Attendence
We are a growing school, we had a student population of about 85 student about a year ago and now we have a 185 student, yea!
With this we have a current attendance requirement of 90% so we are complaint with the DOE regulation but looking around at other schools i did not come across one school who has this high standards. The majority of then have 75-80 % requirement, can you clarify what is the industry standard which is complaint with the department of education.
Mallik,
Given variances between programs, there is not a specific answer or policy that works for all schools. Each school defines their protocol and it is important to follow your school's guidelines which have been established to ensure compliance.
Traci Lee
We are at this time ready to re-evaluating and ready yo change the current attendance policy. I wanted to verify form other school administrators what is the department of education standard? For some reason we thought it was 90%? Am i right.
Mallik,
Again, I would defer to your institution's regulatory authorities as the criteria can be applied various ways to ensure compliance and it is important you follow your school's rules accordingly.
Traci Lee
Apparently there is not a set standard but is up to the individual schools because the Education Group that I work for just raised the attendance level to 90%.
At our family of schools, we go by the clock-hour system, and this has a more stringent attendance requirement than when we were a credit-hour school. As a credit-hour school we maintained 80% attendance requirement. Now that we have switched back to clock-hours, our requirement has gone back up to 90%.
I do believe this may be the difference - clock-hour or credit-hour. As a clock-hour school, our graduates receive a certificate with the number of hours completed on it. In order for them to have completed a clock-hour program, they have to be in-seat for at least 90% of those hours.
One of the things we do is have a requirement of maintaining 90% attendance in each class so that the overall program attendance will be guaranteed to be over 90%.
We do have opportunities for students to make up time if they have missed more than 10% - students can attend another meeting of the class (we have a day program and an evening program so students can make up the time by attending the other class). Students can also receive tutoring with the instructor on the information missed.
But mostly, we encourage them to just be here all the time. :)
As far as i know, the DOE requires a 90% attendance rate. Thats what we go by at all of our 34 schools. Infact we just raised teh attendance requrements to meet the 90%. Previuosly it was based on programs.
Our institution also has a 90% attendance requirement, though we are a credit-hour institution.
We have discovered that students really need to be attending nearly all of their classes in order to benefit fully from the instruction. 90% allows for a certain amount of leeway if they need to take a day off occasionally, but ensures that they are taking full advantage of their education.
I think attendance is important, it helps when dropping a student
CINDY,
Monitoring attendance can also be a great way to identify "at risk" students and counsel them to catch up (depending on your attendance policies) in an effort to retain, rather than having to drop a student.
Traci Lee
To be in compliance with our state regulations regarding Massage Therapy Schools if a student misses 10% of any class this class must be repeated or remediated with a licensed instructor of that area.
We require 100% attendance, with a minimum of 80% attendance and that you make up that 20% to equal 100%. It is a constant job to monitor and assist students with make up hours and scheduling it to fit their schedule. I have also found that we have a much higher standard than any other school within several states. My question is, why don't the other schools have such high standards?
I think by my campus haveing 100% attendance all the time is awesome, all of our students know that even if they miss 54 minutes they are required to make it up, plus I think it is an added bonus for employers to know that we require that so that they feel they will recieve the same once our students are working for them.
Our school has the graduation requirement "must be in attendance 90% or better." Since we are career school, we strive to ensure our students understand this policy. It's not acceptable in the workplace of skipping work, so we don't expect it in class. Students must call in or contact their instructor prior to missing a class just like the would inform their supervisor in the workforce. We do at times have students who miss more than the alloted 90% and must appeal to stay in school. There are those who also need to appeal to graduate because they have missed more than the 10% allowed. These students must have documentation for at least 50% of their absences in order for us to allow them to either come off probation or graduate.
Kathie,
Thanks for sharing the details of your process to manage attendance tracking. I think this is an important area for schools to ensure they document appropriately - particularly when there are approvals of exceptions.
Traci Lee
Attendance is a must. How can an institution validate a students learning if the student is not in attendance. I like that the DOE has set guide lines for schools to follow by. If students were not accountable for the attendance, how would it carry over to their work practices. Which in return would be a direct reflection on the school placement percentage, because if students will not attend school and gain quality education we would not be place them.
Russell,
I think students need to participate to gain from their education. "Attendance" is difficult to define with some modalities (such as distance education) and it will be interesting to see how things evolve as colleges become more innovative with online and hybrid models of delivery.
Traci Lee
Good afternoon!
Keep in mind that the DOE cannot pass judgement over the schools' educational quality, since it is a state level responsibility. As a result, it could be inferred that it is why the DOE had not established a specific %. Thus, most likely the differences we are sharing regarding the minimum % of attendance requirements either by program or in general, if credit or clock-hour, might be the result of practice differences among licensing bodies and Accreditation requirements at state level.
Tracy would you agree?
Thanks.
Yamira,
There certainly can be differences among licensing bodies and accreditation requirements - not just at a state level but between accreditation bodies at an institutional and/or programmatic level. I do think that some schools have established guidelines to ensure alignment with credit hour definitions that also may relate to the Dept of Ed guidelines effective with the July 2011 regulatory updates.
Traci Lee
We are a clock hour school with a graduation requirement of 90% attendance. I can't imagine having less than that. I'm curious how those with 100% attendance handle resceduling of missed time to ensure 100%?
