At the February ETHS District 202 Board of Education meeting, Principal Dr. Quiana McNeal highlighted current absence and tardiness trends, as well as the strategies the school is using to reduce them. Compared to quarter one, both attendance and tardies have stayed consistent.

During quarter two, 91% of students had fewer than 5% unexcused absences, and only 1.5-2% of students had two or more unexcused weekly absences. In terms of tardies, two-thirds of the student population had no tardies at all. The ETHS Data Dashboard found that the group of students with the most unexcused absences is the soon-to-be graduating class of 2026. 

According to McNeal, ETHS could be introducing hall checks, where select hallways have extra adult presence during passing periods to help manage students who are tardy to class. The purpose of these hall checks are to encourage students to get to class on time.

“It’s an opportunity to get a better understanding of who’s in the halls after the bell rings because that’s a safety concern,” said McNeal. 

Many students recognize the benefits of the hall sweeps and think it could be an effective way to encourage students to get to class on time.

“I think the hall checks are helpful because without them, I could stay distracted talking to my friends in the hall,” said senior Julia Hollenbeck.

Another strategy to combat tardiness is the Weekly On-Time Raffle, which aims to reward students who already attend class on time. Students without tardies in a given week are entered into a raffle, and one student per grade wins a prize each week. The raffle was implemented to acknowledge students who are consistently on time.

“I’m not more motivated to attend class after winning the raffle because I’ve always been motivated, and I think most students in the raffle likely feel the same way,” said previous winner sophomore Sammy Jain. “They aren’t on-time to win the prize, rather to simply be on time and do what the school asks them to do.”

While some students might appreciate the incentives for being on time, many also raise concerns about the fairness of some of the other tardy policies.

“I think that receiving a tardy for first block, even if you’re just three seconds late, is extremely unfair,” said Hollenbeck.

Many students feel it is unreasonable that a student who is 40 minutes late receives the same tardy as someone who is 30 seconds late and would like the policy to be adjusted. 

The absence and tardy policies are meant to equip students with the best possible education. 

“We want to develop a positive school culture, and we plan to implement incentives and other interventions to support students in school attendance and timeliness to class,” said McNeal. “We want to increase these efforts next school year.”