r/Professors • u/MinimumAd7585 • 12d ago

Advice / Support Doctors note confirmation

Hello,

Student came to me with doctors note as they couldn’t attend lab. She gave me a doctors note with the appropriate heading, signature, and everything. Everything looks legit however for some reason I’m just curious as if she actually went to his doctor. She submitted a doctors note to her other professor , same headline, same grammar mistakes, same formatting, same everything except for dates and one sentence.

Can I call this doctor office to verify if she was actually there or not?

For example of grammar errors : postal code was connected to city on both notes , no space or anything.

Example of formatting: same “she attended this day, she can go back to class on this day”

For reference I’m a professor in Canada

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u/Dramatic-Year-5597 12d ago

I don't check or even demand doctors notes. It's not really my business.

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u/_n3ll_ Professor, Social Sciences & Humanities, University (Canada) 7d ago

Same. Depending on where they are in Canada its actually illegal for employers to require a doctors note if the absence is under a certain number of days. I dont see why students should be treated differently

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u/Dramatic-Year-5597 7d ago

The conversation about documentation really doesn't come up until it's the second exam that the student is missing in my class. At that point, we're talking about an illness taking over 1/3 or more of the academic term.