Letter from school

mammag wrote: I got a letter from Kristen's school yesterday. She has missed 9 days of school this year (pneumonia 5 days, 2 days when I had Keegan, the other 2 were a combination of doctors appts that they consider 1/2 days) Apparantly they started a new policy this year that you only get 9 absences before getting a warning. If she has 3 more absences this year without a doctors note they will report us to the county truancy officer!!! That seems a little extreme to me. I didn't know I had to send a doctors note before so now I have to go back to the drs office and see if I can get a note for some of those days to bring the number down.

This just really frustrates me. Does this not encourage people to send their children to school sick? I understand that some people call in their children for the smallest things but that just isn't the case with us and I think they should take each situation into consideration before enforcing this strict policy.

I just needed to vent........ one more thing I have to do now!

kimberley replied: yeah, seems a bit extreme to me also. hopefully you can get those dr notes and not have to worry about it. at the very least, they should have sent a letter home explaining their new policy so you would know to have these notes ready .

mummy2girls replied: Im sorry but that is really dumb!

TANNER'S MOM replied: A note from parents stating why the child is absent is an excused absence at our school. No note equals un exused and then the trauncy officer is notified.

Last year Tanner missed 20 days due to his tonsil's and then he had surgery and had them removed. He wasn't to pass but his grades were perfect and he completely all make up work..they made it one occurance since it was all related.

They said it depends on the child and that is how they rate it>>

Who knows

Mommy2BAK replied: thats scary that they would turn you in. I hope you can get it figured out!

MommyToAshley replied: I agree that they should have explained the new policy to all the parents. Hopefully the doc's note will get the number of missed days down within guidelines.

I can see both sides to this argument. I am sure they want to cut out the number of unnecessary days of school missed. But, what about the days where your child is sick but the doc would simply tell you to give them Tylenol and hydrate them. Obviously you wouldn't want to send your child to school sick, but I guess now you have to make a trip to the doc just for a note?

Boys r us replied: That's CRAZY!!!!!!!!

loveydad replied: I'd tell that they they're my kids and if I want to keep them out of school for the rest of their lives, I WILL. That just bugs me when the government steps in where it shouldn't be. There's kids at my sons school who had a really bad illness and were in the hospital, and they would have had to go back another year to make up the time they were gone (this was before he was even in high school) so the kids dropped out. STUPID!

kileyjae replied: We have a similiar policy. Doesn't the School give you a booklet at the beginning of the Year where the School Policy is spelled out, and you read and sign?

It was explained this way to us....it's to 'help' the kids. The ones who are abused with bruises and the Parent won't allow them to attend school until the bruises are gone. The ones, where the Parents are too drunk/strung out to get their kid up and ready for school. The ones where the Parents think they are at school (our school doesn't call), and have no idea.

Doctors notes are excused. My friend has a son who has severe asthma and has missed many many days of school, and, with doctors notes, are always excused and has always passed. (Pending grades, of course.)

aspenblue1 replied: I think that the schools are taking it to the extreme. I can see they don't want a lot of absenses but if your child is sick and you decide to keep them home that is your decision not theirs.

maestra replied:
We have a similar policy, and unfortunately, have to use it a lot, mostly for the above reasons.

We do judge on a case by case basis, but if it seems like your call ins are legit, we give some slack. Unfortunately, there are a lot of parents who will call their child in "sick" just because they didn't want to have to get up and get them ready. I get at least 3 kids a year who are chronically truant for this reason.

There is one child in my class who started in the beginning of November, and as of just before break, had only come to school on time 2 times. His mom gives a different excuse every time.

gr33n3y3z replied: In the high school where my 2 older kids go to, We are leaving to go on vacation on Sunday and I had to give the school 15 days notice so THEY could APPROVE it.
A few days ago John had a Dr.'s Appt. Hubby sent in a letter for him to give to the school and they fricken called to make sure my husband wrote it, I said to the girl my husbands siguture is on it right she said yes I said he wrote it.
So now I write on all the letters that go to that school If you are going to call me at work I can only talk to you at 10:00.
I can understand why High Schools are cracking down But grades 1-8 that is kinda
extreme.

mammag replied: Apparently it was in the big handbook they gave but we didn't have to sign anything saying we read it and I just made the mistake of assuming it was the same as the other years I had read it.

I sent a letter to the teacher asking for the exact dates so I can call the doctors office about getting the notes for the prior times. I don't know if they'll do it but hopefully.....

party-of-six replied: I have to send my oldest to school sick.....sad but true.
She is in high school. They are allowed 10 days absent per semester (1/2 school year)....one bout of flu would eat that.....so....she has a bad cold...she gets some tylenol and a box of tissues and has to tough it out.....
BTW, the high school counts absences for EACH class....not per day.....so, say she can make it only 1/2 day before being wiped out from being sick, she cannot come home as the absences at the end of the day are just as serious as the first ones....

So...she has been sent to school the day after breaking her foot, after puking all night, just so we have the absences when we need them.....otherwise, she looks at failing for the year...yes, they will fail them, regardless of grades, if they miss more than 10 days.
Stupid.

loveydad replied: I stand by the comment that they're OUR KIDS. Not theirs. ours. And I can't believe that missing an extra day or school now and then when they're sick or something major is going on can possibly matter so much! If the kid makes it up, why the big deal?

My son got flack for leaving school the day his son was born.

mammag replied: Yes it really is quite ridiculous. Especially since 5 of the days was for the one incident. She is getting really good grades and made up all the work. And I agree, it is our kids. It really makes me consider homeschooling but I just don't think I have the patience.

I did get a letter from the school yesterday. They are only letting me get a note for the 5 days not for the other. I guess that will help though. I will call the drs office Monday and see if they will do it and update you all.

The more I think about it the more infuriated I get.

Alice replied:
Again, I think the intent is to make abuse harder to hide. A young kid would not have the smarts or the gumption to say he was out of school again to let the bruises fade.

A bout of pneumonia is easy to verify with the doctor who made the diagnosis-- I bet a phone call would get you a note in the mail.

I know it's a huge pain, but I've got to side with the schools on this. Every time you read the story of a child who died of abuse, you wonder: "Why was no one aware that this was going on??? Where were the teachers and the doctors??" This is the school's attempt to prevent any more abuse. If it's a nuisance to us, I think that's just the price we have to pay.

momof3inmo replied: Our principal sent me a similar letter last year when Brandon missed 10 days( not all at once) due to sicknesses that he picked up at school..

But here they directly report you to the social workers in your county if you get over 10...