KCS Board of Education met to discuss COVID attendance policy

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The Knox County Board of Education approved a new attendance policy that will allow students to be marked present if they are working from home while quarantined.

Knox County students have five unexcused absences, and now families won’t have to worry about the absent status of their student while they are at home quarantined. To ensure students are counted present while at home, they’ll have to complete the regular amount of work which is six and a half hours, and turn in assignments online while maintaining contact with their teachers.

In the last meeting, the board voted down a universal mask mandate for the district.

”To bring it up week after week all that’s going to do is infuriate people it’s going to cause frustration and the reality of it is our nine-member board still has to work together to get things done,” said Daniel Watson, KCS board member.

Watson said he feels it’s important to keep an open mind on a mask conversation and bring it up again if there’s an applicable time.

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