DC Students Who Show Up For 1 Minute Still Marked Present
Students Can Show Up For 1 Minute And Still Be Marked Present, DC School Board Warns
In some Washington, D.C., public school classrooms, a student can show up for just a minute, or arrive near the end of class, and still be counted as present.
That reality is now raising concerns among education officials who say current attendance rules may allow students to technically meet requirements while spending little time in class.
The issue surfaced during a recent meeting of the D.C. State Board of Education’s College, Career and Life Readiness Committee, where Ward 4 board member T. Michelle Colson warned that students may be exploiting a gap in the district’s attendance policies.
“If the class is 60 minutes, if they show up at the 50th minute, they are marked tardy, not absent,” Colson said during the meeting. “Or they can show up for the first minute, leave class, walk the halls, and they’re still marked as present.”
Colson said the policy can create an incentive for some students to remain technically compliant with attendance rules while spending limited time in the classroom.
“So what that creates is the opportunity for students to roam the halls, cut class, go to the teacher, get the assignments and turn them in, and be content with passing the class with a C or D,” she said.
For families and policymakers, the issue goes beyond technical attendance rules. It raises a bigger question about whether schools are accurately measuring how much time students are actually spending learning, and whether attendance policies reflect the realities of classroom engagement.
D.C. Public Schools has clear rules defining absences and limits on how many absences students can accumulate before facing academic consequences. But Colson suggested that the district’s policies are less clear regarding tardiness and partial attendance.
The issue prompted questions from other board members about whether the problem stems from local policy or broader regulations governing attendance across the city’s schools.
Education Committee Chair Eboni Rose Thompson asked whether the issue would require a formal policy change or simply clearer language in existing attendance rules.
“I understand that this is specific to DCPS as you have outlined it,” Thompson said during the meeting. “But with the larger attendance policy, will we be looking at Chapter 25 or attendance policies in general?”
Her question pointed to a key issue in the discussion: determining which agency has the authority to address the problem.
The D.C. State Board of Education sets certain education policies across the District, including standards that affect both traditional public schools and charter schools. D.C. Public Schools, however, manages day-to-day operations and administrative policies for the city’s traditional public school system.
Attendance policies have become an increasingly urgent issue nationwide as districts struggle with chronic absenteeism following the pandemic. In many cities, including Washington, D.C., large numbers of students are missing significant amounts of instructional time. If attendance policies allow students to be marked present even when they are only in class briefly, it can make it harder for schools and families to understand how much learning time students are really getting.
According to the D.C. Policy Center, many teenagers in the city miss at least 10% of the academic year, a threshold widely used by researchers to define chronic absenteeism. At the same time, the city’s high school graduation rate rose from 68% in the 2018–2019 school year to 76% in 2022–2023.
The discussion also touches on how school systems measure success. Graduation rates are often used to show progress in public education, but policymakers say those numbers only tell part of the story if students are not consistently attending class. For education leaders, the debate is ultimately about whether attendance policies accurately reflect student engagement and whether students are being prepared for college, careers, and life after high school.
Ward 5 board member Robert Henderson suggested the board examine attendance data more closely to determine how widespread the issue may be. Committee members also discussed gathering feedback from teachers and counselors to better understand how attendance policies operate in practice. Colson said she plans to draft a proposal outlining possible policy changes for the committee to review.
“I could take a first pass,” she said. “I can work on it and get something back to you in May.”
The board did not take immediate action, but the issue is expected to return in future meetings as officials consider whether to clarify or strengthen attendance rules.
Paloma Accrombessi is a senior economics major and journalism minor at Howard University. She is interested in immigration and economic policy issues. You can connect with her on instagram @paloma_acr.
Elijah Pittman is a senior journalism major at Howard University. He covers the impact of systemic policies on oppressed people’s realities. You can connect with him in on Instagram: @e1jah.
Amaiyah Coleman is a junior public relations major at Howard University. She is interested in issues related to women and higher education. You can connect with her on Instagram (@miamaiyah_).
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