Opinion ID: 4026314
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: New Attendance Policy for the 2013–14 School

Text: Year In the summer of 2013, Appellee enacted a new attendance policy for the 2013–14 school year that required students to be retained if they accrued more than 33 absences in a school year—regardless of whether the absences were “excused, approved, [or] unexcused.” Id. ¶ 53; Ex. E.2 Students with more than fifteen unexcused absences were required to attend a “Saturday Credit Reinstatement Program” in order to obtain credit sufficient to pass their courses. Id. ¶ 60; Ex. E. Appellants allege that Appellee “made a deliberate choice to enact the Policy,” despite Appellee’s knowledge that it was “substantially likely” that the new attendance policy would harm S.D.’s ability to advance in school, in order to “target” students like S.D. who had frequent excused absences. Id. ¶¶ 54–55. Appellants assert that, because the 2 The Policy reads in full: STUDENTS ARE LIMITED TO A TOTAL OF 33 ABSENCES IN A SCHOOL YEAR. THIS INCLUDES ANY ABSENCE (INCLUDING EXCUSED, APPROVED, AND UNEXCUSED). The only exception is home instruction approved by the district. STUDENTS WITH MORE THAN 33 DAYS ABSENT WILL BE RETAINED. Id. ¶ 53. 6 new attendance policy allowed students with unexcused absences to make up credits and progress to the next grade through the Saturday Credit Reinstatement Program, but offered no such mechanism for students with absences excused by, for example, a disability, to make up credits, the policy had an impermissible discriminatory effect. Id. ¶¶ 61– 62.