With virtual learning, what is Wake County's school attendance policy?

Attendance was obvious in the before-COVID classroom. Teachers just determined who wasn't there and marked them absent. But things are trickier today.

Posted 1:00 a.m. Aug 25, 2020 — Updated 7:32 p.m. Aug 25, 2020

Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

, Go Ask Mom editor

Attendance was obvious in the before-COVID classroom. Teachers just determined who wasn't there and marked them absent.

But things are trickier today. Until at least Oct. 22, all students in the Wake County Public School System are attending school virtually. Daily schedules are now packed with live instruction and pre-recorded sessions to help ensure that kids continue to learn during the pandemic.

But, for some, especially younger students, multiple hours with a screen aren't always optimal. I've been fielding questions like this one from a local mom.

"Do you know what the attendance policy is for Wake County? In black and white?" a mom wrote in a message to Go Ask Mom's Facebook page. "All of the screen time is causing a lot of overstimulation for my six-year-old (leading to drama), and I was curious if you would be able to get a definitive plan/response from them?"

Other students can't always log into their virtual classroom at specific times because of family situations and needs.

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So I checked in with Wake County Public School System to find out what's expected, and they sent over the policy. Attendance in all virtual instruction isn't required. But families do need to demonstrate that students are engaged and involved in their academic work in other ways.

During remote instruction, the policy states the following:

To be counted present during remote instruction days, either of the following two statements must be true:

A. Student completes their daily assignments, either online or offline; and/or a student is present in synchronous (live, real-time) instruction.

B. Student has a daily check-in or a two-way communication in a manner acceptable to the school with the appropriate teacher(s) as follows:

In grades PreK-5, the homeroom teacher.
In all other grade levels, each course teacher as listed on a student’s schedule.

"A student’s failure to log into a particular online program or lesson on a given remote instruction day shall not be grounds to mark the student absent for the day so long as the student meets one of the other attendance requirements described above.," the policy says. "A teacher may subsequently change a student’s attendance status from absent to present based on evidence of student engagement submitted on a later date."

Among the excused absences, which require a written excuse signed by a parent or guardian, include "isolation ordered by the State Board of Health."

For more details, read the entire policy on Wake County's website.

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