Thursday’s national Day Without Immigrants has impacted Grand Rapids Public Schools attendance and it may cause the district to declare it a snow day.
Grand Rapids Public Schools was aware the Day Without Immigrants was in the works and that it would affect attendance. The district appealed to parents encouraging their children to be in the classroom Thursday.
However, in a news release from Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal she explained, “We did experience a large number of students and parents exercising their rights by participating in the Immigrant Out Day.”
GRPS suspects more than a quarter of its students participated. If that’s the case, if the attendance threshold failed to reach 75 percent, that means the state will not count this as a day of instruction. Chalk it up as a snow day. There are five to use in a school year and GRPS has already used two.
The news release lists “Schools with the highest absences, mostly around 50%, include Buchanan Elementary, Cesar E. Chavez Elementary, Westwood Middle, Harrison Park School, Burton Elementary, Burton Middle, Union High, Innovation Central High, and SWCC.”
Patrick Center, WGVU News.