School Attendance

My son missed 4 days last 9 weeks and one so far this nine weeks. Unfortunately, we received some very bad news and have had a death in the family-out of state. My grandmother has passed away and I am actually considering not going because I don't want him to fail. The problem is that if we drive up there, then he will end up missing Monday-Wednesday next week and 1/2 day on Thursday. Will he fail?

 

Bump.

Where y'all (not op) at?

I can't respond without telling her to tell the school to kiss her ***.

 

Call the school and speak with the principal.

Lord forbid you get the answer straight from the horses mouth...

 

Can she call the school and discuss with them? Seems like extenuating (sp?) circumstances to me.

 

Call the school, they can waive absences for various reasons. I would think something like this would qualify.

 

We just found out this morning and because there are a lot of people coming in from out of state, they are going to hold off on the actual funeral until Saturday but my point is that I am not driving for 2 days and not spending some time with family and that is where I think they will have an issue. (It is a 10 hour drive each way.) We would leave on Friday and come back next Friday.

 

this no child left behind thing is BS. I hate it. i hate the fact that as a parent I have no say in when and how my child will miss school. If she fail to keep her grades up even though she is out, then she fails period. i don't need a stinking school district to tell me when my kid can be out of school.
A note from a parent is not good enough anymore. There was a day when as long as the grades were good and the child had a note from a parent - everything was fine. Nowadays parents mean nothing. In high school they have to attend Saturday school is they miss more then what? two three days? This is bunk!
Just ask the nice lady at the attendence office at WEst what I think of this policy. She knows how I feel. my daughter may not be able to attend a wedding in the spring I have promised to go to because of this lame, stupid idiotic policy - but I am working on it. oh and they can't go to saturday school in advance either.

- peppercorns
the student who was out 30 days per school calendar year -every year and maintained an A average. (sereiously)

 

You have some very valid points! Why do I have no say in the whole thing? I took my son out for one day to go to Manassas, VA. Imagine, Manassas, one of the most important places in Civil War history, and I had to get special permission and this was counted as his one and only requested absence (ONE DAY). He visited the museum and did the tour and even took a test from the rangers for a Scout badge. The school, however, had no interest in even seeing this or any proof that he was even there. Explain that? You are better off to lie and just say they were sick than to tell the truth and I have had office staff tell me that before!!!

 

You will have to deal directly with your school principal on this, but I would not expect it to be a problem. You should expect to get a standard fill-in-the-blank letter at some point from the system making it sound like you child will fail. However, these are sent to anyone that passes the threshold number of absences. If you have been diligent in getting doctors excuses for sickness, making up missed work, and keeping the school informed, you should not have a problem. The absence policy reads like it makes no exceptions, but the intent is to handle the cases of kids who simply miss school without a good reason.

I must say that this is based on my experience at West Clayton Elementary and Clayton Middle, but it should reflect county policy.

 

just curious, how many days are the kids allowed to miss??

 

4 absences per 9 weeks

 

Four days every nine months is not acceptable IMHO. This year has been an exceptionally bad season for viruses going around. Its not very hard at all to miss 4+ days in a 9 week period due to any number of things: bad colds, flu, strep throat, ear infections, etc. I would certainly hope that school administration can make allowances. If not, then the public schools are failing children and punishing them because of circumstances they can not help.

Heck, most doctors will tell you what after visiting their office with a bad virus? Rest two or three days. However, some of the virus recirculate every 3-4 weeks.

 

You just have to have a note from your doctor, then they can waive the absences.

 

Exactly, it looks alot scarier on paper! The rules are in place for those parens who are not as responsible as the rest of us.

Anybody else besides me annoyed with a school trying to tell me what I can and cannot do with MY child?

 

The Johnston Country School board Passed these attendence regulations over the summer or late spring of 2007. THey came into place with the start of the 2007-2008 school year. The school board yips that it is all due to the "No child left behind act". I disagree. i think it has far more to do with egos within the school board who think parents are idiots and can't care or be responsible for their own children.
AS Most of you know mine is a senior this year. I feel that the lines of communication are bogged down and are worthless between parents and techers. Gone are the days when teachers cared enough to let parents know what their chilren were up toand they are not used to parents who do give a hoot i have to beg for info.

FACT: I currently have called the school regarding two separate matters. A vice princelpal has yet to return my call despite his assurance he would over a week ago.
AND I left an urgent message for the principal herself and she has not bothered to call me back either. Great systems there folks.
FYI: A particular teacher who wanted my attention in a mindless matter called my job six times in ten minutes. I was not there. I find this excessive and darn near harrassment. But no one gives a hoot and no one will listen. A teacher accused my child of cutting a day when all they had to do was get their happy butt to the attendance office and see that see had an excused out and a note.

Just wait until the board gets my letter - because if they think this is bad publicity.....

 

The policy is WRONG ! ! !

At the first of school we met for orientation then had to leave the next day to go out of state because of a family illness. They told us we would need a letter from the doctor / hospital. Told them the doctor could not give me something for the school that was illegal for the doctor to give me in the first place. Then they wanted pictures of her medicine bottles and hotel receipts.
We spoke to the principal and she implied that our grandson would fail because we would be gone more than 4 days. Mercy, but it was an 18 hr drive one way. We spoke with the county and they suggested our grandson stay with another family member and not go. Even mentioned a daycare. We explained he was Honor Roll.....did not make any difference. We had to fill out papers and we worried all the next day on whether or not he would fail before he started. Found out later that he actually would not be counted until he sat in the desk. He was enrolled but not physicaly until he was there. All of that grief for nothing!!! They did tell us he would not be able to go later if she passed away. The schools SHOULD NOT have this much control over our families.

Talk to the person in charge of SIMS.

 

How is it illegal for a doctor to write a note stating that a family member is sick?

 

I don't know for sure, but my guess would be HIPPA.

I mean, if Dr. Smith wrote a note to Johnny's teacher that said...

Johnny may be excused because his grandmother Sue Smith has terminal cancer.......

That's a privacy violation, right?

 

Not if permission was given to the doctor to write it.

 

I don't think a doctor would write a note for a person's death. But other posts mentioned that their kids had been sick, viruses etc.....in that case get a note for the dr. Whenever my child has been to the dr and needed a note, they either have a form that they 'fill-in' or they take a prescription pad (with the office address etc) and write on there 'please excuse ......., or limited activity for x# of days, etc) I've never had a dr's office give me a hard time about needing a note!

In case of a death - not sure, I would at least get a copy of the obituary and a funeral handout if they have one.