It depends on the school and it depends on the student. If a student has missed a lot but is still working at grade level, the teachers will let the student move on if they are confident in the student’s abilities. If they feel otherwise, they will recommend the student be held back. It also depends on how the parents feel. If the student has missed a lot because of illness and the student can’t keep up and work at grade level at the end of the year, the parents may elect to hold their child back. However, there may still be a school or state policy that does require so many days that the student be present regardless of how the student is doing.

Schools want students present because schools lose state funding for each absent child every day the child is absent whether it is an excused absence or not. Because of this, and because school absences have become a huge problem with students ditching school, many states now have laws that can result in heavy penalties including community service, monetary fines, jail time, juvenile hall time, Saturday school, and Summer school for parents and students. The laws vary from district to district and state to state. In many states 15 absences in a single school year is enough to raise the red flag and send the truancy police to the house on number 16. In some states the magic number is 20.