The Problems With Tardy Slips

We all know the fundamental rules of the school: Get to your classes on time, do your work, pass the tests, etc. In my opinion, Forest Grove High School has a generous test system, perhaps even a bit too generous. Students are allowed, or sometimes forced, to retake “proficiencies” to fix their grades if they’re failing. Many schools treat all tests as final, and there are no retakes. Overall, I am grateful that my school takes a different approach. Perhaps I will write an article about the test and homework systems in this school one day because I have many thoughts on the subject.

However, there is one system here that I do have a problem with. When a student arrives late to school, they aren’t allowed to just go to class as soon as they can and face the consequences of being tardy once they get there. Instead, they must find a teacher in the hallways who can give them a tardy slip, and then they are allowed to go to class. I find this method of dealing with tardy students to be overly complicated and slow.

First of all, by being required to search the halls for a teacher before being able to go to class, the student is missing even more class time than they already would be through their tardiness. This only results in more missed lessons and assignments and does not teach the student to travel through the hallways faster. Another problem is that oftentimes students will not bother getting their slips and will just miss more class.

There also aren’t enough teachers in the hallways to make this method efficient. I have never had to frantically search for a hall monitor to receive a tardy slip, but I have traveled to the bathrooms during class, and even then I’ve rarely seen adults in the halls. I am surprised when I do see one. Perhaps the tardy slip method could be reasonable if there were more teachers in the hallways so that students could get their slips quickly and not feel inclined to skip class. 

The current system also results in some teachers ignoring tardies. I have seen many times that when a student comes in late, the teacher will not reprimand them for having a tardy slip and will just ignore it. This also ties in with my point about students skipping class instead of getting a slip, if the teacher ignores it then there is less of a chance of the student skipping their class. There is sort of an expectation to let it pass by, and the teachers that do demand slips are seen as mean and unfair. It is unfair to expect teachers to choose between ignoring tardy slips and letting students avoid consequences for being late and requiring the tardy slips but being seen as harsh teachers.

I’ve listed many reasons why our current tardy slip system is inefficient, but I have not yet mentioned any solutions. I’m going to start this off by saying that I am not a teacher nor an administrator, and maybe the school has tried going without tardy slips in the past and it was determined that using the tardy slips this way is the most effective way to encourage students to arrive at their classes on time. I am only going to list my opinions of alternate methods as a student who goes here.

I believe that it would be easier on the students and the teachers if there were to be only one way to deal with tardies, as teachers already have enough on their plates. The inconsistency of which teachers decide to make which students receive tardy slips makes everything more difficult. I am not blaming the teachers for this mess, though, because it is not their fault. 

The main issue that I have is searching through the hallways for a teacher, and then having to go all the way back to class. A possible solution would be to have a few central points on each floor, where there will always be a teacher. If we also added the requirement of consistency among teachers, this would cut out the distance of going to the class late, being told you need a slip, searching for a hall monitor to get the slip, and then going back to class. Students would miss much less class when they are tardy and teachers would not have to choose between being lenient or harsh, nor would they worry as much about students skipping their class because they don’t want to spend all that time getting a slip.

I can understand why the tardy slip system is in place. When a teacher has already taken attendance and marked someone as absent but then that someone walks in late, it’s inconvenient for them to go back into Synergy and change it. However, the system that we have right now is, to put it honestly, convoluted and confusing. If the school would listen to the critique of students and consider implementing some of my suggestions, it would result in a better and more efficient learning environment for everyone.