Is your school requiring chaperones to go through the new DCPS approval process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school last year mentioned it and then backed off. They said unless the trip was an over night, it wasn't needed. No background check is needed to BECOME a parent. It was hard just getting chaperones for field trips before this except for the few parents who did most trips.

What does becoming a parent have to do with an adult being responsible for other people's children without a background check?

Would you hire a babysitter you have never met before and not background check them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school last year mentioned it and then backed off. They said unless the trip was an over night, it wasn't needed. No background check is needed to BECOME a parent. It was hard just getting chaperones for field trips before this except for the few parents who did most trips.

What does becoming a parent have to do with an adult being responsible for other people's children without a background check?

Would you hire a babysitter you have never met before and not background check them?

I'm not the PP, but do Americans get their babysitters fingerprinted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school last year mentioned it and then backed off. They said unless the trip was an over night, it wasn't needed. No background check is needed to BECOME a parent. It was hard just getting chaperones for field trips before this except for the few parents who did most trips.

What does becoming a parent have to do with an adult being responsible for other people's children without a background check?

Would you hire a babysitter you have never met before and not background check them?

I'm not the PP, but do Americans get their babysitters fingerprinted?

The parents I know background check babysitters if they don't have personal references. If you use care .com or sitter city, you can pay to have background checked individuals.

[Anonymous]

Since TB is most likely transmitted by people with whom you have daily interactions, I'd much rather have all my kids' classmates tested than a field trip chaperone. But for some reason, there it's ok to just have their pediatrician certify them as low-risk.

[Anonymous]

If your school starts to require chaperones to go through this pain in the ass process (which I'm in the middle of so I can volunteer in the school library), wait a little. They will surely back off once a chaperone shortage kicks in. I say ridiculous paranoid nonsense. The world is full of minor risks. If you can't trust the parents of your kids' classmates to chaperone field trips or pitch in at the school without harming kids, pick another school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your school starts to require chaperones to go through this pain in the ass process (which I'm in the middle of so I can volunteer in the school library), wait a little. They will surely back off once a chaperone shortage kicks in. I say ridiculous paranoid nonsense. The world is full of minor risks. If you can't trust the parents of your kids' classmates to chaperone field trips or pitch in at the school without harming kids, pick another school.

Amen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your school starts to require chaperones to go through this pain in the ass process (which I'm in the middle of so I can volunteer in the school library), wait a little. They will surely back off once a chaperone shortage kicks in. I say ridiculous paranoid nonsense. The world is full of minor risks. If you can't trust the parents of your kids' classmates to chaperone field trips or pitch in at the school without harming kids, pick another school.

Take away the argument of tb tests and background checks, do you know how condescending it is to tell someone to pick another school? If not, it is and there are a lot of people on here that can't just pick another school.

[Anonymous]

My school has always done this for classroom volunteers but hasn't asked for chaperones. I guess we will see what happens this year!

[Anonymous]

OMG so much complaining - the policy is 2 years old. Go through the process if you want to help out or don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your school starts to require chaperones to go through this pain in the ass process (which I'm in the middle of so I can volunteer in the school library), wait a little. They will surely back off once a chaperone shortage kicks in. I say ridiculous paranoid nonsense. The world is full of minor risks. If you can't trust the parents of your kids' classmates to chaperone field trips or pitch in at the school without harming kids, pick another school.

Take away the argument of tb tests and background checks, do you know how condescending it is to tell someone to pick another school? If not, it is and there are a lot of people on here that can't just pick another school.

Sure they can, in a city of abundant school choice. Picking a different school might create major headaches for a family, but it can be done. If you can't trust classmates' relatives to act responsibly in a group setting (at drop-off, pick-up, school events, field trips etc.), honestly, what's the point of staying on? TB tests and fingerprints aren't going to change anything. Even schools with FARMs rates in the single digits tend to struggle to round up enough chaperones for every single field trip. We don't need this top-down deterrent to parents helping out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your school starts to require chaperones to go through this pain in the ass process (which I'm in the middle of so I can volunteer in the school library), wait a little. They will surely back off once a chaperone shortage kicks in. I say ridiculous paranoid nonsense. The world is full of minor risks. If you can't trust the parents of your kids' classmates to chaperone field trips or pitch in at the school without harming kids, pick another school.

Take away the argument of tb tests and background checks, do you know how condescending it is to tell someone to pick another school? If not, it is and there are a lot of people on here that can't just pick another school.

Sure they can, in a city of abundant school choice. Picking a different school might create major headaches for a family, but it can be done. If you can't trust classmates' relatives to act responsibly in a group setting (at drop-off, pick-up, school events, field trips etc.), honestly, what's the point of staying on? TB tests and fingerprints aren't going to change anything. Even schools with FARMs rates in the single digits tend to struggle to round up enough chaperones for every single field trip. We don't need this top-down deterrent to parents helping out.

Hm.

I'm not involving myself in the policy debate but as a teacher, my students could not just choose another school. Many of my students have one parent and are taken care of by their grandparents and/or great grandparents while their parent is at work. Those adults can't see that my students could get to a school outside of our neighborhood safely.

[Anonymous]

Also, don't tell me that a child from ward 8 for Kindergarten is going to get a spot WOTP or on the hill. Maybe a small chance but it's not as easy as just go somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

If it were tough to go somewhere else, most DCPS by-right middle schools wouldn't be half to three-quarters empty, along with a number of neighborhood high schools. Believe it or not, a great many low SES families now migrate from DCPS to charters, or never bother with DCPS at all. Gentrifiers EotP without access to a handful of high-performing Hill elementary schools tend to self-select into a small number of high SES friendly charters (mostly language immersion schools, also Two Rivers, Inspired Teaching etc.), or move to the burbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, good luck getting field trip chaperones if it means you have to get a doctor's appointment to get a TB test, and downtown to get fingerprinted. I did this when I was a regular volunteer for a DPR coop program which was fine, but I'm not doing it again just to accompany a field trip. Americans really are over the top with these things - you'd never see it in Europe for such a purpose.

Okay. Don't go.

Our school required this last year and there were no problems getting chaperones.

Our school didn't last year. Hope they won't this year either.

+1. It shouldn't have to cost me money and time to get a blood test and fingerprints for a field trip. Bummer. Thanks though to the parents who do make time and pay for this to happen.

[Anonymous]

Maybe DCPS could send out technicians on a given day to each school so parents could do the two tests at drop-off. A clinic kind of thing.