By Morgan Phillipe
El Diamante seniors are required to have a 94% attendance rate if they want to be able to walk at graduation. All high schools in Visalia Unified have this requirement. Over the past few years it has been waived due to COVID-19, but this year will be the first to follow the rule post COVID.
I myself am not completely sure how many days that means you can miss. Recently I’ve heard some people saying that you can miss 11. When I went to the attendance office and asked how many days you could miss, I was told that you could miss 10 days, but I was also told that we are asked to miss no more than four days. When I tried to find it on the VUSD page to see how many days it was never directly stated. What I do know is how you can make up absences and what absences are and aren’t excused.
As a senior I’m already stressing about making sure I don’t miss much school and that I’m always on time. Thankfully there is Saturday School to help make up for an absence. When you go, it makes up for an entire day that’s been missed. I was recently given a schedule of the dates there will be Saturday School. The upcoming dates you can go to will be in September it’s scheduled for 9/09 or 9/30 and in October it’s on 10/14 and 10/28.
For those of you who are seniors, it’s important to know of the certain absences that will be excused which are: doctor appointments, the funeral of an immediate family member, school activity, approved furlough, and subpoenas to court. So if you are called out of school or end up leaving early and it’s not for any of these reasons then your absence will not be excused. You may have to show proof of a doctor’s appointment.
To those who are still questioning whether or not the 94% will be put in effect this year, our assistant principal stated, “This year, per administration, the 94% attendance rate will be put in effect”.
While teachers and administration might agree with this policy, the seniors here feel differently. One of the students here says, “I think it’s silly, the attendance rate should be set at 90%”.