REporting your child absent *UPDATED*

[goofy4tink]

Lorix2, I'd be pretty steamed if I were you!! You certainly deserve to be. Let us know what, if anything, they have to say for themselves! Shame on them.

 

[ripleysmom]

Lorix, if the principal blows you off about this take it to the Superintendent and if that doesn't work go to the Board of Ed. Good Luck!!

 

[CourtasanSatine]

When I was in HS we had to have someone call or send a note the day we went back.I should know having 2 sinus infections that kept me home in a 3 month period

 

[Lorix2]

Ripleysmom & Goof4tink - I just wrote my letter to the principal who is a very fair man, easy going, easy to approach, I don't think he'll sweep it under the rug. He will definitely call...but good advice thank you.

School's been out for 1/2 hour now......no phone call today.

 

[supercarrie]

My high school only occasionally calls (automated phone call) in the afternoon or evening of the day you miss. The phone calls actually are made maybe 25% of the time. You don't have to call in an absence, either. You just bring a note the next day. The system is very lax. Our school has 2200 kids and only 2 attendence people, only one full-time, plus student aides, so it is very disorganized. It takes them awhile to notice you are missing.

 

[d.kurz]

Lorix: Make a scene! Make them listen. You are RIGHT!! Take it to the PTA. Write to your local newpaper. Talk to every parent you know. No school policy about this is downright dangerous!!

Please let us know how this all turns out.

 

[Wendy]

As far as I know, none of the schools around here have that policy. You just send a note when your child returns to school. It would never occur to me to expect the school to call and check on my kids if they're absent.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

When I was in high school they always called...at some point. The woman who sat and watched the kids in "in house suspension" made the calls (guess how I found THAT out. ) I think it was mostly because of truancy, but now I think it's coupled with safety concerns.

I also got one of those scary calls asking where my child was when I had sent her off on the bus. The woman who called said, "oh I'm sorry...then she must be here." She was going to leave it at that! I made her check before I hung up. Geez.

Last December, we took the kids out of school for our WDW vacation...wrote notes to the schools' offices and all the teachers...the high school and middle schools still didn't get it straight...the high school called DH's cell phone looking for DD#1 and when we got home, there were two messages from the middle school looking for DD#2. But it's not like they DID anything about not knowing where they were.

 

[Lorix2]

MaryAnnDVC - LOL! WEll someone had to the job right

HS is more likely to have truant teenagers, so I understand the school doesn't necessarily panic when students aren't accounted for....but this is elementary school and I think it's responsibilitly of the parents and the school to work together to make sure each is informed of the location of the child.

If I had received messages like you did, I'd think "hey - what a great sytem" then I would quickly ask the school that when they got no response, why did they not pursue it further? (I'm guessing you probably did) but they more than likely realized it was their mistake after reading your notes.

 

[Lorix2]

UPDATE - well, just a small one.

I called the principal this morning. I explained my concerns to him and asked him why I was not notified of my DD's absence and his reply was "well, we do usually call, but somedays we just can get to it". I told him that was unacceptable and that this was NOT the first time it's happened with me. I also expressed that I thought being shortstaffed might be the reason for this not being done and volunteered myself for the duty.

He said he appreciated the phone call, would look into it and get back to me. I hope a new system will be in place in the immediate future.

This is an elementary school, Kindergarten thru 5th grade. We live on the outskirts of a very big city...

 

[Lorix2]

Wendy - really? I urge you to get involved and get a policy in place if at the very least in the elementary school.

 

[AirForceRocks]

It would never occur to me to expect the school to call and check on my kids if they're absent

Me either.

I usually call if the kids aren't going to be there, if not, I send a note in when they go back.

 

[Lorix2]

AirForceRocks - picture this, this is why I'm on a tangent here..

Child leaves for school walking to the bus stop. 1/2 hour later the mother drives by the bus stop and as expected the child isn't at the bus stop assuming the child got on the bus.

The whole day passes by and the mother returns home either expecting to find the child home or shortly after her arrival and the child doesn't come home. The phone calls begin and asking around, then she calls the school and the school informs her the child never showed up! I don't ever want to experience that horror knowing that I could have been out there and had the police out there too looking for them as soon as they turned up missing, not 6-7 hours later.

I'm afraid this probably happens more than we know

 

[Lorix2]

sorry - you're probably all sick of me by now...but I just wanted to mention because I think this is a great idea for those of you whose children walk to the bus stop out of your sight like mine.

Use your walkie talkies like you do at Disney...my DD sets out and calls me when she's reached her friends house to meet, then again when she's at the stop and finally when the bus arrives. We say goodbye and I feel really good that I know she got on that bus.

OK - over and out!

 

[AirForceRocks]

I guess that's the difference - I watch my kids get on the bus.

 

[Lorix2]

AirForceRocks - I think that definitely makes a difference, your right....but alot of parents don't have that option unfortunately

 

[cruisnfamily]

Ummm, I see the point of having the school call so that if a child is missing the search could start sooner but honestly I've never heard of the school calling you to find out why your child isn't present.

When our kids are out sick, all that is required is a note on the day they return. Occassionally I have called to let them know one of the kids would be out but nobody seems to really care that I have called, it's just not something that is expected at our elementary. And, might I add, we go to the best school in the county, it's a magnet school with lots and lots of parental involvement, etc. This is just not something we do here. I guess I always figured it was the parents responsibility to get the kids to school safely and in a timely manner.

Now in the HS they have one of those automated things that calls to tell you if your child has been absent but that's it.

 

[Wendy]

Originally posted by AirForceRocks
I guess that's the difference - I watch my kids get on the bus.

Yep. Same here. We either drop the kids off at school or watch them get on the bus.

 

[goofy4tink]

While I understand that is isn't the policy everywhere to call home if a child doesn't show up....If the school does have that policy in place and then doesn't follow through, well I think that's the point we're all trying to make. Say, for instance, I watch my child get on the bus, which I do everyday (at this point I watch out the window,from behind curtains,'cause dd says she doesn't want to look like a baby!!). Then,,,she gets to school, gets off the bus, and a supposed friend calls over to her, that 'quick, you have to come with me.' She leaves, is gone and now how do you know?? In my dd's school, the kids are let off the bus right in front of the principal. Some kids wait awhile on the bus, in line, but that's the policy. So your child doesn't get off the bus and it's the school's policy to call in this case and they don't. That's not right. Either have the policy or don't.

 

[supamaki]

I know these are different times, but I was in school not to long ago, and if these policies were in effect I wouldn't have been able to get away with half of my "absences"