Chronic absenteeism bill is misdirected

To The Eagle:

Regarding Rep. Jaimie Herrera Beutler's proposed Chronic Absenteeism Reduction Act (see story elsewhere in this issue):

From my point of view, she is thinking about this wrong. The law might help, but still focusing on "correcting the student’s aberrant behavior" of not being physically in the school.

If the point, however, is continuity of education leading to graduation, instead of seeing absenteeism as a student behavioral problem, why not focus on making it so that school can reach students that cannot attend?

Why not find a way to make education flexible, portable, accessible from remote so as to reach students that cannot physically attend school that day?

Consider those students with chronic illness, or an unpredictable living situation, or dealing with accident or unexpected illnesses.

There is no reason why a student has to be physically in class at a school setting for education to occur -- remote learning works.

The entire course, syllabus, topic content, worksheets, and lecture content should be made available online – for every course -- so that a student can access the material, learn at their own speed, and complete the work even when they are not “in school.”

The current approach seems archaic, punitive, and less than useful.

Doug Sheresh

Skamokawa