Bettendorf School District reacts to new attendance legislation

A new law in Iowa is redefining what’s considered chronic absences or chronic truancy in school attendance. Dr. Michelle Morse, Superintendent of the Bettendorf Community School District spoke with Our Quad Cities News via Zoom to discuss the new legislation.

“Senate file 2435 that was just passed and signed into law on July 1 ^st did redefine attendance, where students can be identified as chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of the days or hours in a grading period. They did give us as school districts local control over defining what a grading period is. If a student should miss 20% or more of those days or hours in a grading period, as defined by the school district, they would be identified as chronically truant. There are different steps they’ve outlined in this piece of legislation that we have to work through.”

“I think as a Superintendent attendance is important. We really strive for students to be in school every day but missing no more than possibly five days a year. We have some pieces we still are working through in terms of the legislation and how are we going to update policies here in Bettendorf. But if this is a way to bring families and school districts together to work on how do we reduce the barriers that are preventing students from getting to school then I see that as a win a win for everybody, especially our students.”

“We’re all striving to get this done, since school started today, as quickly as possible. We’re in the process of working with our staff. Our next board meeting is in September, where we hope to have a draft updated policy for them. In the next week or so, we want to get some information out to our parents to help them understand the changes in the law.”

Dr. Morse says attendance isn’t a major issue in the Bettendorf School District. “The majority of our students are here, they’re here with regular attendance, they’re engaged in learning. We do have some families that, for different reasons, would potentially fall in that chronically truant category. We would work with them as outlined in the law as we had done previously with the Scott County Attorney’s office and work with them through what that process is and work with the family through that process.”

She says local officials are already working on the new attendance protocol. “Our County Attorney has already reached out to the local districts and we’re starting to set up conversations with them about how are we going to collaborate, what does that look like. I think ultimately the county attorney’s office’s goal, just like the school district’s goal is how do we work with families to ensure their students are here on a daily basis. We want kids to learn, we want them to be in safe, rigorous environments where they’re learning and they’re engaged.”

Dr. Morse says there’s help for families who are having trouble getting kids to school regularly. “If parents have concerns or having challenges getting their students to school, I would encourage them to reach out to their school administrator, their principals, their school counselor or the school nurse. We’re all here to support our families and our students and we want to be able to help those families get their students reengaged in learning.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.