Handbooks Passed, Absentee Policy Changes Not Present

May 21, 2026
• The School Committee approved updated handbooks that included guidelines around physical restraint and timeout policies, as newly recommended by the state, but absence policies will remain the same.

School Committee members on Tuesday signed off on next school year’s student handbooks, which now include definitions and policies around timeout rooms, seclusion and physical restraint for students in elementary through high school.

Those procedures would be used as “a last resort,” Assistant Superintendent for Student Support Services Mary Lammi told the committee May 12, such as in “situations where students are severely unsafe or causing some imminent harm within the community.”

Other changes include clarifications around bullying and Title 9, language updates regarding disability accommodations and other additions aimed to provide better accessibility for families.

Handbooks for all school levels passed at Tuesday’s meeting. Much of the discussion surrounding the handbooks took place at the committee’s May 12 meeting.

Member Matt Spengler abstained from voting on the Needham High School handbook, citing “multi-year elevated rates of credit loss for low income students, students of color, students with IEPs.” Spengler previously voiced objections to the district’s absence policies during last year’s handbook discussion.

Credit loss appears to still disproportionately affect certain groups, Spengler said at the May 12 meeting. There were no handbook changes to how the schools handle or mark absences, excused and unexcused.

“I continue to think that we have a significant equity issue that demands us to look into it and have some change,” Spengler said. “So, actually, I was hoping for some yellow underlining and some changes in the attendance policy. It remains currently unchanged in the current next year proposal moving forward.”

Chronic absenteeism district-wide was down about 4% from 2024 to 2025, decreasing from 10.8% to 6.7%, according to DESE data. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 18 or more school days out of the 180 total days in a school year.

However, at NHS, chronic absenteeism is significantly higher — in 2024, more than 22% of students missed at least 10% of the school year, but in 2025, just 7.2% did, signifying a 15% drop.

While the schools continue to contend with overall attendance issues, NHS Principal Aaron Sicotte said they’ve seen positive improvement when it comes to credit loss.

“We have an underlying attendance challenge that we’re working through. The number of credits that are lost has dropped dramatically from the first quarter to the second quarter as we’re working through the opportunity students have to regain credits,” Sicotte said at the previous meeting. “So, students are not being penalized with any regularity as they have that chance to demonstrate their attendance.”

Other barriers, such as housing instability, cause attendance issues, member Liz Lee said, meaning policy changes could have unintended consequences on those students.

High Rock Principal Jessica Downey said she’s observed an increase in longer absences, tied to personal or family trips. Both Sicotte and Pollard Middle School Principal Tamatha Bibbo nodded in agreement.

More of those absences mean students have a harder time catching up on assignments, but there is no discipline or consequence in place, Downey said.

“The 11-year-old didn’t choose to go to Jamaica,” she said. “They didn’t choose to do this, but we have to support them when they come back, and there’s limited time to do that.”

Superintendent Dan Gutekanst said the district will commission an audit next school year around attendance and how the district handles chronically absent students. The audit will also assess the district’s practices around credit loss and “equitable practices related to attendance,” he added.

“The handbooks are, in many ways, a compliance document, but we also want them to be a document that can be used to help students grow, and sometimes that’s lost in all of the detail there, and all of the laws and regulations, but ultimately that’s what we want to do,” Gutekanst said on May 12. “And we’re looking forward to talking to you, particularly around chronic absenteeism, what that will look like.”