With the many opportunities the Powell community has to offer, recently, there has been a lot of discourse pertaining to unexcused absences through non-school affiliated activities. More so, with the recent addition of Wyoming House Bill 175 that will affect Wyoming schools, the absence population is very important to observe.

According to University of Wyoming, the bill states,“Competitions sponsored by nationally recognized organizations and clubs that promote youth agricultural education are considered to be involved in a co-curricular program and can receive excused absences.”

Within the high school, many students are grateful for this new addition, looking forward to the future of excused absences with this change.

“I think PHS staff is rather strict on absences,” senior Allison Morrison said. “Teachers are much more flexible when students miss school for sports rather than when I miss school for agriculture topics. That’s why I am very excited to see where this bill will take us.”

As this new bill doesn’t affect all PHS students, there is still room for other extracurricular activities to go unexcused, accumulating quite the number of absences. 

“I often miss anywhere from one to three days a school week,” sophomore Emily Orr said. “It really just ranges from the time of year.” 

Even some athletic events such as Orrs’ club and 307 Soccer aren’t excused. With out of school teams often not being taken into consideration for excused absences, it doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for the number of unexcused allowed per school year.  

“I dance year-round,” sophomore Anne Agguire said. “By the time the end of the semester rolls around, I am usually running out of days I can miss.” 

With the days these students are missing for their favorite activities, they are left with no time for sick or mental health days. 

“I think the broad absence policy is not the best approach,” senior Owen Fink said. “Every student is involved in different activities and has different needs.” 

The question of if absences should be taken into consideration on a case to case basis is a topic that hasn’t been fully addressed. 

According to CNBC, “States like Washington and California recognize mental health as a legitimate reason to miss a day of school.” 

Currently, PHS does not have these allotted mental health days in their handbook, but it serves as an example to see how other schools run their absence policy. 

“I think that having mental health days would give students time to clear their minds,” Aguirre said. “Then when returning to school, they can succeed comfortably.”