Why are students late to school?
By Maria M.
Have you ever been late to school? Has being late to school become a habit?
Many CATS students, like senior Eyon B., are late to school. “I wake up too late or I take a long time to get ready,” he said. For senior Jolette A. the reason is, “I get stuck in traffic.”
Being late to school can affect your grades or relationships with your teachers. For example, Eyon B. stated, “It kinda affects my grades because I missed some instruction time and am slowly falling behind.”
Jolette A. agrees. “I think it does affect the relationship with the teacher because I have to catch up and they don’t have time to explain again and it becomes difficult.” She added,”My first period teacher gets bothered when I’m late to his class.”
However, she also said, “coming late doesn’t affect my grade because I still get all my work done.”
Ms. Natalie Del Castillo, the Attendance Counselor at CATS, is in charge of making sure that kids are on time and are at school every day. She listed a few reasons for students being late such as, “transportation, they live far from school, family problems, homelessness, loss of a family or they work.”
She helps students be accountable to themselves to and to their teachers by giving them a “daily,” which is a green form that students give to their teachers at the end of the class to sign and answer questions like, “Was the student on time?” “Is the student missing work?” “Does the student follow directions?” and other important questions. The student can see what needs to be improved.
When students are chronically late, it can become a big problem. She explained the consequences of students coming late to school saying, “When they come late an X amount of time, it counts as an absence.” And if students are constantly marked as absent, that can lead to thousands of dollars in fines and being taken to court, she said.
According to Ms. Del Castillo, parents need to be involved in ensuring that students are at school because she says it’s best to work as a team. She also said that parents should be honest about the cause of their child’s tardiness.
