Like clockwork at any rigorous school, as university acceptances trickle in, seniors trickle out. Once fiercely competitive, these new adults see the light at the end of the tunnel and their punctuality slips. “Senioritis,” the loss of motivation for upperclassmen following university acceptances, often manifests as frequent tardies and absences. In response to an increase in such cases, DIS updated its longstanding attendance policy over the summer for the 2024-2025 school year.

The previous school year saw a marked increase in the number of senior absences and tardies. This mostly affected classes with predominantly upperclassmen populations, such as Creative Writing, AP Biology, and AP Statistics. “In the past, seniors, especially for the first block, have shown up late and missed. I can testify for my own class that’s been the case. My Creative Writing class last year was first block, and it was difficult—not as much for the beginning of the year, but the second semester—to get students to show up,” high school English teacher Ms. Loutsch said.

Issues also arose when students viewed non-summative classes and electives as expendable. “Last year, I had a learning lab for my first period. When I woke up, I thought since my first period was a learning lab and it’s not important, I could just go back to bed for an extra forty-five minutes. That resulted in me usually coming into class right before second period started. When I went to the front office to get my tardy slip, I would also see one or two of my friends there for tardies as well,” class of 2024 graduate Alex Lee said.

Such behavior ultimately hurts everyone in the long run. Senioritis, at large, impedes learning and makes catch-up lessons harder. “Students come to school to learn. If you miss a lot of classes, it makes it harder for both teachers and students to catch up with everything. Missing one class, especially for AP Statistics, is huge. It’s going to be very hard to catch up with everything from missing homework to missing lessons. Students will be completely lost unless they put in a lot of effort to reach out to the teacher or relearn everything by themselves,” secondary math teacher Ms. Wang said. 

A lack of effort also damages a senior’s relationship with their teacher. “Something I’ve really been burned by over the years when somebody does that is if I write a letter of recommendation for the individual. When I write it, they’re very praiseworthy, but later that individual isn’t, that dilutes my words and what I had to say to schools. It’s not intended as personal disrespect to me, but that’s what it sometimes feels like. Who knows? Maybe it comes down to sometimes actually then writing to the university and saying, ‘I’m sorry, but what I wrote originally—I can’t back that up anymore,’” secondary English teacher Mr. Hinkle said.

To address these issues, the new attendance policy introduced stricter requirements to earn course credits. The policy limits absences to a maximum of 20 per class during the school year and requires students to maintain a passing grade (70 or above) in both semesters to receive credit. Additionally, the guidelines now consider extreme tardiness (more than half of a period) as an unexcused absence.

Faculty also emphasized student awareness. Twelfth-grade advisories and classes went over the importance of attendance at the beginning of the year. “In the previous years, all we did at the beginning was just sign the syllabus and go over the course load. This year, we went over attendance issues in all of my classes. A lot of the teachers seem worried that we’ll get senioritis and miss school. We’ve even had Mr. Jolly come in to talk to us during our advisory,” twelfth grader Louie Song said.

Public reception appears largely positive; faculty hope for the specifics to be ironed out but appreciate that action is being taken. “I think it’s a really good change and was really needed. But in my honest opinion, it’s still pretty generous. I should be more demanding—the number of absences we allow for graduation should be less than this. Still, I always think little steps are important and that it’s a good step in the right direction. Maybe we could see how it goes and modify it at the end of the year, but for now, I’m happy that we’re thinking about this and making changes,” Wang said.

Meanwhile, the current upperclassmen acknowledge the reasoning behind but not the necessity of the new policy. “To be honest, I don’t think our grade even needs the policy. We have a lot of school spirit, and I think we can hold ourselves accountable to not miss school and be in class. So I don’t really like it, but I still think it makes sense. Given the context of what happened last year and all the frequent absences, it’s reasonable DIS updated the attendance system,” Song said.

Though the updated guidelines may take some time to get used to, they offer a chance for students to end the year strong. Seniors must keep in mind to make the most out of their final year to build lasting memories and deepen their connections with friends and teachers. So as you navigate through your final school year, make sure to heed Ms. Loutsch’s sound advice: “Come to school”.