Same. Parents often apologize for keeping sick kids home, and I always think that home is EXACTLY where they should be if they’re sick.

Like school hours that work against kids sleep schedules. As teens’ bodies shift to falling asleep later and waking later, our schools move to earlier start times (9am ele, 8am middle, 7am high), and when chronically sleep deprived kids miss the bus, transportation becomes an issue too.

Like irregular but frequent appts. Some schools don’t count weekly appts for kids against them when doing reward systems, but what about medical conditions that result in frequent appts that aren’t weekly? Tack on multiple clinics and there’s no universe a child hits 90% attendance.

And I hate the argument that schools provide OT/PT/SLP as related services. That’s only if a child qualifies…and the bar is high. A kid can be months to years behind on motor skills and not qualify. Plus if they do, they’d probably benefit from outside therapy because school based minutes are low.

Like affordable, reliable child care. Teaching secondary means you have kids who miss to babysit sometimes because otherwise parents can’t work. Even when they have reliable childcare, younger siblings can’t go to school sick but parents often can’t afford to stay home so the older sibling does.

Like transportation. Yes buses run but they start a mile away from the schools, and not every kid can safely walk a mile to school, given the lack of pedestrian safety streets in many areas, so parents are on their own to get kids to school, which is sometimes impossible to do regularly.

Like appts. Orthodontists here start appointments at 6:45 am and work around school hours. But OT/PT/SLP run 9-6pm and those 4 & 5 pm slots are near impossible to get. Waiting lists for any OT/PT/SLP run months long (but are effectively years long). So ppl take what they can get & kids miss school.

Grade 6 needs to bring a pencil if you could work that into your indoctrination efforts also.