DEVIANCE

PROJECT
BY CHRIS, NICK AND
TOM

DEVIANT ACT BEING

ADDRESSED:
UNEXCUSED ABSENCES
OLD POLICY: According to the Westerville Schools District High School
Handbook, unexcused absence is defined as:
Absence by consent of parent/guardian or with parent's knowledge for a reason not acceptable to the school.
(Example: music lessons, hair appointments, car trouble, oversleeping, out-of-town, etc.)
This also includes School Truancy, which is a deliberate, unauthorized absence from school and Class Cutting, which
is also a deliberate unauthorized absence from a class.
For any unexcused absence, the student will not receive academic credit for work missed.

ISSUES ARISING FROM

UNEXCUSED ABSENCES
Truancy is a status offense an act that is an offense only because of the offenders age, meaning the same conduct by an adult
would not be an offense or involve law enforcement and the courts.
Truancy in excess of a set number of days can result the student in attending an alternative school,
In Ohio, parents/legal guardian can be charged for failing to ensure their childrens school attendance
Missing valuable class time resulting in lack of understanding of subject, potential to fail that subject and potential disruption to that
class or classes
Wasting school and law enforcement resources tracking unexcused absences, which could result in time spent searching for missing
students, therefore pulling resources away from potential criminal events
incomplete education may result in non-graduation of student. This follows the student into adult life with less opportunities for
employment and/or further education
Social impact on families with threat of potential jail time as well as risking losing job(s) due to time spent away from work. It also
impacts other siblings within the family if applicable
Impacts on teachers having to track work.

PROPOSED POLICY FOR

UNEXCUSED ABSENCES
Our newly created policy, to end truancy, is to create a new grading system based
on the student's percentage of attendance (each quarter). This new grade is
separate from their academic grades, but must be kept up to avoid legal issues.
The students grades can also depend on what type of punishment they receive at
the end of the quarter. A=recognition, B=no penalty, C=lunch detention, D=halfday ALC, and F=full-day ALC. All punishments must be done at school due to
personal/family circumstances outside of school.

DETAILS OF NEW PROPOSED

POLICY:
GRADING SYSTEM FOR UNEXCUSED
ABSENCES

BASIS FOR GRADING SYSTEM

SCHOOL DAYS IN SCHOOL YEAR =
AVERAGE DAYS IN QUARTER =

180
45

ATTENDANCE RATE

GRADE

100%

15 DAYS UNEXCUSED ABSENCE IS ILLEGAL

14 DAYS IS LEGAL WHICH IS THE GOAL

98-99%

14 UNEXCUSED/QUARTER (4) =

3.5/Qtr

96-97%

45 days - 3.5 UNEXCUSED =

41.5/Qtr

94-95%

<94%

41.5/45 = 0.9222 ~ 93% = F

PROBLEMS SOLVED BY POLICY

Students will be motivated to keep their truancy grade up.
Legal trouble will no longer be an issue.
Students will receive more education by attending school more.
Students will learn to attend classes when needed and not skip.
They will be more prepared after high school in college or for a job.
Teachers/staff wont need to deal with truancies.

PROPOSED CHANGES
IMPLEMENTED BY NEW POLICY
Westerville City Schools and other school districts have dealt with truancies
and have tried preventing students from committing them, but havent been
as successful as they should be, since no policy is being used for prevention.
This new policy will motivate and help students to attend school more without
legal trouble, along with help teachers and their grades dealing with that
particular student. Truancies will no longer be a large problem in schools, and
even if the policy is broken by a student then their punishment is dealt with in
school. Students will be more prepared and readied for college or their job
due to this new policy, to get them to school.

CONCLUSION FOR NEW POLICY

The new proposal for dealing with unexcused absence behavior is to try and promote a social change within our
school. This means being pro-active rather than just being reactive in the form of punishment. By allowing
students to achieve a grade in their absenteeism, it gives them something achievable to work towards and
consequently promoting a positive social change in the students that fall into the group of behavior that
deviates from the norm.
This new policy gives the student a say in their behavior and forms a better relationship between the school and
the student. With the policy for example they will have to do classwork if they are at a Grade C but by their
grade being on Powerschool, on their attendance/grade card etc. they themselves can monitor what their grade
is and can aim to improve.
For students these are ways that they can achieve an easy A or B for attendance, may even help boost their
confidence in the classroom to improve academically.
This new policy would be integrated with counselling and other forms of school support to ensure a positive
outcome for the student and it is being dealt with, within the school, avoiding outside negative influences and
actions