Orange County Public Schools officials say parents can no longer expect absences to be excused when they keep their children home because they're concerned about COVID-19 exposure. 

Some parents were disappointed to hear the news, like Orange County mom Lora Vail. 

She said they kept their 7-year-old son home from school two weeks ago because of possible COVID-19 exposure.  

“We got the call that there were three cases of COVID in our classroom, my son’s classroom, and so we kept him out for two days,” Vail said. 

OCPS officials say absences will no longer be excused for kids whose parents keep them home because of exposure concerns. 

That means, unless Vail's son is ordered to quarantine, he has to stay in school, even if others in his class test positive.

“It’s just one more choice that they’re taking away from us, who are concerned about COVID,” Vail said. 

OCPS officials say they’ve seen thousands more students absent from the classroom than they would in a typical school year. 

On the first day back to school this year after winter break, the district reported 43,843 students absent, triple the amount of the district had the same day in 2020.

District Communications Officer Scott Howat said in addition to relieving the burden on teachers caused by so many absences, they had to bring the policy in line with truancy laws. 

He said the state is not allowing them to count voluntary absences the same way as quarantine absences. 

“We have asked the state to weigh in on that and haven’t had any response, so there is no mechanism, it's either you're excused because you're out with an illness, or have a doctor's note, or you're staying at home with no excuse, and that would be an unexcused absence that would count towards being truant," Howat said. 

Vail said that while she understands the reasons behind the district's decision, she’s still disappointed they’re doing it now. 

“It’s very frustrating,” she said. 

Howat said district officials felt now was a good time because COVID-19 infections in the schools are dropping.

But case counts are still high compared to last year, with 952 new student and staff cases being reported this week, which remains high enough to concern parents like Vail.