Teacher refusing to let ds have his snack? - Page 2

[peaceful_mama]

I would be ticked if I had not been provided with a list of "non-acceptable" snacks. Like you said, just a "healthy" guideline can be interpreted many ways. To you, he had a "healthy snack with a treat" To someone else, an oatmeal thing packaged as a "Breakfast Cookie" or a granola bar with chocolate chips might be a "healthy snack"
Somebody else might look at a chocolate-covered Kashi whole grain granola bar and see "junk."

So they need to be SPECIFIC. What is "healthy?" Does this definition, to the school, disqualify ALL cookies and pre-packaged cake treats? Is a Rice Krispie bar "healthy" because it is breakfast cereal? Can your kid bring a granola bar? What if it's covered in chocolate or contains chocolate chips? Is "Healthy" a definition limited specificially to fruits, vegetables, things like yogurt cups, and whole-grainish crackers? Heck, are you eliminating yogurt and pudding cups because they are "too messy" for eating in a carpeted classroom??

You need to know. And it needs to not be left to the discretion of individual teachers, because then you have confused parents and ticked-off siblings. (his sister didn't get HER cookies taken!)

Oh and if my child can't OCCASIONALLY bring oreos in a snack or a lunch from home, then they better NOT let me catch them serving toaster strudel things in the cafeteria!!

[eepster]

I would talk to the teacher. I would be most upset over the lack of warning, since the teacher never communicated that she had such a policy. I would also be very annoyed about the inconsistency of the policy, considering what the cafeteria serves.

[BCFD]

My child uses the Planet Box lunch box and I love that there is about a 2 inch x 2 inch spot for a sugary/bad-for-you treat. I have sent some pretty unhealthy things (literally it's the size for ONE bite of something), but the rest of her lunch (the 6x6 areas) always have healthy foods in them. I would be upset if my child's teacher took that away from her. However, every day they do require the actual snack to be healthy and sent home a chart/guidelines to follow at the beginning of the year. So, if snack that day was grapes and oreo's for the whole class I think the teacher would covertly replace the Oreo's with a box of graham crackers or something. Then she would probably mention that those types of snacks should be kept at home.

[SunshineJ]

Ok I just checked the official district policy on the foods you can bring into the school. There is none. There is information on what can be served in the school (no soda machines, etc.) and a blurb about how they are committed to meeting the nutritional needs of the students, but the ONLY reference to food outside what is served by the school is that one of the district goals is to provide nutritional education to the families it serves. That's it. That's the entire policy on lunches, snacks, etc as it pertains to foods not provided by the school. When I say that "junk food is discouraged" I mean that at the start of the year the teacher for this class sent home an update page on the class and had a 3 sentence section encouraging parents to send healthy snacks to school. That's ALL that's been said about this issue the entire year. About once every 4-6 weeks I'll send a special snack that I know the kids will really enjoy. In the past it's been fruit rollups, cookies, a couple of Hershey's kisses with their snack, and chips. None of these have ever been an issue, and dd's teacher hasn't ever said anything about it whatsoever. While DS's teacher wouldn't let him eat the 2 Oreo's, she encourages parents to randomly bring in things like cupcakes as a surprise treat for the kids. I just really don't get it. Hopefully I'll have an answer next week.