While chronic absenteeism rates dropped sharply last year in the wake of a new attendance policy at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, the School Committee debated a motion to clarify confusion around the policy credited with improving those rates.
In particular, committee members said it was unclear whether students needed a note from a physician to have a sick day not count against them. The motion was ultimately referred to Superintendent David Murphy, who was asked to report back with policy clarifications in two School Committee meetings, roughly a month from now.
The absentee policy, reinforced at the start of the 2025-2026 school year, established that students will not receive credit for classes if they accumulate too many attendance violations. The policy existed before last year, but became more strictly enforced after a September 2025 committee vote.
Chronic absenteeism rates at the high school had reached 36% during 2024-25, a historic high. That rate was two points higher than the 2023-24 school year, and four points above 2022-23.
But last school year, absenteeism rates dropped by more than 10 percentage points, to 24%. A September 1 presentation from the district attributed the drop to the no-credit policy, individual check-ins with specific students and targeted correspondence to families.
“We change [the policy], and you get a 10-point drop in the following year,” said Committee Member Elizabeth Hudson, noting that the rate had meant more than 600 students were missing 18 days of school, or three-and-a-half weeks.
Anthony Galluccio, former mayor of Cambridge and chair of the school committee, said he believes that the reason chronic absenteeism rates reached a high was in part due to insufficient consequences for students. “The message [students] got was they don’t have to be in school,” Galluccio said about the former policy.
Clearing up communications
Addressing the confusion around the policy does not necessarily fall under the jurisdiction of the School Committee, Hudson added. “This is a policy-making body. There isn’t really a problem with the policy.”
The sponsors of Tuesday’s motion, Vice Chair Caitlin Dube and Committee Members Arjun Jaikumar and Luisa de Paula Santos, expressed concern about how the policy is being interpreted. “There are several discrepancies between the district policy and the CRLS policy,” Dube said.
She asked Murphy to clarify thresholds for attendance violations, how tardies play into a student’s potential to lose course credit and about the required documentation to support a student’s personal illness.
Murphy explained in an Oct. 19 memo to the School Committee, and again at Tuesday’s meeting, that a doctor’s note is not required to excuse an absence. Murphy added that no single document guarantees an excused absence.
He acknowledged that there were instances when “individuals at CRLS” had stated that a doctor’s note is required. “An attempt to sort of operationalize a policy has led to some discrepancies in communication and some misperceptions,” Murphy said.
Some students have policy anxiety
A number of CRLS students came to the meeting to speak to the issue during public comment.
One public commenter, who used only his first name, was Anurag, a CRLS Senior. He called the policy a “public health hazard,” claiming it “pushes kids to come to school sick.”
Several other students attested to the pressure to attend school while sick. One, Leo Caravan, a junior at CRLS, said he is disabled and has a chronic illness. “The current attendance policy creates an actively dangerous environment for students and staff.”
That sentiment was echoed by Maia Shein, one of the student school committee representatives. “There is this fear of being sick, becoming sick, because of a mark on our record,” Shein said, adding that the district’s miscommunication has created anxiety around the policy. She said the district should focus on communicating more directly with students.
A spokesperson for the district said on Wednesday the district is committed to clarification to ensure that details around the policy are “communicated in a consistent way.”
Sport socials?
The committee also took up a motion on Tuesday that would have the superintendent develop a policy prohibiting sports teams and other extracurricular organizations at CRLS from maintaining official social media accounts.
Dube made the motion, saying a policy would make communication about school-sponsored organizations accessible to students who may not have social media accounts.
The motion was ultimately deferred with a 4-3 vote to the superintendent, who will report back to the committee with recommendations.
Tuesday’s meeting also featured a conversation on science and math state test scores. In addition, the Student School Committee representatives gave a presentation on college application season and the CRLS crew team’s performances at the Head of the Charles last weekend.
The superintendent also announced that district guidance on the use of artificial intelligence will be incorporated into professional development days next week.
The committee will convene next for a joint meeting with the City Council to discuss the city’s budget on October 26 at 4 p.m.
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