schools like to pretend suspension are unexcused absences when they decide to be dicks. my kinda deaf autism-y daughter went on half days for behavior problems . a couple weeks after half day schedule started , i was getting his letters from the mail from the main district superintendent regarding his absense. first, it was 9 which seems way too high but I'm not going to nitpick with them as its hard enough already, then next letter was 14, then 20 and I'm like 'what in the goddamn fuck is going on?"
I thought it was a mass mailing system fuck up so I took them all up to the school secretary and said she hadn't missed a single day in the time frame letters started . secretary took papers and asked if i had any doc notes to show she was excused and I said, again very nicely, 'no, because she's hasn't been absent and this started when she went on half days.' secretary said that was odd and I left office with impression from secretary it was a mistake.
daughter's IEP was a couple days after this and i had some issues about school not providing basic support services , feeling like they were ducking/bullshitting me, making lame excuses why she's not been provided certain auditory and professional supports ( para most of the time shes in class and speech therapy mostly) so there some tension at IEP but it was professional and I was meeting her new behavorial support team.
Right before meeting started,with new team there, principal pulled out the giant package of my daughter's erroneous absence notifications letters I'd just given her secretary a few days prior and lectured me on making sure she has good attendance . i was completely humiliated and just started getting shaky and couldn't speak. i nodded along in silence why they made their game plan but got brave at the end of the meeting and ask to go back to the issue of attendance and why she has been having unexcused absences while not messing school.
i was pretty confident the school was counting 60% of each school day as her being absent, starting when she went to half days for behavior problems and for her own tolerance level.
we all agreed half days would be fine at our very first meeting and no one said the other half of the day would be counted against her. so the principal and I talked in circles and answered each others questions until I just flat out said what I suspected and the school admins were kinda pissy but she said she would look into it.she didn't admit that was the specific reason but did agree that there's no cause to count her absent in the afternoon if she's on a modified morning only school schedule. that was good enough for me, at least there was other people hear to have at least heard the end of the argument so its not 'mom said' ' principal said' again.
the support team seemed to believe me though , that she hadn't missed any days and her actual day to day teacher didn't argue when i said she was at the school at the proscribed times we all agreed on (8-11) every single school day since half days schedule started.
the new speech therapist through the school and the audiotory specialist were really sympathetic and the actual day teacher barely said shit, it was me and the principal going over our meeting notes and recalling very different outcomes to the goals we all agreed on . the auditory specialist got really interested in my kid though and has been a great heavy hitter for recommended services in the local system system. she has more power than most so maybe thats why the principal wanted to through me under the bus, by implying her chronic absenteeism is why her services are being provided when its absolutely not the case at all.