<p>Shhh! Don’t tell my D about the exam exemptions; in our district only seniors get them. You have to have a 91 or above average and no more than 6 absences. Winds her clock when she has 95+ and still has to take the dang exam. We keep hearing they might get rid of it and make everyone take them; she’s convinced it will happen her senior year.</p>
<p>About the attendance phone calls: I like them. You can call the attendance secretary and let them know the child will be absent which will stop the phone call. But…there was a really sad case in our area about 7 years ago where a middle school student went out to get the bus & she never came home. Her parents didn’t know there was an issue until she didn’t get off the bus at 4pm. They never found her. I watch my D get on the bus every morning (I am quite the site in my jammies with my cup of tea standing outside my house) but just in case there’s ever a problem, I’ll happily take that phone call.</p>
<p>I have never heard about exam exceptions here. And yes, attendance is tied too grades, unfortunately, in some of DS’s classes.</p>
<p>I went to HS in Europe, where majority of my grade in a specific subject was tied to the final exam. Yes, system like that gives preference to smarter kids, but also you are not overly penalized for being sick.
Sometimes when you are really sick you need to stay home for a week or even longer. Take a full blown flu for example. In most US high schools a week long absence can really derail your grade! Not fair to anyone!</p>
<p>Re: education for a new diabetic. I would take a case like that to the highest level. Seems absurd !</p>
<p>I agree that diabetes education should be excused without fighting for it! I would go up a level as well on that one - so sorry he (and you) need to deal with that!</p>
<p>Here you can get exam exemptions for AP classes because if you take the AP exam you don’t have to take the final in that class. Otherwise seniors are usually the only ones to have exemptions though we found along the way with D1 that not all her teachers held finals - some final projects due a bit earlier and some just went with the 4 quarter grades. Not sure yet how D2’s HS does it as she’s at a different one than D1 and being that she’s not the student D1 was, D2 may find herself taking all finals anyway :)</p>
<p><em>Hugs</em> Texasmom14 – Medical issues should be Excused.</p>
<p>Our district always had tough attendence policies, but after “No Child Left Behind” the policy became very unreasonable. We’re a small, poor district and frankly the policy couldn’t be structured too differently while maintaining the federal funding.</p>
<h1>When DS2 was in K we had to go before the Justice of the Peace to take him out of school for a family trip that had been planned 13 months earlier.</h1>
<p>No exam waivers here, including the APs.</p>
<p>======================
S13 decided to NOT run for school office this year because he found it useless to be an officer last year. sigh.</p>
<p>My house is really empty now. D left for college, foster S was reunited with his mom about 6 weeks ago, H is on a long business trip - so it’s just S’13 and me. I don’t even know how to cook for 2! Last night was our first night without H, but we met up with friends for dinner so it didn’t seem too lonely. S and I are trying to think of something fun to do this weekend - maybe go to an art festival. I’m think I’m going to enjoy this mommy/son bonding time (if S has any to spare!)</p>
<p>I just came back from my son’s school and was shocked to discover that my math and science geek is known for his creative writing skills. It was suggested that he be “encouraged” to join the school’s playwriting group.</p>
<p>Hello everyone. Sophmore year is off to a great and BUSY start. I see the discussions on attendance. I actually have not paid much attention to this. My dd like many motivated (and social) students tries to avoid missing days. She hates the extra work. Last year she had a head injury (now fully recovered). In one semester she missed about 8 days total and even more when you count individual periods she had to miss to go to the nurses office for attention. The only impact to her grades were some lower test grades. </p>
<p>To my knowledge her school does not incorporate attendance into grades. They tend to be a more open campus and kids often will get permission to miss a class for another activity. </p>
<p>I am not a big fan of perfect attendance schools. Life happens and kids shouldn’t be penalized for it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the diabetes support. I will check to see if it falls under the disabilities act (hadn’t thought of that). </p>
<p>We go through great lengths for him to be able to bring “drugs” to school, be allowed to test his blood in class etc. We have already hurdled many obstacles, including teachers taking food away from him (if his blood glucose is low he needs to eat quickly). Ah, it is getting better, he was diagnosed since school started, when he tells a teacher he is eating because he is diabetic their response is usually “no you aren’t”…that is a little frustrating. I had to get his scheduled changed because we use A day B day and his lunch had a 2 hour differential…hard to keep him stable with that schedule. </p>
<p>Reeinaz - way to go with the S that is a math/science geek and a good writer…</p>
<p>Texasmom: that is awful that a teacher would deny food to a child with diabetes! It’s not like people aren’t least a little familiar with the disease. Have you gone to the administration? And if it wasn’t enough, did you go to the district? Sounds like one of those things where you could drop an “according to our attorney” reference to let them know that you’re serious. Sheesh!</p>
<p>My youngest is a current sophomore and she’ll have seen a lot of mail from colleges by the time it’s her turn- her sister is a Columbia junior and her brother is a current senior.</p>
<p>Texasmom - hugs to you. To worry about things like that on top of worrying about your kid’s health! Go fight them girl!!!</p>
<p>Kiddo here is doing better Tomorrow is a day off from school, but still music class at 6 A.M. Went to P/T conferences today, met some nice teachers, all of them actually seemed to be very nice. We will see…He does have a lot of work heavy classes this year, but the teachers look understanding.
Took his first ever college exam this week, while feverish. No results yet.</p>
<p>I think that I am skipping all of the college reps. visits this year. Will start junior year and drag DS to all of them;)</p>
<p>I am hoping to go to IKEA tomorrow to get a new bed for him.
Also hoping to see Stanford in less than a month :)</p>
<p>Be still my beating heart - My DD13 came home yesterday slightly upset with herself that she only got a 92 on her Honors Chem test. I asked, “Why are you upset since you have a 95 in the class”. Her answer, “Because mom, the whole test was math and I should have gotten every one right. I know Chemistry will get harder as the year goes on and I want to get really high grades now when it is still easy so when it gets harder my grades won’t be affected as much.” Ok, this has been one of my mantras to my DS’12 that he appears to not listen to. Apparently, someone was listening! Yeah!</p>
<p>Texasmom-Yes, I’m almost positive that diabetes would be covered under a 504 plan. I recommend getting it documented because although the school might say it’s not needed, that they will do what they can, unless it’s on paper, you’re subject to whatever the teachers feel like doing on any given day. Thanks for the kudos regarding my son. The whole writing thing has thrown me for a loop though as it was so unexpected. </p>
<p>Has anyone else had the experience of having a completely different kid from what you know be discussed by the staff at school?</p>
<p>Geogirl-I wish my son would be upset with a 92. In his eyes, anything that’s passing is ok. It’s not until he’s staring into the abyss of “failure”, aka an F, that he really buckles down and manages to pull his low C/high D into a B. And I’m sure he gets a sense of satisfaction from pulling it off.</p>
<p>Last night was pretty typical for S: “Mom, I have a poster due tomorrow. Do we have any poster board?” (No) “Do we have any glue sticks?” (No) “Do we have any books about World Religions?” (Actually, yes, I’m a theology teacher - but I was annoyed that he had waiting until the night before to start researching.) So, I made him walk to the store and get his supplies. Boy was he mad. But he finished the poster - adequate as usual.</p>
<p>A few of his teachers describe him as engaged and insightful. I love my kid dearly, but I rarely hear him say anything other than “huh?” and “I don’t know”. I rarely see him read at home, not even assigned reading, yet I’m told he often spends his lunch break reading. I have to pull teeth to get him to answer any written assignments in more than 3-5 sentences if there is no stated minimum length. His English and drama teachers comment on his unique, strong voice and his use of imagery.
Maybe he’s just good at compartmentalizing? School is school and home is home? Except his disinterest in school matters while at home is really messing up his grades!</p>
<p>My D has her first AP World test today on five chapters! This morning she said she felt like a sponge…a saturated one that is starting to leak. I love her!</p>
Tomorrow is a day off from school, but still music class at 6 A.M. 
Went to P/T conferences today, met some nice teachers, all of them actually seemed to be very nice. We will see…He does have a lot of work heavy classes this year, but the teachers look understanding.