How often have you been tardy this year? Were you one of the 3,826 tardies last year? If so, then you might have paid special attention to the new attendance guidelines.
Five months ago, the Parkway School District rolled out new attendance and tardy policies for the 2023-2024 school year. The district cites the Board of Education as their reasoning for introducing the new protocols.
“The Board of Education believes daily attendance is the initial step in achieving academic success. Education is a total process based on continual communication and shared responsibilities among parents, students, teachers, and the school,” the announcement reads.
The main goal of the new initiative is to reduce the number of absences and tardies per year. The district allows each school to implement a new attendance program in accordance with Parkway’s mission.
At Parkway Central, the administration has cracked down on the difference between excused and unexcused absences as well as firmer regulations for tardies.
Per a message from the school board, “…students are expected to be in their assigned classroom when the bell rings. If a student arrives late to class and does not have a pass (paper or electronic), the student will be considered tardy.”
The school also established new penalties should the tardies accumulate. Starting with a verbal warning, every five tardies escalate the punishment, from hours long detention to suspension. District policy also requires parents and guardians to be informed of their children’s attendance every six weeks with mandatory conferences if absences and tardies are excessive.
The administration also organized students into three categories based on attendance. An email from building principal, Tim McCarthy, explains the categories: green students are in class at 7:35 a.m., yellow students are in the building but not yet in class, and red students arrive after the morning bell.
The email also displays McCarthy’s hopes for the new school year shortly before the new procedures were implemented on Aug. 24.
“For the rest of this week, we will continue to encourage and support students as they find their way through their schedule,” McCarthy wrote. “Starting on Monday, we’ll shift to healthy accountability.”
So far, the new rules seem to be effective. From the start of fall semester in 2022 to Dec. 9, 1,589 tardies were recorded. In that same amount of time this year, tardies decreased by 29.4 percent to 1,122. Analytics from the administration predict that if tardies continue at the same rate as last year, there will be 2,702 total tardies.
Administrative assistant Karena Gantner noticed the changes immediately. She explains that in previous years, the line for tardy passes went out the door, but this year the lines have slimmed down considerably.
“There’s a lot less people checking in, especially first thing in the morning,” Gantner said.
Fellow administrative assistant Shawna Robinson agrees, “I think this year it’s definitely less.”
Both women attribute these changes to the new attendance guidelines and the strict disciplines set by the administration.
“I really think it’s the new tardy policy because kids are aware of it,” Robinson said.
