School Policy? - Page 2

[mirlee]

Actually, they can. What our former public school did was institute a buzzer on the main door and have a security guard posted. You then went to the office to sign in and get a visitor pass.

The policy at our school was the result of an attempted abduction.

Officially, once your child enters the doors of the school, the school is responsible for them. The principal in effect becomes their surrogate "parent." At least that is the way it is in our state.

[Emmeline II]

Originally Posted by messy mama

I would definitely call the school and ask about it. If they insisted I would kindly tell them that as mother to my children, I do not ever have to make an appointment to see them.

Maybe they had a few disruptive parents and they want to try this to see if it helps. Or possibly they just weren't thinking clearly and someone needs to point that out to them. It's weird.

Oh, and to MDC, surpassthm!!!

Yes, the policy may be a knee-jerk reaction to something. I would find out what prompted the policy change and work to find something that meets everyone's needs. Maybe work through the PTA? Or call all the other parents in your child's class and pressure the administration to make a change.

You may also want to read "Protecting the Gift"; there is some interesting information on how to deal with schools over access to your child.

[beachmouse]

While it seems overly restrictive, I can see the point of it.

A parent even just sticking their head in the classroom is a disruption, and it's not really fair to the kids who may be having to try to concentrate very hard right at that moment in order to understand a new math concept, or all of a sudden three different parents show up when they're trying to take a language arts test.

Seems like what's fairest to the greatest number of kids is to require appointments (so that parents don't disrupt that math class) and have a policy that forgotten items get delivered to the office, and then they filter into the classrooms when the kids would be at a morning recess or bathroom break.

[Flor]

My school has the same official policy. The reason is that we have parents who show up ready to have a show down with the teacher in the middle of a class. We actually had a mother enter a classroom and tell some girls they were badly raised and were going to Hell for bugging her daugther (who was right in the middle of it all and lovin' it, but that's a different story,. . .). So, the official policy is that you have an appointment. But, if a parent is just coming to observe her child, I have NO problem with them coming in whenever they want. If you showed up to the office and wanted to observe, the secretary would say, you are supposed to have an appointment, but I'll ask her. She'd call my room and I'd tell you to come up.

You can access your kid 100% of the time, you just can't access the classroom whenever you want. We'd call a kid out of class if a parent needed them.

[aniT]

Originally Posted by Flor

You can access your kid 100% of the time, you just can't access the classroom whenever you want. We'd call a kid out of class if a parent needed them.

I completely agree with this. Because having access to the classroom means you also have access to 19 other kids.

[mattemma04]

The school my kids go to is like this.Did not really bother me until the principal was all over me one day when I walked my son to the hallway that would take him down to his class.I took something to the office,so I figured I would walk him part of the way.I wasn't even going down the hall(to his class) with him and yet the principal was telling me," You can't be here! You can't go down the hall with him." Well duh! I knew that. What I didn't know was they seem to discourage you from even coming INTO the school(office only).Lol,drop off and pick up at the front door only I suppose

[kmeyrick]

In my school, we HAVE to enforce this. We have too many non-custodial parents showing up, aggressive people bursting in yelling at the teacher any time, (which terrifies the children) kids getting distracted by parents being in the room, (They get excited or upset if the parent is not their own) parents stopping lessons and demanding to speak to the teacher right now. That means the kids don't learn, since a parent didn't want to bother with an appointment or doesn't care about the needs of the other kids.

Granted, in my area, we have a few extreme parents that I would not say are the majority of people. But just like you wouldn't show up to a doctor or lawyer without an appointment, you have to know that the teacher is working with the kids, and the kids are working too, they cannot have their teacher taken away from them even for a moment because a parent didn't want to make an appointment. Should a doctor walk away from a patient for someone who just showed up? Should a meeting be interrupted spontaneously? If a teacher is working with a student on say, long division, then that child shouldn't have to wait while someone walks in. The kids need to come first. In my school, other teachers aren't allowed to just walk into classrooms, and intercom messages have to be kept to a bare minimum. Administrators look at schedules to plan when they come in, and observe silently, often walking funny so their feet don't make a noise. So it's not like we are targeting parents alone.

So, it's both safety, and consideration for all the kids. If it's really important, you can usually make an appointment the same day, you just have to make a two minute phone call. It'd be rude anywhere else to just show up, so be considerate of all the kids, staff, and other parents and make an appointment.