Chronically late or absent students no longer have to worry about losing class credit.

Superintendent Jerry Weast abolished the current LC policy today. The original policy stated that students would lose credit for five or more unexcused absences.

In the new LC policy, which will go into effect next school year, students will  retain credit for a class regardless of their attendance record, but teachers will be able to give zeros for work missed during an unexcused absence. MCPS principals will create their own individual policies on how students should be disciplined for an unexcused absence.

Some BOE members said they agree with Weast’s decision because the old policy encouraged students who already had five unexcused absences and thus a loss of credit to continue skipping class.

“There were a number of students who were discouraged when they hit the absences for Loss of Credit, so they would give up,” BOE member Shirley Brandman said. “Eliminating the LC policy provides an incentive for kids to stick with it, even if they have a number of unexcused absences.”

However, some argue that the new policy will actually encourage students to skip class more often.

“Before, teachers always had threat of an LC,” sophomore Ben Page said.  “Now that that’s not there, students might not be scared of the consequences.”

Because students will no longer lose credit for unexcused absences, they won’t have to petition administrators to get LCs reversed. Under the new plan, students who are failing their courses due to too many unexcused absences will have to appeal individual teachers.

Brandman points out that the new policy does not address the main reason why people skip classes in the first place.

“The best incentive to give students to attend a class is to make the class engaging,” Brandman said.  “When courses are meaningful and relevant, kids will attend.”