Parents not allowed in school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school no one is allowed in the buiding without checking in at the office and getting a nametag that must be displayed. I suppose if you wanted to do that in the morning and then walk your kid to their classroom they wouldn't say no, but they'd certainly be annoyed - can you imagine having to scan hundreds of parents' ids and print out name badges for the 30 seconds to walk a kid to the classroom?

If you have a real reason to be in the school - volunteering for something, teacher meeting, etc. then you just go to the office and check in and then you're on your way.

I can't imagine any school in this day allowing unfettered access to the building by any random adult that happens to be walk in.

OP wants to hang out for the school breakfast once in a while, and pop down and chat with the teacher any morning she wants.

The school functioned fine the previous way before. It is a small DCPS school. Most parents left as soon as their child walked in. The letter sent home states that no one but ECE parents can come inside in the morning no exceptions. For pick up, no one can come in before school ends. The school website never contains information and one major issue that parents had with the school in previous years is a severe lack of communication. We don't get consistent e mails from the principal, office staff, school sanctioned listservs, etc. As I said before, this principal was heavily criticized last year for many things and some people were trying to get her removed. I think that that is the reason for the change. However, it is good to know that this happens at other schools. I have never seen it personally. I am just wondering how communication will work now. Our PTA did not share information either. Most teachers did not share their e mail address. We really got our info from our child which is very unreliable or when we walked in we might see a sign posted or catch a teacher or administrator and ask them a question. This goes way beyond patents who just want to pop in.

Okay but they are giving you notice and communication this year so what does that have to do with anything?

And maybe the teachers pressured the princpal about this. I'm a teacher and I would 100% pressure my principal about parents coming to my classroom door any morning they want to "check in". No. E-mail me. Set up a meeting. Send in a note. You are taking time away from the other 26 students in my class when you're allowed to just pop in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school no one is allowed in the buiding without checking in at the office and getting a nametag that must be displayed. I suppose if you wanted to do that in the morning and then walk your kid to their classroom they wouldn't say no, but they'd certainly be annoyed - can you imagine having to scan hundreds of parents' ids and print out name badges for the 30 seconds to walk a kid to the classroom?

If you have a real reason to be in the school - volunteering for something, teacher meeting, etc. then you just go to the office and check in and then you're on your way.

I can't imagine any school in this day allowing unfettered access to the building by any random adult that happens to be walk in.

OP wants to hang out for the school breakfast once in a while, and pop down and chat with the teacher any morning she wants.

The school functioned fine the previous way before. It is a small DCPS school. Most parents left as soon as their child walked in. The letter sent home states that no one but ECE parents can come inside in the morning no exceptions. For pick up, no one can come in before school ends. The school website never contains information and one major issue that parents had with the school in previous years is a severe lack of communication. We don't get consistent e mails from the principal, office staff, school sanctioned listservs, etc. As I said before, this principal was heavily criticized last year for many things and some people were trying to get her removed. I think that that is the reason for the change. However, it is good to know that this happens at other schools. I have never seen it personally. I am just wondering how communication will work now. Our PTA did not share information either. Most teachers did not share their e mail address. We really got our info from our child which is very unreliable or when we walked in we might see a sign posted or catch a teacher or administrator and ask them a question. This goes way beyond patents who just want to pop in.

It sounds like they are trying to minimize chaos in the two most chaotic parts of the day.
If you want to get more emails or set up a school list serve, address those things. If you want to communicate with your child's teacher, ask at back to school night what the best way to reach her is (email, phone, whatever). If you have a question for an administrator, pick up the phone and call and ask.
If the custom at your school was to bother admins and teachers during drop off and pick up, it's no wonder they are making these changes.

[Anonymous]

We had countless meetings where parents tried to fix the communication issue. It never amounted to anything. And parents would see the teachers downstairs, not in the class. For some parents at the school, that is the only opportunity. I am sure that the communication issue will continue this year. DCPS central office had to come to the school to deal with the parental complaints last year for many reasons. We were told that there would be some meetings in the summer to improve these issues this school year and there were no meetings. Instead, this letter was sent home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had countless meetings where parents tried to fix the communication issue. It never amounted to anything. And parents would see the teachers downstairs, not in the class. For some parents at the school, that is the only opportunity. I am sure that the communication issue will continue this year. DCPS central office had to come to the school to deal with the parental complaints last year for many reasons. We were told that there would be some meetings in the summer to improve these issues this school year and there were no meetings. Instead, this letter was sent home.

Well, you can always enter the lottery and change schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had countless meetings where parents tried to fix the communication issue. It never amounted to anything. And parents would see the teachers downstairs, not in the class. For some parents at the school, that is the only opportunity. I am sure that the communication issue will continue this year. DCPS central office had to come to the school to deal with the parental complaints last year for many reasons. We were told that there would be some meetings in the summer to improve these issues this school year and there were no meetings. Instead, this letter was sent home.

Well, you can always enter the lottery and change schools.

I just might. I will see how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had countless meetings where parents tried to fix the communication issue. It never amounted to anything. And parents would see the teachers downstairs, not in the class. For some parents at the school, that is the only opportunity. I am sure that the communication issue will continue this year. DCPS central office had to come to the school to deal with the parental complaints last year for many reasons. We were told that there would be some meetings in the summer to improve these issues this school year and there were no meetings. Instead, this letter was sent home.

Well, you can always enter the lottery and change schools.

I just might. I will see how it goes.

All over not being allowed to disrupt your child’s teacher?

[Anonymous]

Going into school with your kid in the morning is an early childhood thing (and not even always then). If you haven't let go of that by K, the issue is you, not the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going into school with your kid in the morning is an early childhood thing (and not even always then). If you haven't let go of that by K, the issue is you, not the school.

In our preschool the kids said goodbye at the door. Heck, you didn't even get out of the car- the teacher's would help the kids out. At age 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had countless meetings where parents tried to fix the communication issue. It never amounted to anything. And parents would see the teachers downstairs, not in the class. For some parents at the school, that is the only opportunity. I am sure that the communication issue will continue this year. DCPS central office had to come to the school to deal with the parental complaints last year for many reasons. We were told that there would be some meetings in the summer to improve these issues this school year and there were no meetings. Instead, this letter was sent home.

what kind of communications issues? are you expecting more than parent-teacher meetings, homework calendars, Bloom messages? My kid has an IEP and I barely had more than maybe 3 hr total personal communications with her (and that included IEP meetings). Of course I would have loved more, but I didn't feel entitled to it. she worked really hard for the class as a whole.

[Anonymous]

This makes me thankful for our DCPS. Kids K and up are supposed to be dropped at the playground, but we've never had to have any sort of rule about parents in the school because we're all basically reasonable people. I sometimes dropped my K-er at the classroom if we were late or I just wanted an extra minute with him. I didn't bug the teacher in the morning because it was obvious she was busy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had countless meetings where parents tried to fix the communication issue. It never amounted to anything. And parents would see the teachers downstairs, not in the class. For some parents at the school, that is the only opportunity. I am sure that the communication issue will continue this year. DCPS central office had to come to the school to deal with the parental complaints last year for many reasons. We were told that there would be some meetings in the summer to improve these issues this school year and there were no meetings. Instead, this letter was sent home.

what kind of communications issues? are you expecting more than parent-teacher meetings, homework calendars, Bloom messages? My kid has an IEP and I barely had more than maybe 3 hr total personal communications with her (and that included IEP meetings). Of course I would have loved more, but I didn't feel entitled to it. she worked really hard for the class as a whole.

[Anonymous]

I think it's bizarre.

[Anonymous]

We were at a school with a drop off line for PK3 and parents were discouraged to even go in the classroom hallway. It was a huge turnoff. We switched schools. We feel much more comfortable with the new school’s norms where parents can volunteer in the classroom and pick up from the classroom each day. It feels more approachable and family friendly.

[Anonymous]

Janney used to allow parents to hang out. Now they don’t. Ironically, the school dog Murray was allowed to roam the halls at will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For drop off? Of course. School is for kids, not parents. Parents inside the building can be very disruptive and intrusive. So many helicopter rotors hovering these days. Let your kid walk into their classroom on their own, for pete's sake!

This. Go home already and watch your soaps. Of wait, do those things still come on?