No major changes to attendance policies at Eastern Pulaski schools

Eastern Pulaski Community School Corporation Superintendent Dara Chezem stated that she sent out a message to families regarding the school handbooks for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year. At a July 14 school board meeting, she explained that the previous week there was a lot of discussion on Facebook across the state of Indiana about some of the new attendance laws. Chezem said that her message to parents is that they really are not going to see any changes here. She noted that if they have professional notes or doctor's notes those are still excused. Those excused absences will be called "certified" absences. Chezem added that parents will be able to call in for legitimate reasons as they have in the past for a certain number of days. Those will still be considered excused as well. The law states that after five unexcused days, they would have a meeting to make the parents aware and to see if there is any way they can help make some changes. At 10 unexcused days, the corporation will have to report that to the prosecutor or child protection services.