RICHMOND, IN — Richmond Community School board members approved a trio of revised policies relating to attendance at a meeting Wednesday night.
The first, specifically the corporation’s attendance policy, included multiple additions to reflect the state’s new changes to laws reflecting habitual truants and chronic absenteeism.
The revisions include the additions of a definition to the term “chronically absent,” defining it as “missing 10% or more of a school year for any reason.” The new rule says no student will be suspended or expelled solely because they are chronically absent or a habitual truant, the latter of which was also added to the student discipline policy.
Jason Blunk, during the public commentary period, requested that the board ensured that key terms are defined in policies being considered, specifically the term “habitually absent.”
The only mention of “habitually absent” in the revised attendance policy states, “The superintendent or corporation attendance officer also shall report a student who is habitually absent from school in violation of the compulsory school attendance law to an intake officer of the juvenile court of the Indiana Department of Child Services,” according to Indiana Code 20-33-2-25.
Indiana law does not include a precise definition for “habitually absent,” and Senate Enrolled Act 482, enacted into law this year, makes no mention of the term.
The attendance policy also included additions to a section related to religious instruction, stating that a student receiving such instruction shall not be recorded absent from school. Similar changes were also made to the specific policy related to released time for religious instruction.
In that policy, a revision was made to differentiate elementary and secondary school students to be at religious instruction for no more than 120 minutes or the equivalent of one elective course, respectively.
The proposal moves to a second reading at the board’s next meeting on Sept. 10.
Evan Weaver is a news and sports reporter at The Palladium-Item. Contact him on X (@evan_weaver7) or email at eweaver@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Richmond schools board moves along revised policies related to school truancy