Every morning, when we dial the school’s sick line, we enact a ritual that ought to acknowledge more than a fever or a stomach ache. In theory, this system exists to safeguard children who cannot attend school due to illness. In practice, it masks the institutional harms that shape our decisions, erasing critical context from the official record.
The hidden rationales behind our calls
I have experimented with candour. “My daughter won’t make it today because the school has failed to provide adequate support and accommodation to make her safe.” “My daughter won’t make it today because she’s being relentlessly targeted by a bully, and the school refuses to intervene.”
“My daughter won’t make it today because her teacher enacted collective punishment against her, which is illegal in war, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how I can ever send her back after the school so gravely broke our trust.”
Just a Parent
OK, I only thought of saying that last one. Each time, somehow my reason is dutifully entered as “absent” into a form.
The erasure of parent expertise
Those explanations never survive the journey into her official record. Somewhere between our mouths and the district database, the nuance dissolves; systemic failures become mere abstractions; lived terror becomes a generic absence. There is a pick-list somewhere that doesn’t have a value “Institutional harm”.
In one appeal, I finally accessed the official transcript of absences and found no mention of fear, neglect or institutional failure—only many missed days. Far exceeding the max with regard to minimal instructional days. Such reduction permits administrators to ignore patterns of harm. It strips families of evidence. It undermines accountability.
Why record-keeping matters
Precise recordkeeping is the foundation of justice. When reasons for absence remain undocumented, schools evade scrutiny. Patterns of neglect become statistically invisible. Children who require consistent accommodation are punished with erasure. Parents, too, lose the ability to appeal or advocate. A single line of text—capturing a parent’s truthful rationale—could become the fulcrum for change.
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Few of us remain our best selves in a room starved of air
If you are a parent of a neurodivergent child, you can recite the script before the phone even buzzes. “[Child] had a very good day and really showed leadership with the younger kids” Pause. “But in the afternoon [Child] had some unexpected behaviour. [Child] is…
Reimagining the sick line
We must demand that the sick line evolve into a transparent reporting mechanism—one that captures both medical and non-medical causes for absence. A simple checkbox or free-text field could transform a sterile form into a tool for accountability. Parents should be invited to document bullying, unmet health needs or systemic failures without fear of dismissal.
A call to action
To fellow parents navigating this broken system: keep your own records. Note dates, times and reasons precisely. Save confirmation emails. Photocopy appeal documents. And petition your school board for reform: redefine the sick line as a report exclusion line. Insist that every absence entry include space for context. Demand the integrity of your family’s story.
Our children deserve more than erasure.
