Tips for working with large, highly bureaucratic high schools?

[Anonymous]

DD is a junior and it's been two years of front office staff giving out incorrect information, counselors never being available even with the online system for booking time. We can already see this happening again this year.

When you fill out their form to address an issue you get in a queue and when they get to you they do whatever you asked wrong and then are MIA when you try to follow up. Then you have to get back in the queue and wait another few weeks. When you ask front office or counseling staff to confirm things when communication from them is vague and they often give you incorrect information. An example would be an issue in a testing change like the room for APs or the date/class period that standardized testing. There will be something that does not make sense in the announcement that went out and you will try to explain there's an issue but they will insist it is correct but it will actually be wrong or in terms of what you have to do to register for certain things.

For those of you who had a kid go through college applications at a school like this can you offer any tips? DD is persistent and patient but this is really testing her limits and I worry really important things will fall through the cracks. Parents with older kids say they went through similar issues at this school and it was horribly stressful.

[Anonymous]

I guess it's good prep for university bureaucracy.

Are you on the PTA? Sometimes "face time" helps in cases like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is a junior and it's been two years of front office staff giving out incorrect information, counselors never being available even with the online system for booking time. We can already see this happening again this year.

When you fill out their form to address an issue you get in a queue and when they get to you they do whatever you asked wrong and then are MIA when you try to follow up. Then you have to get back in the queue and wait another few weeks. When you ask front office or counseling staff to confirm things when communication from them is vague and they often give you incorrect information. An example would be an issue in a testing change like the room for APs or the date/class period that standardized testing. There will be something that does not make sense in the announcement that went out and you will try to explain there's an issue but they will insist it is correct but it will actually be wrong or in terms of what you have to do to register for certain things.

For those of you who had a kid go through college applications at a school like this can you offer any tips? DD is persistent and patient but this is really testing her limits and I worry really important things will fall through the cracks. Parents with older kids say they went through similar issues at this school and it was horribly stressful.

i low key hate myself for this because it's not a solution in any meaningful sense and it's not fair, either, but my only advice is to be a squeaky wheel. Learn the rules. Push back when needed.

Always be kind and speak plainly and politely, but also be persistent.

The bureaucracy is exhausting. I am on my third MCPS HS, third kid with bona fide special needs, and my experience is that the system is populated by a lot of really good, well-meaning individuals -- as well as a few mere pencil-pushers -- who are often under-resourced and overly-constrained and conditioned by a sometimes-byzantine set of arcane rules and regulations.

The ones who make me absolutely crazy are the ones who have the power and discretion to say "yes" but choose to say "no" for... no particularly obvious reason.

GOOD LUCK!

[Anonymous]

Is there a parent listserv or Facebook group?

I find that ours has a few members who are really plugged into the system, including one who has worked in the office part-time, and they’re often willing to share their insider knowledge. Experienced parents have often jumped through similar hoops in previous years. Often someone who did actually get an answer to the same question will share it, or at least their approach to getting one.

[Anonymous]

Bump it up to the Principal.