Studies done by the National Center for Education Statistics show that poor and irregular attendance is a good indicator of whether a student will drop out of school. There is a clear link between having “chronic absenteeism” as a child and later dropping out of high school, and signs of dropping out can show up as early as preschool.
The road to success all starts with showing up to school. Having regular attendance is the first step in earning your high school diploma. This also applies to earning your college diploma and even getting better paying jobs to become more successful in life.
State attendance laws
According to laws set by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), a student earns credit by attending 90% or more of their classes. If they attend less than 90% of their classes, they will be denied credit.
However, as long as they have attended at least 75% of their classes, they are able to make it up through credit recovery. Only if a student attends less than 75% of their classes are they unable to recover the credit at all. This law includes excused and unexcused absences.
So, how many students are too far gone, and how many students are still able to recover their credit?
Judson attendance
According to Ms. Gutierrez, the school’s at-risk counselor, 25% of students at Judson High School have already missed 10% of their classes. With almost 2,600 students at this school, that equals to around 650 students— 650 students that are in need of credit recovery and we are only a quarter of the way done with the school year.
Those students are unable to receive credit for the course unless they do some form of credit recovery. At Judson High School, this is called JROC hours. A student can earn back their credits by getting JROC hours. The only way a student wouldn’t be able to qualify for JROC hours is if they miss more than 25 days of school.
Opportunities to earn back credits are offered all throughout the school year and are even available in the first 9 weeks of the next school year for JROC hours from the previous year.
What’s being done for you
If a student is part of that 25%, Judson High School offers a plethora of ways to help them out:
One of the school’s two truancy officers, Mike Somsapya or Tommy Brown, contact the student and their guardian whenever their attendance becomes an issue. This helps notify students so they can take action in reclaiming their credit.
With the switch from the 5-by-5 schedule to the 7-by-5 schedule this year, credits have actually become easier to earn back. The semesters have become longer than they were before. This allows the students more time to be aware of whether or not they need to recover any credits, and gives them more time to complete credit recovery if necessary.
In addition, Judson offers a variety of different ways to earn JROC hours. The most common ways to recover credit that count as JROC hours are tutoring, community hours and volunteer hours.
They also have JROC Saturdays where students have the opportunity to complete any schoolwork they might be missing, and where food and transportation are provided. The next JROC Saturday is Nov. 9, 2024.