Issue 1

September 27th, 2019

Starting this school year, students will not fail after 10 absences. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction altered a policy stating "A student may not fail a course based solely on attendance." However, for student-athletes, to remain eligible, they have to have under 13 absences.

Rose Attendance Officer Kim Cohen hopes that with this new rule, students will still be encouraged to show up to class to complete required work.

“Students need to realize that teachers are not required to let students make up work [or] tests for unexcused absences,” Cohen said.

Graphic by Lorian McGillicuddy

Student athlete Jaylan Foreman does not think the rule change will affect him. Since Foreman plays football and basketball, he has to have under 13 absences to stay eligible. Foreman doesn’t plan to get a lot of absences; he’d rather focus on his school work.
“I’m still an athlete, so I can't miss a lot of days of school, [I’m going] to be here every day that I can,” Foreman said.
Foreman believes this rule allows students to miss more class than they should be able to and that the rule lets students get away with being absent a lot without the fear of passing.
Senior Taylin Waters, however, believes this change is beneficial for students. Last year, she was sick more than the typical student, with around 20 excused absences per class.
“I think for people that miss school for reasons they can't control…I think it's more fair,” Waters said.
Instead of worrying about going to class while sick, with this new rule, Waters and students alike do not need to worry about staying under 10 unexcused absences.
“I’m just really happy that this new policy is in place now,” Waters said, “I think a lot of people are really happy about the new rule.”
Rose Athletic Director Clay Medlin believes the new attendance policy is better than the last.

“I think everyone's better off being where they're supposed to be,” Medlin said.

Medlin now has to check all his athletes’ absences, instead of just having to look at their grades in the past.

“We’ve got 515 different athletes here, so that’s 515 attendance checks we're doing in the fall and the spring semester,” Medlin said.

Medlin wants this rule to be able to keep students in school and to limit the number of absences each student has.

“You’re being held more accountable that you have to be here,” Medlin said.

Medlin is also concerned about how athletes will view this new rule and how they will stay eligible for sports. The rule could lead to more ineligibilities. Too many absences for student athletes can lead to their respective sports team having to forfeit the games that they played in.

Absences will not lead to failure in classes anymore. However absences still have a huge impact on academic and athletic performance. Students have to make sure to keep up with their work, regardless of their amount of absences.