Parents, students and teachers packed the cafeteria at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) at last night's School Committee meeting to protest the proposed changes to the city's high school attendance policy.

The proposed policy, which was referred to the school committee for further review, would place students at risk of losing academic credit after more than five excused absences and would no longer allow parents to excuse their children from school at their own discretion.

Students would be able to appeal a loss of credit to the "Attendance Review Committee" made up of administrators, teachers and guidance counselors.

Parents and students said they worry the proposed policy would increase the dropout rate by punishing at-risk and chronically truant students.

"This policy is going to make a kid on track to go to Princeton sit up and take notice, but what about the kids who are already struggling to stay in school? This policy will just drive those kids out," said CRLS parent Pat Jakowski.

The school committee has been calling for a new attendance policy for several years, said city councillor and former school committee member Henrietta Davis. The fallacy of the proposed policy, she added, is that the school committee intended to discourage students from cutting classes--not to monitor excused absences approved by parents.

Students presented personal experiences that drew attention to several possible absences not covered under the policy.

"This policy assumes that CRLS students don't have families that need them sometimes," said student school committee member Rebecca Wheeler. "I've had to stay home four times already this year--twice to take care of my younger brother when he was sick. Under this policy, if I'm absent again I would have to go before a committee to plead my case to keep my academic credit."

Student Lissette Williams also presented an alternate scenario not addressed under the new policy.

"My father passed away last year, and for a long time it was a struggle for me just to get up and put my feet on the floor," Williams said.

Parents and students also suggested that the proposed "Attendance Review Committee" would place undue hardship on students for whom English is a second language. The proposed committee would adjudicate the denial of credit to students whose parent-excused absences were not on the approved list.

In the 1997-98 school year, 8.8 percent of CRLS students were designated "limited English proficient"--nearly twice the state average.

The policy's authors defended the document, saying it does not represent a drastic change from the current policy.

"This policy is very much in line with the current policy--it just makes more explicit the support network for students," said Amanda Olson, a Harvard affiliate who researched and helped draft the new policy.

In the past, CRLS has been relatively successful in graduating its students. The annual dropout rate from grades 9-12 was only 2 percent in 1996-97, less than half the 1994-95 rate and significantly less than the state average.

The 1996-97 attendance rate, on the other hand, is slightly below the state average, at 90.8 and 93.6 percent, respectively.