Students leaving school early is not unusual.
Athletes do so to attend games, band members for special performances and sick students for doctors? appointments.
Those students all have one thing in common: The Howard County Public School System has polices and procedures that govern their absences.
However, students leaving school early for religious observances will have to wait until the upcoming school year to find out how the policy that governs their religious observances will change.
“Personally, I think the school system is making a mistake by going into so much detail in the policy,” said Irfan Malik, president of the Howard County Muslim Council.
“There should be a blanket policy that a child has the freedom to practice religion, and let the administrators figure out how to implement it.”
Since last fall, the school system has worked to revise its religious observance policy as part of its regular policy review cycle. The policy has generated a lot of discussion within the county, particularly among Muslims who leave school early to participate in Friday prayer.
School Board members recently agreed to halt discussion on the policy, saying they needed more information on:
» the number of students leaving school early;
» the effect on the workload for teachers who give makeup assignments;
» tracking student absences for religious observances
School Board Chairman Joshua Kaufman said the board needs the information to make “an informed decision” on changes in the policy.
