By JOSEPH KELLARD
The policy would comply with new regulations enacted by New York State Education Department that are to be fully implemented by the 2003-04 school year. Local superintendents said their school districts will formulate policy complying with the new regulations by the deadline date, June 30, 2002.
The purpose of the regulations is to require school districts to examine attendance patterns more closely and to develop strategies to improve students' attendance.
Whether we are in total compliance with all the bureaucratic nonsense that goes with this, I don't know, said Dr Edward Price, superintendent of Island Park Schools. Obviously, we are going to have to write something that clearly define those things that they want defined, but we really haven't moved ahead other than talking about some of the general concepts.
Price added, It is important that kids attend school, but sometimes the intricacies of the regulations the bureaucrats are looking to implement are mindboggling to me.
Even though Oceanside has an attendance policy, it doesn't necessarily include all of the items in this legislation, said Oceanside Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown. So we need to form a committee to look at our policy, and we will include the items that aren't currently included. But in order to include them, we have to make some decisions on them.
In part, the regulations pertain to daily attendance at the elementary level and period-by-period attendance at the secondary level, definitions of excused and unexcused absences according to a school district's local needs and philosophy, and the establishment of minimum attendance requirements as a condition of course credit.
Revised by Commissioner Richard Mills, the regulations were approved by the New York State Board of Regents last October based on research indicating that a strong relationship exists between high academic achievement and regular attendance by students.
The SED suggests that school districts form a policy development team to examine current attendance programming and practices, and that they establish a target date for a public hearing on this issue.
Oceanside is presently without a policy on what constitutes an excused or unexcused absence, but it is an issue the district's committee will have to discuss, Brown said.
At the high school, our current policy is if you are absent 14 times in a semester you cannot get course credit. But the committee also needs to look at that again and see if, in light of the excused and unexcused, they want to modify that number, Brown said about the minimum attendance requirements that are conditions of course credit.
Oceanside's elementary schools presently report attendance daily and the high school reports it period-by-period. The middle school reports attendance daily, but under the new regulations it must switch to period-by-period reports.
That's something we will need to adjust, and that's why it's important that we have until September 2003, because to do period-by-period at the middle school requires a computer on every teachers desk so that they can put it in the computer system. If you try to do it by hand or card, it can be very difficult.
Island Park schools are waiting for direct guidance from the state before they address the new regulations, Price said. I think at the point [when contact is made] we would have a better idea of whether there's a need for any significant changes that need to be made.
