Throughout the last few months, there has been an exponential increase in the number of people who have been both sick and in attendance of school. The newly implemented Katy ISD absence policy for exemptions has disregarded the safety and health of students in order to gain Katy ISD more attendance based funding. The current 8 absence policy of which includes both excused and non-excused has forced students to come to school in hopes of maintaining their semester exam exemptions. It is not fair, especially after the last two years of COVID based health related attendance policy, to suddenly impose a policy that encourages attendance at school regardless of someones health conditions, prompting not only viral in school spread of sickness but also a rapid decrease in the health of students on campus.

It is critical that Katy ISD take initiative to remove excused absences as part of our exemption based absences, so that students are able to maintain their health and stop the spread of sickness and diseases throughout our campus, reviving the healthy campus initiatives taken by Katy ISD in years prior.