Under Texas law, a student must attend at least 90% of their classes to earn credit. Most students know that absences due to illness, documented medical or dental appointments, religious holy days, and court appearances can be excused with proper documentation. However, many students are not aware that college campus visits can also qualify as excused absences.

“If you’re a junior or senior, you are allowed up to two days during the school year for college visits,” counselor Ryan Kiefer said. “Upon return, you must provide documentation from the college you visited.”

Junior Rupal Shirpurkar wasn’t aware that college campus visits count as excused absences, but now that she knows, she plans to take full advantage of the opportunity.

“I didn’t realize that college visits were excused absences, but now that I know, I’m definitely going to take advantage of it,” Shirpurkar said. “For my junior year, I want to focus on narrowing down my college options and I think that being able to visit these campuses will really help me make the decision.”

For senior Ashvita Suresh Kumar, this policy means that students will have a chance to explore college campuses without worrying about unexcused absences. She believes that this opportunity is important to understanding a campus and making better decisions about where to apply.

“I believe that college visits being excused absences for juniors and seniors will be extremely useful because there are many things you don’t know about a college until you visit it like campus culture, weather, accessibility of stores, opportunities, etc,” Kumar said. “College visits also help you decide whether or not you want to apply to a college, however, many students don’t go on college visits because absences are unexcused. Therefore, this policy will be beneficial to students now and in the future.”