Let me start by explaining my high school's attendance policy. You have 10 excused absence days without a doctor's note, meaning, if you get sick frequently, you have to go to the doctor for every minor sickness when you decide to miss school. For many students, that means that they will go to school when they are sick, allowing everyone else to get sick in the process.

While some people may think that this is overdramatic, we also have to think about the people who get sick more frequently than others or cannot afford to go to the doctor every time they get sick. One student says, "I get sick a lot and I can't afford to go to the doctors for every little cold so I have an unlawful absence now and if I get cramps or sick or something I have to go to school." Some may not use the given 10 days for a small cold, it still does affect others by spreading whatever cold or virus the person had, which is the big problem nowadays in schools.

I asked around 26 people if they had gone to school while knowingly being sick. 17 of them said they have, and 9 said they haven't, which raises the big question: is the policy the reason kids are going to school sick? Is this why kids are getting sick more often?

Most students come to school sick because they do not want to miss work or use a sick day so they can optimize their learning experience and make sure they have a good amount of sick days. Many are terrified of missing school specifically because of the workload itself, this has been somewhat fixed by online programs like Canvas or D2L, but it still is a huge problem for high school students all over the country. Coming to school sick is causing more problems than helping. Students are spreading diseases like wildfire, Out of the 6.5 million students in the United States, about 13% of them miss around 15 days or more of school every year. (https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/143...)

Having an attendance policy that only allows about 10 days or less just does not make sense with the number of students who seem to be missing school every single year, and the number continues to grow the more students come to school while sick.