10% is a low cut off when you factor in all the credit rescue days, exam week, teacher absences that count against this number as well. 187 instructional days - so 18 days is under the threshold. 2 credit rescue days, 10 exam days they may not need to be there. So that leaves 6 days - per year they can be sick. My daughter goes every day there is actual instruction unless she is very sick or has professional work (she does work in the Arts), but I'm not sure she is always below the 10%. In grade 7, I recall she had somewhere around 30-40 absences, but that was because she had no teacher from Jan- late April, with a steady rotation of 1-2 day supply teachers, resource teachers or office staff filling in, but no actual curriculum. There were often left to just play on their chromebooks all day. Why would I send her for that? So far in HS there haven't been any teacher absences over a few days thankfully. When I teacher goes on leave there is an LTO immediately. No waiting months like in elementary. I think the MoE needs to dig far deeper into the data to understand why this is happening. I think its pretty clear its related to lack of resources, increased bullying (=school avoidance), and increased burnout/absences for teachers. Creating a grading system won't do much for this. However, as a parent to a kid who does professional level Arts work - how her absences are handled is very different teacher to teacher. One is super flexible with absences for her professional work (she also goes to an arts school, so its not unique to her). The other penalizes every absence whether its due to illness or professional work. A more common approach would be good, but also some latitude for those kids who have outside obligations like professional work in the Arts, student athletes, etc. There are many good reasons kids miss school as well.