District policy may include stiffer regulations, penalties for absences
By: Lacey Korevec
A new set of Cranbury School policies could have parents thinking twice before allowing children to miss school.
Community members will get a chance to weigh in on a series of proposed attendance and discipline policy changes and regulations at a school board meeting Feb. 20 at 8:30 p.m. in the large group instruction room.
The changes, including a more specific discipline policy that outlines ramifications for specific behavior, a new student code of conduct and a stricter attendance policy, are required by the state’s recent changes to its Administrative Code, said school board member Joan Weidner, chairwoman of the Policy Committee.
According to the proposed attendance policy, illnesses, doctor visits, family emergencies and certain religious observation days will be considered excused absences, while vacations and other reasons for missing class will not be excused.
After four unexcused absences, the school will have to notify a student’s parents and investigate the cause of the absences. If a student reaches between five and nine unexcused absences, the school will have to notify the parents again and conduct an additional investigation as to the reason for the absences. If a student has 10 unexcused absences, the school will make a mandatory referral to the state Division of Youth and Family Services.
"The critical part of that is that vacations are not excused absences," she said. "If someone were to take their child out of school for a vacation, while school is in session, for two weeks, that would be 10 school days and that would be 10 unexcused absences, at which point that child would be deemed a truant. And that’s mandatory. That’s not discretionary on our part."
Board members said Tuesday that they fear parents will have trouble adjusting to the attendance policy changes because a lot of parents take their kids out of school for vacation.
"I think there will be some controversy regarding that aspect of the attendance policy because the ramifications of having unexcused absences are harsh," Ms. Weidner said. "But we discussed them quite a bit during our meetings and right now we know they’re going to be somewhat controversial but we’ve had in our policy that we really encourage parents to not take kids out of school for vacations during regular school days. That’s been in our policy for years."
The new discipline policy will include a chart that will list all of the disciplinary measures the district can use, Ms. Weidner said.
"Level 1, we start with a conference, which is the most basic discipline we have," she said, "and the highest level would be expulsion. And there would be things in between, for example, detention, suspension, deprivation of privileges, like not being able to participate in an extracurricular activity. So, the first chart spells out what those levels are."
Another chart will list different behavioral violations matched with appropriate consequences depending on what grade a student is in, she said.
"For example, cheating could be disruption in the classroom. There could be fighting, harassment and what the chart shows is what range of level of discipline might be evoked for that particular violation," she said, adding that Vice Principal Christine Capaci is in charge of matching behavior with the appropriate discipline.
Neither the attendance nor the discipline policy changes have been adopted yet, which is why officials and board members are looking for suggestions from parents, Ms. Weidner said.
"What we’re looking for is parental input and the opportunity to answer any questions that parents or students may have in regards to these new proposed policies and regulations," she said.
Ms. Weidner said the proposed policy changes will be posted on the Cranbury Web site, www.cranburyschool.org, soon.

