Dr's note no longer excuse for absences at TN school district

https://www.wsmv.com/2025/07/22/doctors-note-no-longer-excuse-absences-tn-school-district/

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A local school district said doctors notes will no longer excuse your childs absence.
The Lawrence County School System said the policy is aimed at improving the districts attendance rate, but many parents are against it.
Rebecca Sanchez said her 10-year-old daughter got sick a lot last year.
Between the strep throat and the flu, I can say she missed about 17 days, Sanchez said.
If her daughter is absent for even half of that time this coming school year, it will now result in a referral to Lawrence County Juvenile Court for truancy.
I have never been for or against homeschool, but because of this new policy, it has definitely changed my mind, Sanchez said.
Under the Lawrence County School Systems new attendance policy, doctors notes will no longer excuse an absence. Students will now just be marked absent or present.

The policy states that after three absences, schools will start intervention. If the student keeps missing school, eight or more days, there will be a juvenile court referral.
You can fail the grade, Director of Schools Michael Adkins said during the districts June school board meeting. You can fail the course. You are going to be petitioned to court. You are not going to participate in graduation, get your drivers license or permit.
Adkins also said during the meeting, We are going to take control of the attendance of our students. You can bring all the doctors notes you want, but it is still unexcused.
While there will be exemptions for verified chronic illnesses and several other things, Adkins and other district officials said during Junes meeting that students need to learn reliability and work ethic.

If you have the sniffles, that is fine, Adkins said during the meeting. You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.
The district sent a letter last week to local medical providers asking them to emphasize the importance of regular school attendance while treating school-aged patients. The letter went on to say that medical notes excusing students for two or more days can unintentionally imply the students should remain home even after their health improves.
If a child goes to school sick and the school nurse sends that child home, Adkins said that will be marked as tardy.
How does that make sense? Sanchez asked. As a parent, how can we give someone else the right to say what is wrong with our child?

We reached out to multiple local districts about their attendance policies. Metro, Rutherford, Wilson, Williamson, and Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools all told us that they accept doctors notes to excuse absences.
A doctors note would be accepted but wouldnt necessarily be required, a spokesperson for Metro Nashville Public Schools said.
A doctors note would be required if there are more than five days absent: To maintain satisfactory attendance and the best chance of accomplishing academic growth and achievement, MNPS recommends a maximum of five (5) parent/guardian excuse notes. Any other absences will need to have a doctors note or proof of a positive COVID test to excuse the absence"

The attendance policy for MNPS can be found here.
A spokesperson for Clarksville Montgomery-County School System told us they have a similar policy. We also accept up to 5 notes from parents for any reason to be excused and we have some additional provisions, a spokesperson for CMCSS said.
Sanchez said she is bracing for the new school year that is now less than two weeks away. Ultimately, I am going to do what is right for my kid regardless of this policy, Sanchez said.

Lawrence County Schools said the new policy is to address the chronic absenteeism the district has. The state tracks this: absences for any reason, including those that are excused.
The most recent state data for the 2023-2024 school year showed that about 14% of all Lawrence County School Systems students had chronic absenteeism, meaning they missed 10% or more of instructional days.

We checked out several other local districts. Their percentages of students with chronic absenteeism for the 2023-2024 school year can be found below:
Williamson County Schools: 8.6%
Rutherford County Schools: 12.2%
Lewis County Schools: 12.7%
Lawrence County Schools: 13.8%
Wilson County Schools: 15.3%
Giles County Schools: 18.1%
Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools: 19.4%
Maury County Schools: 21%
Wayne County Schools: 21.2%
Metro Nashville Public Schools: 27.8%

Theres so much to unpack here but the part jumping out the most is the drivers permit/license.

are those tied to school in any form in TN? That seems like an absurd claim but Im not sure how licensing works over there

shockthemonkey posted...

Requiring a doctors note is fucking stupid because of how expensive and difficult it can be to see a doctor. This aint the way to fix that issue.

Used to be way easier in the 80's and 90's. Now, it's "We have an opening 3 weeks from now."

Making kids go to school sick where they can get other kids sick doesn't sound like it's going to end well.

Sounds like pushing people to have their kids homeschooled, sent to a charter or religious school is the goal here.

So work places do not give sick leave

THEREFORE

by not giving suck leave school is preparing kids better.

Under authoritarianism this is a valid educational theory

lol, that's one way to turn more kids towards dropping out. feels like another way to further the republican goal of more poorly educated.

Got to get those kids used to the wage slavery they'll suffer under in the future.

learn to hack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh_vLKlz2Mc

CobraGT posted...

So work places do not give sick leave

THEREFORE

by not giving suck leave school is preparing kids better.

Under authoritarianism this is a valid educational theory

It's more get rid of school sick days so thy can start getting rid of paid sick leave at work.

That's so fucking stupid. I already hate how much they regulate kids missing school and this makes it worse. When my son is sick, I send him to school unless he's puking or has a fever. Not because I want to send him in while sick, but because the school district will penalize him if he misses too many days. This will force parents' hands even further.

Cuticrusader09 posted...

While there will be exemptions for verified chronic illnesses and several other things, Adkins and other district officials said during Junes meeting that students need to learn reliability and work ethic.

If you have the sniffles, that is fine, Adkins said during the meeting. You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.

Who wants to bet this useless fuckin' shitheel does about a half hour of actual work in an entire year?

GeminiDeus posted...

Used to be way easier in the 80's and 90's. Now, it's "We have an opening 3 weeks from now."

Its about the same here. Difference is I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for it.

NoxObscuras posted...

That's so fucking stupid. I already hate how much they regulate kids missing school and this makes it worse. When my son is sick, I send him to school unless he's puking or has a fever. Not because I want to send him in while sick, but because the school district will penalize him if he misses too many days. This will force parents' hands even further.

Up to high school my district was fine. But high school is a pain because if they miss too many days, they dont get credit for the class. So we have to weigh how sick they are vs how many days they already took off.

While there will be exemptions for verified chronic illnesses and several other things, Adkins and other district officials said during Junes meeting that students need to learn reliability and work ethic.

Especially for when these same assholes start sending them to get mangled in the factory or to die of heat stroke in the fields when they're replacing the people who have been deported.

And usually, these people who pull this shit about, "I had to do things this way when I was a kid, so you have to also!" are people who actually had a pampered and privileged childhood.

Zeeak4444 posted...

Theres so much to unpack here but the part jumping out the most is the drivers permit/license.

are those tied to school in any form in TN? That seems like an absurd claim but Im not sure how licensing works over there

IIRC it's tied to truancy, they can revoke your license if you are found to be frequently skipping school. I don't think it's exclusive to TN

I'm sure that administration will be happy to also give up their own sick leave and PTO in the interest of fairness

The fuck is wrong with the US education system?

Around here, if your kid is sick you keep them home. And if you send them sick, they get sent right the fuck back home because school is enough of a plague cauldron as it is.

Also, fuck this attitude:

Cuticrusader09 posted...

If you have the sniffles, that is fine, Adkins said during the meeting. You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.

If you are at my workplace and have "the sniffles", stay the fuck home and don't give your germs to me.

I run a martial arts class and I police this heavily. If you are feeling unwell, don't come to class. I'm not going to view you as "a trooper" for "toughing it out" and coming when you're sick; I'm going to view you as an inconsiderate asshole with poor judgement and tell you to stay home because *I* don't want to get sick and share your misery.

"Sorry you got Cancer but even though you did schoolwork from home, you will still have to repeat the 4th grade!" - Adults super concerned about children.

Assholes like this are constantly demanding that people suffer like they did.

So kids will now come to school with pink eye or other contagious diseases and possibly getting other kids sick just so they don't miss school. How the hell do they think that's a good idea?

This is human scum ICE should be throwing in prison, if anyone should go through it.

Starks posted...

Assholes like this are constantly demanding that people suffer like they did.

That's unfair.

A lot of them didn't suffer at all, they're just irresilient snowflakes who want to cause harm.

I'm a teacher, so I deal with this all the time.

First of all, I don't think a student needs a doctor's note to miss a single day of school. It should be perfectly normal and acceptable to wake up one day with a cold or a migraine that gets better by the next day.

Second of all, if a student is legitimately sick, a doctor's note should *absolutely* be accepted as proof, and if a student's family cannot afford to take them to the doctor, then poverty absolutely *should not* be held against the student. Instead, schools should play a bigger role in ensuring that students and families have access to adequate medical care.

Third of all, there is a huge rise in chronic absenteeism nationwide. I see it in the school district in which I teach, and there absolutely need to be more severe consequences for parents who take their kids out of school for no fucking reason whatsoever. I've taught students who have missed 50-60 days of school because of vacations. I had an incident last year where I had a student who wasn't doing particularly well in my class. Parents e-mail me, ask me about what I can do to help, and so on. What happens 4 days later? Same parent e-mails me, tells me that the student is going to be gone for an entire month because they're going on a family vacation. Like, what the fuck is that? There can and absolutely should be consequences for students who miss an entire month of school. Obviously, this isn't the solution, and I think the school district is coming at this from the entirely wrong angle, but this is a very real problem that a lot of schools are dealing with. Nationwide, school attendance rates have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and from my anecdotal evidence, it's not because they're scared to come to school when they're sick.

The_Wheelman1 posted...

So kids will now come to school with pink eye or other contagious diseases and possibly getting other kids sick just so they don't miss school. How the hell do they think that's a good idea?

Right wingers/conservatives hate the idea of a well educated population. To them, school is just tax-funded daycare

Recipe for contagious outbreaks.

So essentially, the school is treating the kids exactly like they treat employees in a workforce.

Cuticrusader09 posted...

If you have the sniffles, that is fine, Adkins said during the meeting. You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.

Only because our society is so fucked that people can't afford to miss a day because they don't have sick time (or even if they do).

Societies in the future will read about America and marvel at how stupid we are.

We JUST got through a massive pandemic that killed millions, yet we are somehow doing less now to stop the spread of diseases than we did before.

Oh, cool. I lived in Lawrence County when I was a kid. Good to know it's still a terrible place.

This country is fucked up

Cuticrusader09 posted...

If you have the sniffles, that is fine, Adkins said during the meeting. You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.

Can someone compile how many teachers and students died from covid because of policies like this for the district?

Cuticrusader09 posted...

Lawrence County Schools said the new policy is to address the chronic absenteeism the district has. The state tracks this: absences for any reason, including those that are excused.

I wonder if there's funding at stake, like there is with standardized tests...

darkknight109 posted...

I run a martial arts class

Cool. What's your system/art?

I know I've seen more than a few people here say they practice, but I don't remember anyone saying they're a teacher.

Cuticrusader09 posted...

If a child goes to school sick and the school nurse sends that child home, Adkins said that will be marked as tardy.

So... They want you to go to school sick or else you get punished, but if you go to school sick and get sent home for being sick, you also get punished.

Wow.

Getting a dr note actually in some ways is easier due to tele doctors. Its what I do when I get sick, but its something Ill kick with a day to recover.

but kids get sick, it happens, this just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

texanfan27 posted...

Getting a dr note actually in some ways is easier due to tele doctors. Its what I do when I get sick, but its something Ill kick with a day to recover.

but kids get sick, it happens, this just seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

Especially with shit like measles having outbreaks in several spots across the US.

HashtagSEP posted...

So... They want you to go to school sick or else you get punished, but if you go to school sick and get sent home for being sick, you also get punished.

Wow.

Yeah, that stood out to me the most. Fuckin crazy.

Amazon Warehouse School

NoxObscuras posted...

That's so fucking stupid. I already hate how much they regulate kids missing school and this makes it worse. When my son is sick, I send him to school unless he's puking or has a fever. Not because I want to send him in while sick, but because the school district will penalize him if he misses too many days. This will force parents' hands even further.

I never knew this is a thing. Considering that kids mostly get sick from school contacts it is really unfair.

I'm not sure how they should be managing the issue of chronic absenteeism in their district, but forbidding doctor's notes doesn't seem like the best way to go about it.

if anyone shows up to work sick, my job basically tells you to get the fuck out. i've been allowed to go home because i got shit sleep and was tired. sent home for allergies that wouldn't let up.

It doesn't matter it's just Tennessee. not like anyone expects much from their school system.

Sandalorn posted...

"Sorry you got Cancer but even though you did schoolwork from home, you will still have to repeat the 4th grade!" - Adults super concerned about children.

You missed the truancy laws. So it's more like, "Sorry you had cancer. We're throwing you in juvie and finding your parents."

name_unknown posted...

learn to hack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh_vLKlz2Mc

Grace!!!!!!!!!

I remember the name Nashville but I don't remember exactly why. Didn't something fucked up happen there?

They just want that attendance money. Too many kids missed too many days and they lost out on some cash. They don't get paid for the kids that stay home.

Covid popped up and America joined the war on disease (on the side of disease).