Bumps & bruises at school...

[Still_Learning]

DS had his second day at school today and I just found a big scrape/bruise on him when we were changing into pj's. Having always been around to kiss his booboo's, I was shocked that I hadn't heard about it before then.

What's the norm for schools and kids getting hurt? Do they let parents know when minor accidents happen?

DS said the teacher gave him an ice pack, so they knew about it.

[anne1140]

Not when minor accidents happen, no. Kids are rough at recess, so this kind of thing is fairly common.

Now, if it were something more serious, like bumping his head, or a serious bruise, then yes, you would probably be notified.

[Carma]

Our kids are in daycare. We get boo-boo reports for everything. It says what happened, what they did (wash the scrape, etc.), I have to sign it and the director needs to sign it. Our kids are 2 and 3 right now, I don't know how it is with older kids that can much better tell what happened.

Carma

[StephandOwen]

As far as I can tell- there's a HUGE difference between daycare and school. I work in a daycare- we tell parents about every scrape, bruise, etc.

My ds has been in Kindergarten for 1 week. The first day he was injured and we weren't told about it. Today he came home with a band-aid on his finger. He says "the paper hurt me". LOL... I assume a paper cut

[One_Girl]

Scrapes and bruises are part of being a growing child and teacher's tend to not make a big deal about them. My dd's teacher would tell me if dd had a terrible day emotionally but she tended to trust my dd to let me know about anything little that bothered her. It was a bit of an adjustment to go from the constant reports daycare did to no reports unless something serious happened, but it is part of growing up and scrapes aren't really a big deal for that long. My dd usually doesn't even notice when she gets scraped unless she is having a hard day anyways.

[Tigerchild]

By "school" I assume that you mean elementary school, not preschool or daycare.

If that is what you mean, then yes--what you experienced is par for the course. IME the only thing you really get notified about is if something is serious enough for the child to be taken to the nurse--and even then if it's just something like a scrape or minor cut not even then. It can be a shock from daycare/preschool, where because of insurance and legal liability you will receive an incident report for every little thing, or even if they took a tumble with NO bruise, ect.

I often heard about little incidents from my kids' teachers, but most of the time that was because (in the case of DD) I picked her up and hung out for a bit every day or had pretty close contact with the teacher.

Generally, it's not the teacher who is supervising on the playground though. So if your kid gets pinched on the swing, gets a broken blister from the monkey bars, or a scrape or other bruise it's not like the teacher is going to know either unless the child tells them or they need the nurse.

What you describe for an elementary school, IMO, is normal. If it happened at a preschool or daycare, I would be concerned.

[Still_Learning]

well it's primary level of a montessori school, so ages 3-6

[lindberg99]

My kids' elementary school will call if the child fell and hit his/her head, even if it was minor. They seem to call if blood is involved as they called a couple times when DD got a bloody nose. As far as I can tell, they will only call for a scrape, bump, etc. if the child is really upset.

The preschool wouldn't call when something happened but they would tell me when I came to pick up the child. Like "He scraped his knee when we were outside" or whatever.

So personally, I think the school should have mentioned it to you. Maybe not call the minute it happened but mention it during pick up.

[1growingsprout]

Originally Posted by Still_Learning

DS had his second day at school today and I just found a big scrape/bruise on him when we were changing into pj's. Having always been around to kiss his booboo's, I was shocked that I hadn't heard about it before then.

What's the norm for schools and kids getting hurt? Do they let parents know when minor accidents happen?

DS said the teacher gave him an ice pack, so they knew about it.

Sounds like a normal day of school... even in a M 3-6 classroom.

[mamatowill]

Schools and teachers do not call for every cut and bump that happens. Major things like a bump on the head, major pain (like need to take kid to dr/hospital) that kind of thing is a call home. I know that even when my DS is with me I don't know about every bruise and bump cause he doesn't always tell me. Was your little guy upset?

[denimtiger]

I'm a second grade teacher, and no, unless you're standing around talking to me AND it was a semi-noteworthy event, I don't mention it. Some days I'm pretty sure we go through about 87 ice packs in 5 hours. :-) They're in the fridge. Soap and water are by the sink, band-aids are in the closet - help yourself is the motto for all of the small bumps, scrapes, and bruises.

More than a couple of drops of blood, hurt enough to be upset about it, head bumps, scrapes with rocks or dirt... those I take care of or send to the nurse. If it's serious enough, the nurse calls, but usually kids tell their parents.

[Storm Bride]

The only time I was ever notified about an injury was when ds1 broke a finger in 7th grade. He always had bumps and bruises in kindergarten, but I never heard about them, except from him, and usually only once I asked. I doubt if his teacher even knew about most of them. I didn't even know that daycares and preschools were different that way.