The CHS administration has taken a stricter approach to combating school absences and tardies for the 2022-2023 school year. From tardy sweeps to detention, students are faced with new consequences for missing classes. With this direction of encouragement comes a new challenge for Chamblee seniors to pass. The new requirement of four or fewer unexcused absences in a class (in addition to the requirement of having an A) next comes in the long line of efforts to push students to attend their classes. For many seniors, this demand makes what is normally an easy midterms period into a stressful and paramount time.
“I’ve had to split time between writing my college applications and studying for my classes which has led to a lot of issues for me,” said Nicholas Nitsche (‘23).
Nitsche has been forced to take his final even with satisfactory grades due to his nonattendance from COVID-19.
“[The exemption rules] are unfortunate for me because I had COVID, so my attendance had absences,” said Nitsche.
Will Elder (‘23) has faced similar problems with finals exemption because of issues with his attendance.
“I’ve been exempted from none of [my finals] because I have more than four absences,” said Elder. “[The new requirements] are unjust and should be changed.”
Elder believes that the old conditions needed for exemption were much more fitting for seniors.
“I think you should be exempted if you have an A in the class, and I don’t think your attendance should be counted,” said Elder.
For Jonah Nicpon (‘23), meeting the demands for exemptions is still not enough for some of his teachers.
“[I’ve only been exempted from AP Statistics because the AP Biology and AP Economics teachers don’t do exemptions,” said Nicpon.
For Nicpon, his attendance was the biggest hurdle in exempting his finals.
“I’d change the way the absences work. For some of my finals, I haven’t been able to get exempted from them due to the new four required unexcused absences,” said Nicpon.
While all three of these students may be in different situations, they can all agree on one thing about the new exemption forms: attendance should not be a requirement.