Two school systems on the ‘Post of the Day’
Grafic by Dan
Note from Dan: The missive below was posted over the weekend by the feisty 13 Suns, a regular on this blog who’s in her 80s. The grandson she’s referencing is now an adult.
“When my grandson was a little boy, he had slow onset asthma. This means he never had a sudden asthma attack; rather, if he got a cold, flu, or any respiratory ailment, his asthma would more than likely act up.
When he was in second grade in the late 90s at a Roanoke elementary school, he missed 9 days of school due to illness. He was an A/B student, never in trouble, respectful, engaged, read several grade levels above second grade.
His mother was called to a mandatory meeting at the school to discuss my grandson’s absences. That meeting included the principal, my grandson’s teacher, and the school nurse. My daughter explained that she kept her son at home those days because he was sick, had asthma, and that she had only taken her son to the doctor on three of the nine days he was absent.
The teacher began lecturing my daughter on how difficult it was for students to make up work from being absent and how terrible it was for absent students to miss classroom lectures, projects, etc. The principal told my daughter that if my grandson missed two more days of school without seeing a doctor and without a note to the school from the doctor, they would ‘have no choice but to contact Child Protective Services with concerns of educational and medical neglect.
The school nurse and the principal wanted my daughter to sign a release of information form allowing the school all access to my grandson’s medical information.
My daughter refused to sign the release, told them all that SHE was the parent, left the meeting, and homeschooled her son for the rest of that year. By third grade, they had moved and my grandson was able to attend Salem schools until he graduated, with honors, and with no school nannies sticking their noses where they didn’t belong.”
March 11, 2013 - 12:00 PM
All this amounts to one thing.
The school board not keeping there ego big headed teachers and admin in check. This will change in Bedford…teachers and admin will use common sense or contract will not be renewed.
They will basically be fired.
I’ve never had that kind of issue with schools regarding my children 13 Suns. However, I’ve had issues on other similarly pedantic matters from schools my sons attended.
Earlier in my career I got invited to present academic papers at international conferences. Among them were two specific conferences, one at University College in Dublin, Ireland and a second at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. On the second of these I took my oldest son with me. It was toward the end of the school year and all SOL testing had been done and school was “floating” toward the end of the year. To go on the trip my son would miss one week, five days, of class. The high school principal required my son to get permission of the school board to go on the trip. He also required, in order to get school board permission, that my son complete daily homework while on the trip and fax it back to the school while we were in Northern Ireland. There were no tests given during the week my son was away and the homework he got to send back was primarily busy work to permit the teachers to say they had assigned and collected it. The penalty my son would have paid had he gone on the trip without school board permission was that he would have been required to repeat his junior year of high school. We got school board approval for the trip. However, it was because the chair of the board of the college where I was then employed happened to be the school board attorney. He advised the school board that, in his legal opinion, the principal had overstepped his authority.
I’m a big proponent of public school education. I am not, as you may have gathered a big proponent of some of the stupid administrators running those schools.
I think the other way this should be looked at is this: The school nurse wanted to have access to the medical record in order to keep the writers grandchild safe in school. Let’s face it, kids have more and more illnesses in school these days. School nurses are often at a disadvantage without proper paperwork from parents and the ability to follow up on childrens illnesses. If this child had asthma, he should have had an inhaler at school with a written doctor permission form for directions of use. Unfortunately schools have many guidelines to follow, including student attendance. I don’t agree with the way this particular case was handled (from what I gather in the letter to Dan), but schools should be kept abreast of any medical condition that could possibly affect a student while in school.
That’s outrageous, Ron. My kids have both missed school for a week at different times depending on what they had going on…one each for a trip to Europe, a couple times on ski trips. I called them in, promised we’d make the homework up, and that was that.
When I was 11 I missed 7 weeks of the 6th grade. I had a terrible case of pneumonia (hospitalized for more than 3 weeks, in an oxygen tent for most of that time). The school allowed me to make the work up. Nobody called Child Protective Services.
all it takes is one inept admistrator to start the ball rolling down-hill to the swamp. all too often, the administrators apply the “bad” parent label way too prematurely.
good communication by the parent often keeps those inept folks away from doing damage, as kristen notes.
dan, back in those days, i don’t think public schools were under the barage of regulatory requirements and political correctness measures that they are forced to contend with today. There’s a big difference between then, and now.
i wonder why?
I tried to not miss classes growing up, and generally managed to avoid missing classes except when I was pretty darn sick (like pneumonia in the 3rd grade). One time though, in middle school, my dad took me to the NX on base to get a new winter coat…it was the first cold day that year, and my old coat was not in wearable shape. I missed my first 2 classes that day, and had a note from my dad explaining the situation. It was deemed an inexecused absense, and I was failed in all work for the classes I missed, including a midterm exam in a class I had an A in to that point. I recovered and earned a B for that quarter and eventually an A for the year, but I never forgot that. I’m pretty sure I got people sick in my school by slogging my way to class unless I physically couldn’t ride my bike the near mile each way to get to/from school. But oh well, it’s been nearly 2 decades since then…I’m sure it’s even more asinine now.
Re: Ron May at 1:16 pm
Echos here.
One of my kids had a math teacher that required all busywork (excuse me the the homework) be done even though the child had a solid “A” on the class.
BTW, the homework was not graded and did not count toward the final grade.
BTW2, the absence was to compete at the national level of the HS Math Olympics, where she won a gold medal.
I missed the first half of my junior year on a family activity, and still graduated HS at 17 and went to college with no problem. IMO there can be learning done all sorts of ways, and sometimes an option superior to school comes up. Parents need to be trusted to make the right decisions for their kids.
13 Suns,
To respond more directly to your story, it seems the teacher should have tried to have contact with your daughter about why your grandson was missing school before 9 days had elapsed. Had the teacher initiated that contact, like most teachers do, it may have been possible for the teacher to have arranged getting homework, etc. home to your grandson so that he wouldn’t be so far behind when he returned.
“Feisty”, eh? I like that, Dan!
I didn’t really make a good connection in my story between my grandson’s asthma and his absences from school. At that point in my grandson’s life, he used a preventive, non-rescue inhaler every day, twice a day–once before school, and once in the evening. If he developed a cold or respiratory ailment and his asthma flared up, he would use his inhaler as needed throughout the day. My daughter had not filled out all the paperwork with the school which would allow my grandson access to his own inhaler while at school. Her reasoning for not doing so was because even if she had secured permission from the school, according to school rules, my grandson would have had to leave his inhaler in the school office and the school nurse or another ‘authorized’ person would have had to supervise his usage of the inhaler. This meant my grandson, while having difficulty breathing, would have had to walk to the office for his medicine, or if necessary, the nurse could bring his inhaler to him, still resulting in an unnecessary wait. He would not be allowed to carry his inhaler in his pocket and use it immediately. My daughter (and I agreed) felt that this was a ridiculous and potentially dangerous rule. It also applied to children with rescue inhalers. Can you imagine the panic a child in the midst of a sudden asthma attack feels wondering when the nurse is going to get to them with their own medicine? Because of this ridiculous rule, my daughter felt it was in her son’s best interest to keep him at home when the potential for an asthma episode increased so that she could monitor his health, and he could use his inhaler in a timely manner without having to wait on someone to get it to him. When she explained this at the attendance meeting, the school nurse and principal still tried to pressure her into signing the papers allowing the school to administer the medicine, along with the release of his medical history/info to the school. Their reasoning was that it didn’t take that long (five minutes at most, they said) to get to a student who needed an inhaler. (Five minutes is a long time when you can’t breathe efficiently, and for a child, it’s a very scary five minutes.) As I said in my other post, my daughter refused this intrusion into their lives and homeschooled my grandson for the rest of that year.
Sorry to be so long-winded, but even after all these years, I still get a little angry at the absurdity of the situation. I hope the rules have been revised to allow for a little common sense.
Now I have to admit, that 4 years ago..my son had a gas can blowup on him,,talk about scaring the death out of someone. The school at that time had no problem with him out for almost 2 weeks. I did how ever make sure I called it in once things settle down.
The thing here is that Hippa law would never ever allow a school admin. to over ride federal authority. It all goes back to common sense an over reaching control freaks.
#10 Ron,
I can tell you one thing that is a fact.
The majority of the teachers today, DO NOT, contact the parent about missing or falling grades until it is almost to late. I have been in a battle with this for years. Not all but most will wait till the progress report comes home and wait for the parent to contact them. If you notice thats why parent portal was started. Its a good tool, dont get me wrong, but more and more school systems are taking the parental roll and then forgetting about there teaching roll.
I completely agree with everyone here. The school systems have gotten a little out of control where the absences from school is concerned. My son is an A/B student. He is an athlete and has never been in trouble — in or out of school. This year it seems he has caught just about every bug that has come our way. Every time he is absent, I have to make a doctor’s appointment in order to get a note so that his absence can be “excused” even though I know it is a virus and will pass in 24 – 48 hours. Then at the end of the semester I get a letter stating he has missed too many classes and is at risk of losing credit for those classes unless I can adequately explain his absences. Ummm….hello….I sent all the doctor’s notes to the school and you have them on file!! The letter contained no list of dates of the absences or anything to go by. I had to go back to the insurance info to pull the dates he went to the doctor to get the notes to begin with and then just guessed at how many days he was out. Never got a response to whether or not his request for waiver was accepted either. So it is important enough that you can send out a nasty letter questioning my parenting skills but you can’t send out a letter stating what your decision was? Just frustrating!!!!
Ron May, it’s always a pleasure for me to read your posts. I’m very glad to hear your evening in Chicago went well.
I feel like I’m starting to bore everyone with this school story. I did omit some aspects of the story for brevity’s sake, but looks like that ship’s already sailed. To answer some questions that are being asked:
My daughter called the school each time my grandson was absent, made arrangements for his assignments to be delivered to him through a classmate and neighbor, and sent notes to school with her son upon his return after each absence. She attended parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings when able. In other words, there was ample opportunity to discuss my grandson’s attendance with his mother before the Big Attendance Meeting. The only thing the teacher said on two occasions was it was unfortunate my grandson had missed more than a couple of days but she understood why. There is the possibility that the teacher did not know about the attendance meeting (or the potential thereof) any sooner than my daughter did, but I doubt that.
12 Suns.
God bless your daughter and grandson.
Conservative, I think it is an extremely rare occasion when a school needs access to a student’s complete medical history. Before a child is allowed to attend public school, the parent must provide proof the child has received certain immunizations. At the beginning of each school year, parents fill out emergency contact information cards and also are requested to list the child’s primary doctor and any medical conditions and/or prescription medications that may affect the child’s performance and attendance at school. Parents also sign a waiver allowing the school to secure whatever emergency medical treatment is necessary in case of not being able to contact the parent beforehand. This should be sufficient for the safety of the child. Every Tom, Dick, & Harry that works at the school should not have access to a child’s complete medical history.
At the time the situation with my grandson occurred, my daughter showed me a paper from the school outlining its medication policy. The school’s own policy strongly recommended scheduling a child’s medicine routine around the school schedule, which is exactly what my daughter was trying to accomplish by keeping her son at home when he was ill.
Let me also reiterate that my grandson was in SECOND grade, not high school, not even middle school, SECOND grade. He was an A/B student reading on a 5th grade level, but the principal threatened to contact CPS with concerns about educational neglect. How could he even hope to prove that, given my grandson’s school and test grades? It was all about intimidation, and I’m very sure the motivation was financial somehow.
Hey Kristen at post #9.
I think your post is spot on, and it fits hand-in-glove with why all parents, not just the rich ones, should have the option to choose alternative environments in which to have their children educated…other than be forced into government schools.
Don’t you agree?
You guys sound like reasonable parents. When I was teaching for Roanoke City I was once reprimanded for failing to send reams of homework with a middle school student that was serving as a page in the general assembly. His parents wouldn’t accept my opinion that he could make up the work he missed once he returned. They were so upset that they took their case to the principal and had her hound me and put official reprimands in my employee file. All to force me send him piles and piles of busywork. I had almost forgotten about that, what a wonderful memory!
Parents do “have the option to choose alternative environments in which to have their children educated”, they just have to pay for that decision.
Schools have so much to deal with and if you do not think kids can do inappropriate things with their medications, pens, pencils, glue or paint, well, you haven’t been in a classroom in a while.
The main point is communication, between the parent, the school and the teachers. If modifications are needed to the “the rules” that all must abide by, that can be accomplished with the help of a physician who can advise the school.
There are problem teachers, and problem administrators, but there are also many, many problem parents. That they try to treat all with the same rules and regulations makes it difficult in special cases, but it can be done.
Truancy is a real problem that teachers and schools face and it affects the ability of grading a child on their progress. Chronic illness that requires staying home but not a doctor visit needs to be explained as some people take advantage, and some people lie.
I had some ‘run ins’ with school teachers and administrators and I know their intransigence, but I also met some fierce child advocates and hard working people willing to go the extra mile as long as there was open communication.