Tennessee is Risking Children’s Health for Cash
How Lawrence County, TN is using their school system to groom children into a system that prioritizes attendance over personal health
As a resident of Tennessee for all my life, I thought I had (unfortunately) gotten used to the bigotry, sexism, racism, and overall horrible policies that plague this state. But a recent decision from the Lawrence County School Board was so shocking, I knew I had to get the word out.
You see, Lawrence County, TN is eliminating “excused absences” in its public schools.
What does that look like exactly? Well… now a child who is absent for any reason - be it illness, family vacation, appointments, or another emergency - will be counted as “absent” for that day. A doctor’s note will no longer excuse an absence. If the child is sent home early by the school nurse, they will be marked “tardy” for that day. That’s right! Apparently, the Lawrence County School Board knows more about medicine than licensed doctors and nurses!
With TN schools starting back in a few days, let’s look at the consequences of this decision.
Impact on Students & Families
Students will now face extremely harsh consequences for missing more than 8 days of school a year. The Director of the Schools, Michael Adkins explained what these consequences will be during a town hall last month:
“You can fail the grade. You can fail the course. You are going to be petitioned to court. You are not going to participate in graduation, get your driver’s license or permit.
“We are going to take control of the attendance of our students. You can bring all the doctor’s notes you want, but it is still unexcused.”
As a former Tennessee teacher and student, I was appalled and disgusted to hear about this new policy.
When I was a teacher, I had successful and bright students who missed school due to illness. I helped to catch them up. Students would take mental health days. I would email them their work. I had online students who never set foot in a physical classroom. I sent them worksheets, videos, and materials; I held video lectures.
When I was a student, I suffered from chronic illnesses and missed quite a bit of school myself - around 3 weeks in a year in most cases. But I still graduated with a 3.6 GPA and several college credits. If I faced the consequences the children in Lawrence County, TN will face for being sick, I may not have graduated.
It is never acceptable to punish a child for being sick.
Imagine for a minute that you are a parent whose child is enrolled in this harsh system. Now, one day, your child gets sick and misses quite a bit of school. After successfully navigating the horror of taking your child to doctors and hospitals and finally seeing them on the road to recovery, you receive a letter. It informs you that you are being taken to court due to your child’s truancy, leading to more stress and financial hardship for your family.
A student returning to school after being out for an illness may find that he is now failing a class he needed to graduate. A 16-year-old who needs to get her licence in order to help her family may not be able to if she’s out sick too much.
Not only does this put enormous toxic stress on children, which can actively harm their developing brains, but to announce this policy just a couple of years after a global pandemic is dangerous and horrifying.
Malice Masked in Incompetency
If this is a stupid decision from many different perspectives (personal, global, medical, psychological, etc), then why announce and enforce it?
As you may know by now, Republicans love to purposefully make dangerous policies under the guise of being inept. However, these policies do actually serve them some kind of purpose. And this is no exception.
On a MICRO level, the motivation here is very simple: money. Tennessee school funding is not linked to grades, test scores, or graduation rates - but to attendance. It doesn’t matter how well your students perform; Tennessee only cares about butts in seats.
The argument of “good attendance leads to better performance” doesn’t hold up here either. While regular attendance does lead to better grades, it is not JUST attendance that matters. If a student is physically in class, but not engaged, learning will not take place. A positive, safe learning environment is much more important than simply having bodies in seats. And schools can not be positive and safe if children are scared to get sick.
Let’s turn our attention to the MACRO level now. By punishing children for missing school when they’re sick, Republicans are teaching a very important lesson to our children: you should disregard your health in favor of work output.
By teaching these children to ignore their own feelings, they are creating an ideal workforce that will prioritize productivity over all else. Workers who will mindlessly do what they are told, regardless of their health.
Supporting this idea, Director Adkins even stated, “If you have the sniffles, that is fine. You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.”
This ideology of overworking is incredibly harmful to adults in the workforce today, as demonstrated by the statistics from On The Alley below:
Call to Action
💲 Donate to organizations that promote prioritizing kids’ health:
🏫 Support the national teachers unions - the organizations that are on the front lines in the fight to uphold and strengthen public education:
🧰 Share from DemCast’s #ClassroomsNotCuts toolkit to support educators and students against Trump’s cuts to the DoE:
Run for office and make a difference!
Get involved in your area by attending and commenting at your local school board meetings, where attendance is often low and where you have the chance to make a real difference.
Organize friends to attend these events with you.
Advocate for the right of every student to quality education, free of extremist ideologies.
Make your voices heard!
I’ve been chronically ill my whole life. Missed school days every year. Did my make up work as needed. Under this policy I’d have never finished second grade.
In my masters program we didn’t have any attendance policies. If you had to miss class, you were an adult and could make that choice. As long as your work was good, you got a fair grade.
Disgusting. I had two students with cancer during my career. One passed away, the other lived is alive and well. Regardless, the stress of something like this is beyond cruel. Sure, punish a child with cancer! Wtf 🤬