As it stands, District 219 uses a “religiously neutral calendar.” Under this system, student attendance is expected on major religious holidays. While families can excuse absences related to these holidays, the struggle often presented is deciding whether or not to come to school and managing work that is missed on these days.

Families should not be put under the pressure of having to choose between school and religion. They have the right to practice free from any strain that is placed on them with receiving an education. Therefore, I believe that the district should adopt a religiously conscious calendar to ensure that our community’s needs are met.

Under this new calendar, the district could survey the community to understand their practices so that the calendar reflects times when many students may miss school to observe their holidays.

Whenever I walk into class on a major religious holiday, I often see that many of my classmates miss class in observance. For example, this past Eid, I saw many of my Muslim classmates absent to be with their families and celebrate. As a result many of my classes were half full. This is not me saying that they should be in school. They shouldn’t have to worry about school on these days.

In district correspondence, teachers were ask to “avoid scheduling field trips, administering tests, assigning major projects, or engaging in other critical activities on these dates.” Isn’t all school work supposed to be critical? If not, then why assign work that doesn’t challenge students and engage them?

According to the Illinois School Report Card, West has a chronic absenteeism rate of 27.7% with the district having a rate of 29%. If we were to adopt a new calendar, I believe that our absenteeism rate would decrease. I am not saying that this new calendar would eradicate the issue of chronic absenteeism, but I am saying that it would at least help.

The Illinois State Board of Education mandates a minimum of 185 days to ensure 176 days of actual pupil attendance. I think that many students would be okay with getting a week out later or by the first week of June if it meant that major religious holidays would not be interfered with.

In a district that prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion, it is my hope that we as students are taken into consideration when making all decisions. If we were to move over to a religious conscious calendar, the burden placed on many students and families would be alleviated.