Christopher Morales - When We Focus on Tardiness, We Learn What’s Really Keeping Students Behind
This year I was asked to join a committee to “solve the tardiness problem” in our school. As a high school biology teacher, I expected to spend a few weeks reviewing policies, adjusting thresholds, and helping to reinforce consequences. What I didn’t expect was to uncover a much deeper truth: chronic tardiness isn’t just about students showing up late - it’s about whether we’re showing up for them.
At my school in Southwest Florida, we began our examination by looking at raw data. Over 8,000 unexcused tardies were recorded in the first quarter alone. One period - first period - accounted for half of them. It didn’t take long for us to realize we weren’t just dealing with an attendance issue. We were dealing with a culture issue.
As a result, we dug deeper, organizing the data by period, quarter, and grade level. Simultaneously we launched a student survey to hear directly from students. Why were they late? What, if anything, would help? The answers weren’t always what we expected - and they were more human than any attendance log could capture.
Some students were walking younger siblings to school before arriving at ours. Others were navigating complicated housing situations or waiting on inconsistent buses. Several admitted that they simply lacked the motivation to arrive early because “nothing really happens at the beginning of the day.” Many cited long bathroom lies or crowded hallways as reasons they arrived at class a few minutes late. And a surprising number said they didn’t even realize how many tardies they had accumulated.
It was upon these revelations that we realized tardiness wasn’t a failure of discipline. It was a failure of communication, consistency, and design.
We learned that our school’s tardy policy - though well-intentioned - wasn’t being implemented uniformly. Some teachers enforced it to the letter. Others didn’t. Automated notifications were inconsistent. Students often didn’t know the consequences until it was too late. When we finally started sending alerts through our school’s learning management system, students began showing up on time - not because they feared punishment, but because they finally understood the stakes.
Perhaps most eye-opening was what students suggested to us. They didn’t just ask for leniency - they asked for structure. They wanted clearer expectations, better hallway flow, and a start to the day that actually felt meaningful. One student even suggested a no-phone zone in key traffic areas to help unclog congested stairwells.
Our team realized that discipline alone wouldn’t solve this challenge. So, we redesigned our intervention strategy with a new mindset. Instead of just punishing students after “X” amount of tardies, we started tiered responses at three. We offered opportunities for students to reflect, get support, and catch up on missed classroom content. We made the system transparent. Most importantly, we began treating tardiness as a signal, not a symptom.
The results were encouraging. Tardies dropped 44% in the second quarter. Students responded to proactive communication and consistent follow-through. But then came the third quarter - and numbers started climbing again. But, why?
Because the system still leaned too heavily on adults enforcing consequences, and too little on building shared accountability with students. Essentially, we had improved the structure, but not yet the culture.
That’s when we took a different approach: we invited students into the solution. We held focus groups with students across grade levels and had them lead parts of our committee meetings. We showed them data we were seeing and asked what they thought about it. Their insights weren’t just valuable - they were transformative.
They helped us redesign the layout of key hallway intersections. They recommended rethinking our arrival routines. And they told us,clearly, that they were more likely to respect a policy they helped create than one imposed on them without explanation.
This experience taught me something I’ll carry through the rest of my career: every behavior issue in schools is a teaching opportunity - not just for students, but for us.
If we want students to arrive on time, we need to give them a valid reason.. We need to connect the dots between punctuality and belonging. We need to create classrooms where something meaningful happens right at the bell. We need to ensure our school policies are grounded not only in compliance, but in compassion.
There’s a lesson here for educator leaders across the country. If your school is struggling with behavior or attendance, don’t just tighten up rules - listen. Your students often know exactly what’s wrong. And more often than not, they’ll help you fix it if you let them.
We didn’t eliminate tardiness at my school. But we transformed how we respond to it. We moved away from blaming and towards building. We learned that behind every late arrival is a story - and those stories deserve to be heard.
We began with a shared goal to improve punctuality. What we ended up building was relationships based on trust and clear communication.
Christopher Morales is a biology teacher at Fort Myers High School in Fort Myers, FL. In recognition of his leadership both in and outside of the classroom, he was named a National Life Group 2024-25 LifeChanger of the Year Award winner.