“They Are Going After Sick Children” — Mom Criticizes School’s Tightened Excused Absence Policy

A Tennessee mom vented her frustrations with her child's school district's new rulings on attendance. TikTok user Jill (@just.chill.jill) recapped her understanding of the bill in a viral clip she posted online, where she says that the district will no longer consider doctor's notes as excusing a child's absence. In it, she can be seen speaking into the camera while wearing a blue bathrobe beneath two on-screen captions.

One states, "Drs note is no longer excused absence for school" and the other states, "they are going after sick children."

"So a doctor's note in sickness is no longer an excused absence for school in Tennessee," she says at the top of the video. "They passed a law right before school started that if a nurse sends you home because you're sick, it's considered a tardy for the day. And if you miss a day, even if you have a doctor's note, because you're sick it is now unexcused," she remarked.

The TikToker continued, "And according to lawmakers it's because they want children to learn that sometimes we need to push through sickness and have a good work ethic. So that when they get into the workforce they know that sickness is not an excuse for not working. And a lot of schools are now making it so that students get 20 minutes for lunch," she added.

Jill went on, "That includes getting to the lunch place. Opening your lunch, eating and getting back to class. 20 minutes. So they're now punishing children for being sick and needing time to eat because they want to create factory workers who won't complain like their parents are," she speculated.

Before finishing up her video, the mom stated, "And people claim they care about children. But once they're born they don't care about them at all."

Jill's post appears to be directed towards one particular county out of the 95 different ones in the U.S. state. Nashville, Tenn. based local news station KBTX along with the Oklahoma Voice referenced the ruling.

The former outlet highlighted how a mother opined that her 10-year-old daughter, who was out of school for 17 days "between the strep throat and the flu. According to the website, the new rulings would dictate when a child misses half that amount would be referred to the county's juvenile court on truancy charges.

The district mandated that if a child is absent, they will be marked as such, and a doctor's note will not be placed as a footnote/asterisk to excuse said absences. Rather, students who miss days of school will either be marked as in attendance or absent.

According to Future-Ed, Tennessee's "chronic absenteeism" rates spiked in the years following the worry over COVID.

Between 2018-2019, Tennessee had a 13.1 percent chronic absentee rate, which jumped to 20.3 percent in 2021-2022, and fell down to 18.9 percent between 2023-2024. These figures pale in comparison to other states like Alaska (43.4 percent for 2023-2024), the District of Columbia (39.2 percent), Michigan (29.5 percent), New Mexico (29.8 percent), and Oregon (34.3 percent).

In fact, Tennessee's chronic abseentism rates, as per the aforementioned report, places it among other states with some of the lowest figures. Alabama (14.8 percent), Idaho (15 percent), New Jersey (14.9 percent), Virginia (16.1 percent), and Wisconsin (17 percent.)

Lawrence County's Director of Schools, Michael Adkins spoke of the new attendance policy.

KBTX reported the DOS as stating, "You can fail the grade. You can fail the course. You are going to be petitioned to court. You are not going to participate in graduation, get your driver's license or permit."

Furthermore, Adkins remarked that the decision was one rooted in "tak[ing] control of the attendance of [the district's students."

He went on: "[They] can bring all the doctor's notes [they] want, but it is still unexcused." Moreover, Adkins stated that the ruling doesn't apply to chronically ill students and that the county's decision is rooted in a desire to instill values such as "reliability ... and work ethic."

Adkins went on to state, "If you have the sniffles, that's fine. You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.

Jill isn't the only parent who has taken issue with the school administration's desire to hold children up to a higher attendance standard.

In the same KBTX article one Lawrence county mom said: "As a parent, how can we give someone else the right to say what is wrong with our child? Ultimately, I am going to do what is right for my kid regardless of this policy."

Commenters who replied to Jill's video didn't seem too thrilled with the policy either.

One quipped, "And yet the politicians who passed this are always on vacation…"

Whereas another highlighted the hypocrisy of the government-mandated stay-at-home orders which were issued during the fervor over COVID-19.

"Didn’t they keep us all home during Covid.. telling us not to work though sickness?!?" they said.

A Canadian commenter said that they can take their children out of school whenever they want in the land of Maple Leaves: "This 'excused absence' thing is weird to me…in Ontario, we don’t have that. We can keep our kids home with zero reason if we wanted. Or go on vacation for a week with no explanation."