Last year, Heschel implemented a new lateness policy, where students who are more than ten minutes late to school receive a “More Than Ten Minute Late.” If a student reaches five MTTs, they will get detention. More than that, and the student may lose their lunch-out.
This system aims to differentiate between different levels of lateness, but it still fails to make sure students get to school on time.
The new policy does not differentiate between a student who swipes in at 8:11 AM and a student who swipes in at 9:11 AM. As time moves on, there is no larger consequence for a student. So, if someone is eleven minutes late, why wouldn’t they skip all of tefillah?
Further, when a student is running late they may be delayed more than ten minutes. A twenty or even thirty minute cutoff for MTTs could better account for mishaps and delays. As it stands, the lateness policy fails to accommodate for common delays, such as train failures and traffic.
The current lateness policy also does not allow for students to get enough rest when they need it. Growing bodies need a lot of sleep, and the strict lateness policy does not foster an environment where students can occasionally take a late start to catch up on sleep.