Schools around the globe have awarded the perfect attendance award for decades, an attempt to motivate students to attend school daily. Recently, there has been pressure to remove the award. School staff, particularly guidance counselors and nurses, have been expressing their opinion concerning the award, claiming that it might be a key contributor to a decline in physical and mental health within the schools it inhabits. 

Clover Hill High School guidance counselor Carrie Setina comments on the common behaviors of perfect attendance students.

“They push through the day not to miss it but in reality, they aren’t even truly here, their headspace is not in an absorbable place to read instruction or do an assignment,” Setina said.

Data from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction suggests that the perfect attendance award results in exclusion and students attending school while sick, and is simply not effective. They argue that students striving for the award often infect other students with various illnesses, leading to an attendance decline from the rest of the student body. 

Katherine White, a nurse at Clover Hill High School, comments on the awards impact on the general health of the school.

“It’s detrimental to the overall physical health of the school because those who strive for perfect attendance often come to school sick and that is not doing anyone any favors,” White said. 

In a survey conducted by PubMed Central, one third of students claimed to have attended school or extracurricular activities while experiencing symptoms that doctors label “stay at home symptoms.” The study concluded that this statistic most likely branches from certain climates at schools, whether that’s pressure from school boards for better attendance or lack of accommodations to make up work. 

“Perfect attendance students have that mentality to come when they are sick which isn’t healthy,” Setina said. 

Physical illnesses and germs aren’t the only issues springing from the controversial award; mental health has also been brought to the attention of orchestrators of the award. In the average high school, 40% of students report having feelings of overwhelming sadness. Striving for perfect attendance and taking care of yourself can seemingly not coexist. 

“A lot of perfect attendance students are more anxious than ones who miss days here and there,” Setina said.

A lot of the time, the human brain simply needs a reset to come back to reality and work through whatever it needs to in order to function properly. A school environment is not the best setting for a young developing mind to do this process. With bustling loud crowds and common teenage chatter, it can make kids more overwhelmed on top of them learning how to process their emotions. 

“Every student has a different home, work, and life situation so there’s no place for the award anymore,” White said. 

Surrounding schools in Henrico county have taken steps to encourage and teach students that it is okay to rest both your mind and body, proving that people’s concerns are being heard.

“In Henrico they have a day off every month for a mental health day, it just really lets you reset,” Setina said. 

The award can be seen as a positive way to provide children with motivation and being recognized for their efforts, but can quickly become negative even by the child themselves. Most adults claim to have difficulty taking a day off, making it even more important to teach the youth early these valuable skills. The award is better replaced than removed according to many members of school staff that claim there are better alternatives out there that get the same message across without the harmful side effects from the perfect attendance award. 

“Id like to see better recognition of positive behaviors or changes in behaviors, which we are already starting to do,” White said. 

Schools are the groundwork for learning how to make valuable relationships with yourself and others. In order to function effectively in the ways that schools strive to operate for, the students’ physical and mental health have to be able to regulate alongside that. 

“You really need to take care of yourself and if that means missing a day I think that far outways receiving the perfect attendance award,” Setina said.