One morning, you wake up with a headache. You are exhausted. You are on your menstrual cycle, and, for the second day in a row, everything hurts. Every movement is followed by a wave of nausea.

This happens to you every, single, month – and becoming medically excused for your period is not necessarily easy.

Or maybe, your family member unexpectedly passes. You feel physically and emotionally drained. You are not one to miss school, but it is the least of your worries at that moment. 

However, you feel that you do not have much of a choice when you are only allotted 10 excused absences until consequences occur. And if you are a senior, you only have five, if you would like to avoid finals, regardless of your grades.

With an understanding of truancy and chronic absence, it is difficult to successfully complete a school day when feeling ill, especially for those with a weakened immune system, who are susceptible to illness or have a chronic illness. 

Are there exceptions to this “10 absence” rule, and is the “5 absence policy” for seniors, especially those with good grades, fair?

“If we didn’t have a number, you could potentially miss a significant number [of days] in the course. So there’s a policy in place to say you can only miss so much before you start getting penalized for not being there,” principal Marcus Belin said.
“Typically, [in] the last semester [for seniors], you get senioritis. Your focus is you want to get to prom and graduation. [This policy] holds you accountable to knowing that your last semester counts too.”

Without a doubt, seniors are currently experiencing senioritis. But for those who still work hard and uphold good grades, those students feel pressured to push through days they are faced with illness or exhaustion.

“You can’t even be sick and stay home for a couple of days because you’re worried that you’re going to need [your days] for something else,” senior Hailey Roe said. “If someone in your family dies and you miss two dies, you only have three left, so you just have to hope you don’t get sick at all.”

On Jan. 1, Governor JB Pritzker signed a new bill that allows Illinois students five mental health days to use throughout the year without a doctor’s note. Students, especially seniors, have been confused about what this exactly means with regard to the absence policy.

“If you take a mental health day, a counselor has to follow up with you after the second one. We don’t want people to think, “Oh, cool, I get five vacation days,” because it is really meant for mental health,” Belin said. “If you lost a family member, go be with your family. We will make things work. But if you haven’t communicated, we don’t know [what’s happening], so do it in the moment so it can be documented.”

Truancy relies on legal and administrative solutions due to a high number of unexcused absences. Chronic absenteeism should also be avoided – but for those students with mental health issues, chronic illness, menstrual pain, or justifiable family issues, they should not be limited to 5-10 absences if their grades are maintained and their summative work are completed. 

“I think that if students have a good enough grade in [their classes], they should not be penalized for their absences. [For seniors], their grade reflects the content they know in the class, so they shouldn’t have to take a final,” senior Ava Nielsen said.

On top of leniency for seniors and other students with valid excuses behind their absences, the administration at Huntley High School needs to be clearer with the mental health policy so students who do need it can take advantage of it without fearing possible consequences.