Students are coming to school when they are contagious with all sorts of sicknesses because of a new program. The Finals Opt-Out Incentive Program has been given a new addition that rewards students for coming to school with the opportunity to skip their finals. However, absences that are excused will still count against the student.

Excused absences should not affect your ability to opt out of finals because illness is out of students’ control, missing three days of class does not make a student “bad”, and students will come to school when they are sick and contagious to earn their opt out.

While there can be steps taken to prevent it, illness is inevitably out of students’ control. 

It is common for students to miss school due to a cold. According to Medical News Today, “there is no way to prevent a cold from developing if a person has contracted the virus.” 

According to Harvard Medical School, an illness such as the flu may last for five to seven days. It may affect you even longer than that. “For other people, the symptoms may last longer. Even when symptoms resolve, you may continue to feel fatigued.” 

The Finals-Opt Out Incentive Program only allows three excused absences, but that is not enough time to fully fight off an illness.

As shown, illness typically lasts longer than the three days of absences allowed.

Missing three or more days of school does not always make a student fall back. Work can still be completed from home.

Students complete homework at home all the time, so it is not a big deal for them to not be in class when completing assignments.

School today is mostly made up of online assignments. According to Western Illinois University, “online homework is a rapidly growing educational use of the internet.” 

Most teachers have a system to help students who are or were absent during their class, such as an absent folder.

If a student is responsible enough to complete assignments even when they are ill enough to be missing school, that proves they should be able to opt-out.

There are many steps that can be taken to ensure a student is keeping up with their work when they are absent.

Students will do whatever it takes to fit the criteria for opt-outs, even if that means coming to school while sick.

Having contagious students coming to school will only spread illness.

According to the CDC, “Schools must balance the risk of infectious disease spread with educational, social, and mental health needs of children when determining when students should stay home.”

Sick students will not be as focused during class because sickness is distracting with all the symptoms that may come with it.

The opt-out program encourages students to come to school, but that causes contagious students to come and infect more people.

People may argue that attendance is very important which is true, but the Finals Opt-Out program is about rewarding responsible students. You can be a responsible student even if you miss some school.

The district staff members are wrong, because students are still worthy of the privilege to opt out even if they missed school for four or more days. If the students are known for being responsible hard workers, they should be rewarded for that.

Excused absences should not be a part of your opportunity to opt out of finals because sickness is out of students’ control, missing days of class does not make a student “unworthy”, and students will come to school when they are sick and contagious to get their opt out.

Students are leaving school with sicknesses passed from other students who want to opt out of their finals. This new policy affects the student body heavily and needs to be changed back.