Glen Rock Parent

Glen Rock, NJ's forum for parents to speak out, react, inform and engage

I was only doing what you told me!

Posted on | January 4, 2010 | View Comments

The following letter was received recently by two Glen Rock parents:

letter_from_GR_school

The letter from the principal of the school in essence is reprimanding the parents for keeping their child out of school too many times last year. For those of you familiar, there are very strict guidelines around when your child can and cannot attend school – specifically around the topics of viruses, fevers and other health conditions. Now, this season has seen its share of H1N1 flu, regular flu, pneumonia not to mention a variety of other infectious diseases. The schools are, to be mildly cliche, a petri dish and kids will get sick — especially the younger ones. If they exhibit symptoms of a certain severity and within a certain timeframe, they cannot go to school according to the policy passed down to the parents from the school board.

It’s safe to say that most parents are not taking their kids out of school on a regular basis for week-long excursions to French Polynesia and other exotic destinations.

Most parents recognize that the best way for their child to learn is to actually attend class. That being said, when a letter like this is received the insinuation is immediate – you’re a bad parent. You take your kid out of class way too often and now their education is suffering. This is neither helpful nor productive – especially for those parents (the majority) who are simply following protocol.

In addition, these types of letters put a burden on the school secretaries since they field any incoming phone calls from parents concerned and offended at the contents of the letter.

Further investigation revealed that this is indeed a threshold-triggered form letter and was not meant to single out specific parents or poor behavior however the Glen Rock School Board should think a step or two ahead before sending out letters like this that come off as accusatory in nature and tone. If there’s a reason to send a note home on this topic, re-wording the letter to be clearer about its intended goal would go a long way to relieving any concern raised by it. Most Glen Rock parents work very hard to do what they believe is best for their child’s health and education while maintaining the guidelines set forth by the school. Let’s reward and thank them for that instead.

Bookmark and Share
Contributed by: Jeff Gothelf. on January 4, 2010.
Category: School
Tags: > >

Comments

  • Another GR parent
    The State also has strict requirements about how long children can be out of school. In fact, the school is required to report to child protective services if a child misses a certain number of days. If a child is taken out of school for a week for a trip, that triggers the school contacting the state. So, do not blame the schools for doing what they are required to do. If the children had to be out for an extended period, the parents should have obtained a note from the doctor. That would have eliminate the need for the letter from the school. Would you prefer that the schools simply ignore what might actually have been truancy or child neglect? If the school did nothing, you would have complained, too. Before you wrote this blog, you might have found out the reasoning behind it instead of simply spewing disinformation.
  • First, thank you for your comment. You bring up an excellent point. Second, please don't mistake this blog as a source of proven, researched information. It is a source of *opinion* for those who choose to write posts here and engage in discussion. Those opinions are up for debate and I thank you for voicing your point of view.

    As for your points, I think you bring up valid insights and on an extended absence there is absolutely a need to report to the school *why* your child has not been there for multiple days in a row -- vacation, sickness, whatever. However, if the total number of days out come at one or two day increments over the course of an entire half year the teachers have a pretty clear view of whether or not the child is out for legitimate reasons or is being abused or neglected and can report that up to the appropriate folks.

    Everyone has laws to follow. The opinion expressed in the original posting reflected the *perceived* insinuations in the form letter for those parents who are also following the rules.

    [Jeff]
blog comments powered by Disqus