CHS Tardy Policy
A 2016 attendance policy is being enforced once again By Erich Bohn
T he number of students in
Jefferson County Schools who qualify as “chronically absent” –meaning those who have missed more than 17.5 school days each year–has increased from 24% to over 30% over the past year. Nearly 25,000 students out of the 87,000 students enrolled in the district are now considered chronically absent. In response to this trend, Conifer High School reinstated an old attendance policy on January 24, 2022, that is designed to address chronic tardiness, a related issue that is seen as contributing to chronic absences.
District has seen a 2% increase in tardies over the past year, with the average attendance rate dropping from 90.9% in 2020-2021 to 88.9% so far this year, according to the Colorado Department of Education. The increases in tardies have been disrupting class time and throwing off lesson plans for several teachers. Many teachers agree that
“And because the nature of band is more group-oriented it is definitely frustrating,” Since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, tardiness among students at Conifer has increased significantly. Even as the unpredictability caused by the pandemic has begun to subside, many students are now simply accustomed to arriving at school
It’s become an increasing problem and we didn’t have this issue last year because we were mostly hybrid so we didn’t have tardies,” Principal Wesley Paxton said. The policy, originally implemented in 2016, punishes students who have more than two unexcused tardies a month. The decision to revive the policy was made by Paxton after discovering that numerous students, primarily upperclassmen, had been regularly arriving at school late in recent months. “What we’re doing is we are trying to enforce good habits of showing up on time, which you need to do for any job. The consequences are if they have more than two tardies then they have lunch detention in the cafeteria,” Paxton said. The Jefferson County School
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Conifer Students walking the halls. Corey Neumeier, CHSToday
the policy is helpful in making lessons more time-efficient. “Having kids show up late means that we start a little bit later,” Band director Sean Cartner said.
late. Some students who struggle with chronic tardiness are in a pattern of arriving to class a few minutes late, while others are arriving halfway through class. The reasons for tardiness can vary
