#especially in a world where there's essentially no oversight on homeschooled children

[starfieldcanvas]

That would perhaps be more reassuring if schools actually made it clear why they were requesting doctor's notes, but everyone I've ever heard complain about it was complaining because they were being treated with hostility and suspicion and condescension for not providing a note. "If you have a note, we will be able to fully excuse the absence instead of taking it from the Unexcused Absence allowance" is a very different experience from "um you're SUPPOSED to have a NOTE, NEXT TIME you better have a NOTE" or "well tsk tsk then it'll be an UNEXCUSED absence because you did this WRONG by not paying your urgent care copay" (because literally no one can get an appointment with their own pediatrician in under 24 hours.)

just because the policy has a good underlying purpose does not mean schools can't wield it like a cudgel.

(and honestly, the most I've ever heard people complain about it was people in college, who are not subject to this whole truancy law thing.)

This is maybe a kind of niche bit of nuance, BUT- you know how it's really fucked up when your boss at your job demands a doctors note if you call out sick?

*That's different* than *schools* asking for a doctors note when a kid is out sick. (I've seen many people online act as though they are essentially the same. And it's not.)

Children, by law, are required to attend school. Not just be registered, but actually go to school. Schools take attendance, not JUST because they are funded based on attendance, but because they are legally required to ensure that parents aren't withholding their kids from attending school.

If a kid reaches a threshold for absenteeism, truancy *laws* come into affect - and parents can be ordered to make a court appearance to explain why their kid isn't at school, to make sure they aren't being neglected or otherwise denied their legally entitled education. (Kids who are forced to work or stay home as care givers, or stay home until the bruises not covered up by clothes fade, or whatever other reason by their parents. The laws need to act as a safety net against the worst possibilities.)

And it would *suck* for that to happen just because a kid got strep throat or whatever.

But if parents can give the school documentation that the kid was ACTUALLY sick, and not being kept home for other reasons, then the school can put that in the file and not count those absences.

And it's OK if a kid has some unexcused absences! We know that. Kids get sick and not every cold requires a doctor. But schools ask every time so they can excuse any absences they legally are allowed to.

Schools ask for a doctors note so that can protect parents against truancy charges if that absentee threshold creeps up. And they need it to be documentation from outside the parents to ensure that parents arent lying so they can deny their kids access to school. (And access to the mandated reporters in that school)

Public schools are far from a perfect system, often underfunded and overcrowded, but they aren't demanding a doctors note for the same shitty reasons your manager at Walmart is.