When

students head back to school Aug. 12, they might discover

a new policy covering absences from school, including

items such as field trip and athletic and academic

events.

Coweta

County School System executive director of administrative

services Blake Bass said the system's policy committee is

looking at limiting the number of consecutive days a

student can miss school.

In the

policy committee's meeting this week, Bass said the

committee will recommend the Coweta County Board of

Education institute a policy that a student cannot attend

a field trip that would require the student to miss more

than three consecutive days of school.

The only

way a student could attend an event missing more than

three days of school would be by meeting certain

criteria, Bass said.

The

criteria include:

� A student must have a 70 grade point

average.

� A student must have no suspensions

or expulsions on his or her record.

� The principal must recommend that

the student be allowed to miss more than three days.

If a

student is allowed to miss more than three consecutive

days, he still cannot have more than six days a semester

for field trips and cannot miss more than 10 days a year

for field trips.

The

proposed policy would cover all administrative leaves

from school, such as field trips, athletic events and

academic competition, Bass said.

"The

board is real concerned about students missing

instruction time, especially in high school with our

block scheduling. A student is not just missing an hour

of instruction, but one and a half hours," bass

said.

The policy

will be presented to the school board at its Aug. 13

meeting for consideration.

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