Lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow high school seniors to graduate before the end of the school year in certain circumstances.
"For years school districts have been struggling with setting graduation dates," said State Rep. Christopher Davis.
He is proposing a bill that would allow school districts to set firm graduation dates.
"Schools can actually set that date and book venues to hold that graduation and those students would be able to graduate on time in person for their graduation," said Davis. "Under the current rules they could do that, but they would have to come back to school for three, four maybe even more days depending on how many school days take place."
If it passes, the graduation dates would be unaffected by things like snow days, even if it means seniors don’t complete the 180 day school year requirements.
It should also cut down on the cost of graduation. No longer will they have to book a facility, pay for different items and have to change those at the last minute like they would if there were snow days or other cancellations take place.
“I don’t have a problem with them fixing a firm date for the seniors otherwise I think we should make up snow days,” said George Coleman, Teacher at Conard High School.
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The proposed bill has been passed on the Joint Committee on Education and will be up for public hearing, possibly in the next few weeks.
