With morning traffic often at its worst minutes before the start of school at 9 a.m. and the hallways at their most crowded, students can often be seen rushing to class to avoid being tardy. Although tardies may seem like no big deal in the fall, if they start to add up, students usually have to pay the price.

“Your first tardy is excused with a warning, but the second means a detention,” tardy table attendant Ken Budz said. “Certainly the more tardies you have, the more deep consequences you get yourself into.”

After ten tardies, students receive ISS or referral to an AP, while stacking up absences can lead to truancy, meaning being placed on an Attendance Contract for the remainder of the semester.

“The contract puts limitations on the types of absences that will be considered excused like doctors notes and sometimes parent notes,” AP Secretary Marilyn Bryant said. “Students will be assigned mandatory tutorials to make up for all the time they missed.  If the contract is violated, an AP will meet with the student and parent to discuss Truancy Court.”

Absences tend to be more frequent than tardies, as a student is considered absent when missing 30 minutes or more of class.

“In order to be considered fully present, a student must be in class for 90% of the time,” Attendance Clerk Atoofa Hasan said.

Although tardies and absences can sometimes be unavoidable, Budz has a suggestion on how students can reduce the number.

“Morning tardies can sometimes not be helped because of traffic or wrecks, especially when it rains or snows,” Budz said. “But the amazing thing I find is how people can be tardy when they’re already in school, you just have to cut down conversation and focus on making it to class.”