School to End Lower Grades for Tardiness

Being late to class no longer translates into poorer grades at Moorpark High School.

A new policy, which takes effect Monday on an interim basis until it is formally approved Feb. 9, is the first phase of Moorpark’s attempt to comply with a state mandate that directs school districts to end social promotion.

The district is also looking to phase out by fall its policy that connects unexcused absences with a student’s grade, Assistant Supt. Frank DePasquale said.

In the future, teachers will have to prove that absences and tardiness affect a student’s grade, he said.

Plans to replace that policy with some other directive will be discussed at a Feb. 9 board meeting. The old policy equated three unexcused tardies with one unexcused absence.

While the unexcused tardy portion of the district policy will be dropped immediately, the unexcused absence portion, under which a student can be dropped a whole grade if he or she has five unexcused absences, will remain in place through June.

Board member Tom Baldwin said it is long overdue for the district to change its policy. If a situation arises where parents claim that their children’s poor grades are a result of the attendance policy, he said, the district would have “no legal leg to stand on because the policy does not match state law.”