IUSD Education Services changed its attendance policies to address chronic absenteeism and include religious absences under the same policy as other excused absences, aligning district practices with state law, on Jan. 27.
IUSD has also replaced he/she pronouns with “they” to be more gender-inclusive. In alignment with state law, IUSD policy now incorporates an attendance recovery program for chronically absent students, allowing them to make up as many as 10 missed school days throughout the school year. Although the program is optional, students who choose to participate will engage in activities aligned with their grade level standards, which may include one-on-one or small-group tutoring with a certified teacher.
“There wasn’t a problem with how the district was tracking attendance. We are just complying with the new laws that were established,” director of student services Timothy Tatum said. “It is too soon to tell if attendance has improved [but] Irvine has one of the best attendance percentages and lowest rate of chronic absenteeism in the entire county.”
To receive updates on changes to state and federal education laws, IUSD uses a government platform called Gamut and incorporates community feedback into its decisions.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve,” IUSD board member Katie McEwen said. “Something came in at the end of 2025 about attendance, and we took a look at it, and we’re like, ‘Oh, you know, we have these two different policies. We can embed the religious exercises policy into our other board policy and make it clearer for families to know about attendance.’”
To monitor the policy’s success, IUSD will be tracking attendance rates at the end of each month and quarter to identify areas of improvement. Families whose students are chronic absentees may also be referred to the district to discuss possible intervention methods, including enrolling in the new attendance recovery program.
For more information, visit https://iusd.org/about/board-education/board-policies/verification-student-absences.
