<p>I’m a student, and I dislike the perfect attendance awards as well. Even discounting the issues with spreading germs, it’s somewhat unfair to the students who HAVE to miss days because of things their parents control- ex. family vacations and religious holidays. Is it really fair to prevent a student from being eligible for such an award for being of a religion that doesn’t already have its holidays off from school?</p>
<p>My kids are rarely sick, only missing a few days a year unless I pull them out for vacation. We recently had our 8th grade awards ceremony, and I did notice that very few of the kids on the perfect attendance list were also recognized for high grades. For some that may be their way to win an award.</p>
<p>i think it’s a dumb worthless accomplishment. it’s not like she changed the world or got into a better college because of her attendance.</p>
<p>do they count tardies or just absences? there is a big difference between the two trust me i know</p>
<p>For many, this encourages showing up even when you’re sick or a carrier and will get others (often more fragile than you) sick. My kids have chronic health conditions and pay a heavy price when others choose to attend events with “just a cold,” which barely slows the carrier down but can knock my kids out for weeks or longer! For some of us, being around sick folks puts us at risk of a trip to the ER/hospital.</p>
<p>Public health & especially H1N1 discourages folks from showing up when they’re under the weather.</p>
<p>Here’s an interesting wrinkle on the “show up for work no matter what” issue. A few years ago a local lawyer was having severe back problems. He needed surgery but put it off because a case was going to trial. The lawyer made it through the two week trial but his client lost his case. The lawyer who valiantly tried a case for two weeks in severe pain was sued for malpractice - his client claimed he was physically in no shape to try the case.</p>
<p>Perfect attendance? Pfft. I aimed for the maximum number of allowed absences every semester. There should be an award for that!</p>
<p>Our elementary school did the perfect attendance awards. My D was very upset since she missed getting the awards in 2nd and 3rd grade (blame that pesky strep throat!) Come 4th grade, her immune system seemed to kick into gear - she didn’t fall sick at all and had a perfect attendance record. But that was the year, the school officials decided to get rid of this award since several kids were coming in sick just to try and get this award! Boy, was D mad!</p>
<p>The middle school didn’t offer these awards at all - and neither does the high school AFAIK. Four years of middle school - no absences. This is a kid who luckily stayed healthy most of the time - and hated to miss school. So, if her knee was bothering her, she didn’t let it stop her from going to school. In high school, she was bummed when we made her take 2 days off while she had some outpatient surgery ! This year, she’s been suffering through a bad allergy season - but won’t take a day off.</p>
<p>Contrast that with my son (now in middle school) who loves to sleep - we got back from vacation on a Monday morning one time - D made dad drive her to school right after we got home - but son just went upstairs and crawled into bed :-)</p>
<p>When my daughter was in nursery school one of her classmates just had to come to school on the day before Thanksgiving because they were doing a pilgrim thing. The little boy was obviously sick at pick up time, and the mom admitted loading him up with tylenol so he wouldn’t miss the event. Of course my child got sick, and then me, so badly that I had to be hospitalized for dehydration (I was about 12 weeks pregnant). So, yeah, I’m not excited by perfect attendance awards. If someone legitimately was not sick in 13 years, their good health is its own reward.</p>
<p>“I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. Do you take your two weeks vacation at work?”</p>
<p>I posted, then deleted this comment earlier, wrier I realized low bested this subject was.</p>
<p>I discussed the issue of her moms letting her miss school with a (7 year old who was clearly the most mature in be family. On one occasion this girl called to find out if she’d be billed for a missed appointment. Her mother had decided to take a trip SCal for a ballgame. When I told her mom world be billed for a same day cancel, she got her mom to return. In discussing it she acknowledged she thought All parents missed work without much Cause. Then she said “I bet YOU never miss work”. I don’t recall My response, but no, I don’t. For one thing, I am self-employed. I do not take two week vacations. This is not because I am a better person. It is because missing work is more complicated then going. I used to be employed, and all the doctors I slewed responsibility with where out A LOT! Months at a time sometimes, sometimes for " stress related" complaints. I often covered my practice, and two others. Because I was the one alto showed up. Some of them made more money then I. Just didn’t work for me. Maybe this is unrelated to the original post.</p>
<p>I apologize if someone else already made this point, and I missed it: one of the reasons school districts in this state make a big deal about perfect attendance is because the state bases its contributions to local districts on daily attendance. Every single absence means a reduction in state funds.</p>
<p>For this reason, and this reason alone, my kids’ elementary school had a “drive” to push daily attendance past the 95% mark. The principal was quite explicit that the goal was to help the district increase the amount of funds coming from the state coffers.</p>
<p>The teachers were not so happy to see the principal encouraging parents to send sick kids to school.</p>
<p>My older daughter had perfect attendance for two years in high school. Never sick at all. Not even a runny nose. She got to college and was sick absolutely constantly. Started AND ended the year in the hospital and never, ever got on her feet. A little bit of hell on earth. I have no idea how that came to be.</p>
<p>Unless there’s some sort of incentive for the school, there should be no reason to encourage perfect attendance. If a student wants to learn, they will learn whether they’re in class or not. Similarly, if a student doesn’t want to learn, making them sit in class won’t help at all.</p>
<p>“(7 year old who was clearly the most mature in be family.”</p>
<p>Among other typos, this should have said 17 year old…</p>
<p>Wow! My first hot topic! I had no idea!</p>
<p>I had perfect attendance my junior year. The last time I missed for sickness was in 8th grade, when I had strep throat. I missed a few half days for braces in high school, which made perfect attendance unrealistic for most of the time. I think it’s a bit overrated. Sure, it feels great when they give the awards, but the rest of the time, it’s just too difficult to schedule all one’s appointments around school.</p>
<p>My school also recognizes “Outstanding Attendance,” which they give to anyone who was in school at least 98% of the time. I think that award is a better goal than trying to be perfect.</p>
<p>Dude at my school had perfect attendance since elementary school. No article for him!</p>
<p>(he definitely didn’t have straight A’s tho, he goes to AIU or something lol)</p>
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<p>I actually like that idea a lot.</p>
<p>Neither my elementary school nor my high school has perfect attendance awards. I don’t know anyone who really keeps track of those things. My only attendance goals this year were to get out of French and AP English as much as I could, to not miss Calculus BC, and to be there everyday we had slide notes in Art History. I did end up missing a few Calc classes though.</p>
<p>I wonder how she deals with family issues. The longest absences I’ve had from school have been for funerals and graduations. I guess she’s never had to deal with the issue.</p>
<p>The H.S. has a “Senior exemption” from 2nd semester exams, part of it a certain grade average and part of it is fewer than 2 absences. The only accepted excuses are school field trips (chorus trip, yearbook trip, etc.) and college visits. Every parent of a Senior that I know (including myself) has a story of how sick her D/S was and still went to school. Not good at all.</p>
<p>I had perfect attendance last year…but I’ve ditched school like 10 times this year, so bye bye perfect attendance.</p>
<p>i have like almost perfect attendances. i havnet missed a day in my 6 years of high school but cant remember about primary school and kindies. </p>
<p>I just never got sick during school. i’d always get sick during the holidays though :'(</p>