:

It's out of control everywhere, I think. I don't excuse them unless they meet criteria or I feel they are actually sick enough to go home, and I don't mind telling them and their parents that it will be unexcused.

You are so lucky that you can send them back to class if there is noting wrong with them. Our special snowflakes must be allowed to call their parents as much as they want from the clinic, and ask to go home. I simply can't believe what these kids are allowed to go home for. My kids would have been in some serious trouble for asking to go home for some of the reasons these kids use.

[ana010]

The 7 year old kindergartner's parents would be in truancy court here.

I allow children to call parents all they want, but I quickly explain I will not excuse the absence unless it meets criteria.

Like so many aspects in education, the fact that we are more concerned with the welfare of these children is heart breaking, infuriating and plain exhausting.

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

13 minutes ago, ana010 said:

The 7 year old kindergartner's parents would be in truancy court here.

I allow children to call parents all they want, but I quickly explain I will not excuse the absence unless it meets criteria.

Like so many aspects in education, the fact that we are more concerned with the welfare of these children is heart breaking, infuriating and plain exhausting.

I don't have a choice about excussing the absence. If a student leaves through the clinic, it's excused no matter what. That would be awesome if I could determine if it was excused or not. However, the parents here would just flip out, and I'd get overruled anyway. so there really isn't any point in going down that path.