Please Advice - what to do if child needs to be late by an hour for school for one day

[Anonymous]

Our child would be going to school about 1 to 1.5 hours late tomorrow due to an unexpected situation. In 2.5 years of school our child has not missed a single class and never was tardy, so I am not sure how bad it would be if child was an hour or so late one day.

Do I need to inform the school beforehand? Or is there anything else that needs to be done if child is going to be late tomorrow? I do not want to go into the details as it involves a breastfeeding infant, etc.

I am really hoping for a two hour delay tomorrow.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

If this ever happens, it is no big deal. Send a note with the kid. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

I just send an e-mail to the teacher to let her know. Then check in with the office when you drop off and get a tardy slip. Not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

1. Notify the teacher and front desk by email today as a courtesy:

"Dear Mrs X and Mrs Y,
Larla will be coming 2 hours late to school tomorrow.
Have a great day and stay warm.
Mrs Z."

2. Stop being ridiculously paranoid about tardiness. It's not going on her college transcript!

[Anonymous]

Lady, how do you make it thru the day? This is not something you need to poll the audience for.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the replies.

As an immigrant to this country, I did not go through the school system here, so I do not have a good sense for what might be considered ok.

True story: When I first came to this country about 20 years ago for Grad school, a friend who also came at the same time, went to get money at the ATM at school. He input the wrong pass code and it asked to retry. At about the same instant, he heard police sirens blaring. So he ran like crazy as he was sure that the police are coming for him for trying to steal money from the ATM. This is a guy who has several patents to his name now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the replies.

As an immigrant to this country, I did not go through the school system here, so I do not have a good sense for what might be considered ok.

True story: When I first came to this country about 20 years ago for Grad school, a friend who also came at the same time, went to get money at the ATM at school. He input the wrong pass code and it asked to retry. At about the same instant, he heard police sirens blaring. So he ran like crazy as he was sure that the police are coming for him for trying to steal money from the ATM. This is a guy who has several patents to his name now.

I hope your point is that you are doing your best to NOT be as crazy as him? The patents are irrelevant my dear, lots of smart people are loony.

- foreigner who also went to grad school here but isn't paranoid.

[Anonymous]

Kids are late to school all the time for doctor's appointments and other reasons and it is not a problem. You can email the teacher today and let her/him know what time your child will be arriving tomorrow. When you take your child to school tomorrow, take him/her straight to the front office and they will help you check in and send your child to class.

[Anonymous]

When you sign your child in, there's often a column to list the reason for a late arrival. Along with the usual doctor/dentist appointment, you'll occasionally see parents writing in "overslept"! Not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Also, in elementary, the one complication is if your child needs to order a lunch. Our school always asks late arrivals if they're buying lunch so that they can inform the cafeteria of any changes. We bring lunch so it's never an issue.

[Anonymous]

No big deal. Inform his teacher and the front office.

Also, just a word of advice, OP: if your child is undergoing some sort of testing that day and that's why he's running late, keep him home. He will be exhausted.

[Anonymous]

I agree that it shouldn't be a problem. Kids are out of school for an hour or two for appointments, etc. all the time. If your child were routinely late for frivolous reasons it would be a different story.

I would call the front office and email the teacher in advance. At my child's elementary the child and parent/caregiver check in at the front office when arriving late to school and receive a slip of paper that the child takes to his teacher.

[Anonymous]

OP, you can always check under the school website for specific instructions.

Our ES has a 24 hour attendance line. Call tomorrow morning and advise that your DC will be tardy, estimate the time you think he'll return to school and give reason. If anything changes, hours beyond what you thought, or is now to be a set, call back and leave updated message.

YMMV, but look at the school site.

[Anonymous]

Absent, that is

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't call the attendance line for a tardy. The one time I did that my DC wound up with an absence on the report card.