Can You Get Kicked Out of High School for Bad Grades and Poor Attendance? A Teacher Explains
Last Wednesday, I was stacking essay drafts at my desk after school when Maria showed up at my door, Javi trailing 10 steps behind her, hood up, hands stuffed in his jeans pockets. She had the printed withdrawal notice crumpled in her jacket pocket, the edge frayed where she’d been twisting it all the way from her shift at the nursing home. She sat down, pulled it out, and got straight to the point: “Can they really kick my kid out just for missing too much school and failing classes?”
Javi’s a 10th grader in my English class, quiet, draws skate park designs on the margins of his notebook when he does show up. First semester, he missed 18 days. Failed biology, algebra, and my class, actually. His dad moved out last spring, he started having panic attacks that hit first thing in the morning, couldn’t make himself get out of bed most days. Maria works 10-hour shifts, couldn’t get him in to see a therapist for three months because her insurance didn’t cover any in-network teen providers within 50 miles. I knew something was off, but I didn’t know how bad it was until that meeting.
I told her the short answer is technically yes, but it almost never happens that way, especially in public school. Private schools have their own rules, they can kick you out for this kind of thing pretty easily if they want to, since you attend on their terms. But public schools are required by law to educate kids until they turn 16 or 18, depending on what state you live in. Kicking a kid out for grades and attendance before that age is a last resort, not a first step.
I’ve been teaching for 8 years, and I’ve only seen four kids get kicked out for this combination of bad grades and poor attendance. All of them were 17 or 18, hadn’t set foot in school for three months, and no one from the family had answered calls or emails from the school the whole time. The district doesn’t have to keep you enrolled forever if you’re not coming at all, and if you’re over 18, you’re no longer covered by compulsory education requirements. But in every other case I’ve seen, we can work something out.
The first thing I told Maria to do was make sure she showed up to the mandatory intervention meeting the district had scheduled. So many parents get that scary letter and panic, or feel ashamed that their kid is struggling, and skip it. That’s the worst thing you can do. If you don’t show, the school has no way to know what’s going on, and they’ll default to the withdrawal. Second, bring every piece of paper you have that explains why your kid is struggling. Maria had the note from Javi’s new therapist, and a copy of her work schedule that proved she couldn’t drop everything mid-shift to drive him to school after a bad night. That documentation changes everything. It turns “he’s skipping” into “he’s dealing with a health issue we’re actively working on.”
Next, I told her to specifically ask for a written intervention plan, not just a verbal warning. Most districts will put one together if you ask, and it has to spell out exactly what the school will do to help, and what’s expected of you and your kid. For Javi, we got him an adjusted start time: he starts at 9 a.m. instead of 8, so he can sleep in if he’s had a bad panic attack the night before. We got him into the free after-school credit recovery program, which lets him make up the failed classes from first semester without repeating the whole grade. No one had told Maria that program even existed, even though it’s free for any kid who needs it. We also got him a 504 plan, which is a legal document that protects his absences as long as they’re related to his anxiety. That means the school can’t count them against him for expulsion purposes. A lot of parents don’t know you can get a 504 for mental health, and you don’t need an expensive private diagnosis to qualify—most school social workers will do the assessment for free if you ask.
It’s been four months since that first meeting with Maria and Javi. Javi still misses a day once in a while, when his anxiety is really bad. He still comes in 10 minutes late once a week, and he still turns in rough drafts of his essays half done. But he’s missed only 4 days since the plan went into place, and he’s passing four out of five classes right now. He’s even started joining group discussions when we talk about graphic novels, which I’ve never seen him do before.
Maria still texts me once a month asking if she needs to be worried about that original withdrawal notice. I tell her no, not right now, as long as we keep checking in. The truth is, most schools aren’t looking to kick kids out over bad grades and attendance. It hurts their funding, it hurts their graduation rates, and most of the teachers and admins I work with would rather help a kid work through a rough patch than push them out. The problem is most parents don’t know what to ask for, and they’re too ashamed to ask when they need help. I’ve seen too many families pull their kid out themselves or just stop showing up to meetings because they think the school has already made up its mind.
More often than not, you just have to show up, bring your papers, and ask for the specific help that’s already available. Javi’s not graduating early, and he might not go straight to a four-year college out of high school. He might still have bad semesters down the line. But right now, he’s still in school, and that’s enough for right now.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » Can You Get Kicked Out of High School for Bad Grades and Poor Attendance