A comment came through yesterday taking me to task:
Brutus really needs to research some of this before he throws this stuff out there. Blame and hold EPISD accountable for their issues, absolutely. To say it is EPISD’s fault on an issue due to state law change is irresponsible and reckless.
The law the commenter referred to changed the penalties and procedures that state allows when schools are handling truancy.
Our post was about absenteeism.
From Title 2, Subtitle E, Chapter 25 of the Texas Education Code:
Sec. 25.092. MINIMUM ATTENDANCE FOR CLASS CREDIT OR FINAL GRADE. (a) Except as provided by this section, a student in any grade level from kindergarten through grade 12 may not be given credit or a final grade for a class unless the student is in attendance for at least 90 percent of the days the class is offered.
This is the law that is in effect in Texas today. There are further provisions that allow for exceptions.
A school district designated as a district of innovation may wave the requirements of 25.092.
From the EPISD policy manual:
Trying to be more careful so that more of our readers understand the point, our original post was about absenteeism, the comment was about what can be done about it. Those are two different things.
The state law still requires 90% attendance in order to gain credit for the class.
EPISD has waived that requirement.
Classroom teachers have lost the ability to tell students that excessive absences may lead to the student not getting credit and the district is losing revenue because of increased absences.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
The difficulty that this retired RN sees with this kind of thing (and, I did deal with it during a two year stint as a school nurse) is that such a policy forces sick people to be around others when ill, and this is part of why we get annual flu epidemics. Instead of forcing attendance, businesses, including schools, need to encourage people to stay home when ill, so as to decrease the severity of epidemic illness. I bet that would decrease absences overall, since that act alone could cause more people to stay healthy than do current attitudes and practices.
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All of Brutu’s post is correct. The next thing the district of Innovation will allow is for the EPISD to develop their own accountability method, then they will be able to cover up the fact that almost 60% of all students that take a reading test do not meet the standard that is set by the State.What will happen is you put you child in an EPISD school and they will develop a test and hire a PR company to tell you how great the EPISD is and how great your child is doing! 😦 Privatization and Choice suck!
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