The new district wide attendance policy is in effect for all North Kansas City Schools. One large contributor to spark this school year’s change was the district accreditation report card. North Kansas City High School did not receive points on the “report card” in the area for attendance.

Last school year, the overall student body for Northtown attended classes 77.3 percent of the time. Thus, administration teams collaborated in hopes of encouraging more students to attend classes regularly. Also in regards to district accreditation, another prompting factor is if the attendance of Northtown students improves, the school has a higher chance of earning the title of “accredited with distinction,” a great goal to strive for by coming to school.

Students have had many questions about how to handle and contest their absences, while also expressing other concerns about the impacts of the new policy.

Senior Savannah Weaver expresses her concerns, saying, “my younger sisters, one of which goes here, are both professional gymnasts, and because of their meet season being during school, they miss a lot of school for their meets.” She said, “even through they are good students, their grades will be impacted. School is bullshit.”

Assistant principal Chad Ryerson helped clarify the process for verifying absences, explaining that doctor notes will need to be turned in to the attendance offices, as well as documentation from funerals, and other such events that are “out of the student’s hands.”

In addition, principal Dan Wartick explained the appeal process available to students who, at the end of the semester, have grades that are potentially in jeopardy. Students have the option to fill out paperwork and appeal for their attendance to be reviewed by administration. These special appeals include hospitalizations and other serious life occurrences that interfere with school.

“[Students] fill out paperwork that basically says, if you have ten absences and six are verified, we [administration] need to take care of that,” commented Ryerson.

Although justified by administration, some students still disagree with the new policy. Senior Cordell Collins explained his views on the impacts.

“It’s going to be hard, because if you miss a lot of school and decide to turn [your grades] around, you can make good grades. But if you’re penalized on top of already missing school, it’ll be harder turning back around,” Collins said. “I don’t think it should be there, it’s gonna make things worse.”

Although he believes “that more people are going to show up everyday,” another student, sophomore Louis Compos, has similar views. “It’s going to penalize me, and my grades are going to go down because I’m late,” Compos said. “Not a lot of people are going to graduate because of grades.”

Ultimately, students must accept the attendance policy whether they like it or not, because it will be present through the school year. However, Ryerson still believes that the new policy will leave greater impacts on the student body other than encouraging punctuality and attendance.

“It’s a good point for a life lesson. If you are a senior and your attendance is 68 percent and you have a job or go to college, that isn’t good. We hope to stress to kids that attendance is important not only because of school, but also for what you [as students] do when you get older.”