Opting out of home visits

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I sure hope OP is not a parent at my child's school. She's obnoxious. My child loves his teacher and would have loved to have her over. She's so much more than an institutional employee, she is our partner in nurturing, teaching, and keeping my son safe.

+1 Again, back to the idea that your teacher is with your child for 8+ hours a day, and is not the enemy. You're in for a tough road if this is your nervous nelly/negative attitude at age 3. Will you be intervening in your kid's college classes and accompanying them on job interviews one day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sure hope OP is not a parent at my child's school. She's obnoxious. My child loves his teacher and would have loved to have her over. She's so much more than an institutional employee, she is our partner in nurturing, teaching, and keeping my son safe.

This post is much more telling about you than anyone else.

How so? Please do elaborate. This PP sounds like a good parent and a nice person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That has to be the most inane concern aired on DCUM (or anywhere else) this month. And that's a pretty high bar to clear, considering it was up against (i) the pregnant lady who got her panties in a wad because she couldn't sit next to her husband on a flight, and (ii) the "parent" who is in a snit because a preschool teacher told her daughter "no" in (gasp) a firm voice. So congratulations(?), OP, you've bested some stiff competition to come up with the most ridiculous thing to be irritated about.

(Plus, fascist? Really? I don't think you're clear on the meaning of the word - you're as bad as the right-wing loons who run around screaming "Socialism!" at the drop of a hat.)

Afraid I have to agree. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Home visits are just like the DC-CAS. If you feel, on balance, that they benefit some nexus of you, your child, the school, and the community at large, great, cooperate. If you don't, opt out, no need to explain.

Wait, you can opt out of your child taking the DC-CAS? I do not understand the analogy.

You can pretty much opt out of anything, excecept immunizations, and still your kid to a DCPS school if you're IB.

I agree, I don't get the analogy. If you opt out of a visit or field trip or sex ed class, it has no effect on school funding and the school system's compliance with the deeply flawed but still in force federal law NCLB. The impact is personal to you and your family.

DC CAS opt out has implications for yours AND others' children. It's not the same type of decision as deciding you don't want your teacher to make a housecall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, haven't you realized that most people on this forum are mindless idiots?

You could tell them that eating shit was a healthy luxury, and as long as they heard it on the news and it was approved by an "authority", they'd be gobbling that junk up before they had a chance to gag. Then they'd look at you funny for telling them they smell like shit.

+1000

THIS.

I wish I could buy you a cup of coffee. We could be friends, you and me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wait, you can opt out of your child taking the DC-CAS? I do not understand the analogy.

You can pretty much opt out of anything, excecept immunizations, and still your kid to a DCPS school if you're IB.

I agree, I don't get the analogy. If you opt out of a visit or field trip or sex ed class, it has no effect on school funding and the school system's compliance with the deeply flawed but still in force federal law NCLB. The impact is personal to you and your family.

DC CAS opt out has implications for yours AND others' children. It's not the same type of decision as deciding you don't want your teacher to make a housecall.


I disagree. We've opted out of both the DC-CAS and a home visit, similar decision making process. We have strong libertarian leanings and would rather not play ball on either front. We don't see "strong implications" - our EotP school will surely sail along without our kid's DC-CAS scores. We didn't try to start an anti-CAS movement, we simply don't want our kid involved, from 3rd grade up.

It's not difficult to opt out of the DC-CAS - your kid can't be kept back a grade if you don't participate. You can elect to keep your kid home the days the CAS is given, or arrange for him or her to attend school but not take the test. Contact the DCPS Office of Stats and Accountability and your principal if you want to opt out to inform them of your decision, in writing - no need to explain the logic you're following. Don't give it to arm twisting (schools see high-SES kid and think "score advanced!" so expect a guilt trip).

It's also not difficult to opt out of home visits. Just say no. Chances are good that the teachers will be too busy to hassle you. You're the least of their problems. Worst case, agree to do the home visit at the school. We did that and nobody in DC Charter made a thing of it.

[Anonymous]

If you can opt out of home visits, how can they check to make sure you are a legitimate family (IB or OOB) and not from MD?

[Anonymous]

Being investigated for address cheating by DCPS or DC Charter is one thing, a home visit outside the context of a residency violation investigation is another altogether. If you are being investigated, the first step is to provide more residency documentation than you provided when you registered your child, not a home visit. A home visit may ultimately become part of the investigation, or it may not. Just because a charter school asked you to sign a form agreeing to home visits doesn't mean DC law compels you to cooperate.

Some of us consider home visits mildly creepy and intrusive, Big Brother stuff. We'd simply rather not open our homes to school officials. So we don't unless a residency investigation warrants this move.

If you appreciate home visits by school officials, great. If you don't, just say no because you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Home visits are just like the DC-CAS. If you feel, on balance, that they benefit some nexus of you, your child, the school, and the community at large, great, cooperate. If you don't, opt out, no need to explain.

Wait, you can opt out of your child taking the DC-CAS? I do not understand the analogy.

You can pretty much opt out of anything, excecept immunizations, and still your kid to a DCPS school if you're IB.

I agree, I don't get the analogy. If you opt out of a visit or field trip or sex ed class, it has no effect on school funding and the school system's compliance with the deeply flawed but still in force federal law NCLB. The impact is personal to you and your family.

DC CAS opt out has implications for yours AND others' children. It's not the same type of decision as deciding you don't want your teacher to make a housecall.

You can actually opt out of immunizations also. We did.

[Anonymous]

to the pp:
thanks for opting out of immunizing your kid. i hope my kid is never in class with your kid. whooping cough, measles, and several other diseases are back in circulation thanks to selfish idiots like you. what would happen if every parent decided to do this? you are able to do this with little risk because you're taking advantage of the fact that most parents think beyond their own preferences for the greater good of society. have you ever thought about the risk you are putting other kids at who may have compromised immune systems??
hope you end up having to take massive amounts of time off work to care for illnesses that could have been prevented.

[Anonymous]

PP, thanks so much for increasing the risk that there will be an outbreak of measles or other childhood infectious diseases in DC! Let's hope no children suffer permanent damage as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:to the pp:
thanks for opting out of immunizing your kid. i hope my kid is never in class with your kid. whooping cough, measles, and several other diseases are back in circulation thanks to selfish idiots like you. what would happen if every parent decided to do this? you are able to do this with little risk because you're taking advantage of the fact that most parents think beyond their own preferences for the greater good of society. have you ever thought about the risk you are putting other kids at who may have compromised immune systems??
hope you end up having to take massive amounts of time off work to care for illnesses that could have been prevented.

+1

Also, this places infants at a significant risk since the immunizations are not provided until they are of a certain age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sure hope OP is not a parent at my child's school. She's obnoxious. My child loves his teacher and would have loved to have her over. She's so much more than an institutional employee, she is our partner in nurturing, teaching, and keeping my son safe.

This post is much more telling about you than anyone else.

How so? Please do elaborate. This PP sounds like a good parent and a nice person.

Nice people don't call people obnoxious. They stick to speaking to the topic without attacking the other posters. Nice people don't say "I hope the parent isn't at my child's school."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being investigated for address cheating by DCPS or DC Charter is one thing, a home visit outside the context of a residency violation investigation is another altogether. If you are being investigated, the first step is to provide more residency documentation than you provided when you registered your child, not a home visit. A home visit may ultimately become part of the investigation, or it may not. Just because a charter school asked you to sign a form agreeing to home visits doesn't mean DC law compels you to cooperate.

Some of us consider home visits mildly creepy and intrusive, Big Brother stuff. We'd simply rather not open our homes to school officials. So we don't unless a residency investigation warrants this move.

If you appreciate home visits by school officials, great. If you don't, just say no because you can.

(OP here) Thanks for a rational response! Will do. To those who feel the need to dump on us because we feel differently than you do about home visits, you may want to examine why you feel the need to demonize anyone who doesn't think like you do. LIVE AND LET LIVE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sure hope OP is not a parent at my child's school. She's obnoxious. My child loves his teacher and would have loved to have her over. She's so much more than an institutional employee, she is our partner in nurturing, teaching, and keeping my son safe.

+1 Again, back to the idea that your teacher is with your child for 8+ hours a day, and is not the enemy. You're in for a tough road if this is your nervous nelly/negative attitude at age 3. Will you be intervening in your kid's college classes and accompanying them on job interviews one day?

This makes no sense. If I was a helicopter, wouldn't I want the teachers over all the time, making sure my kid got more of their attention? I just don't want to feel obligated to have anyone in my house. I would be glad to meet with them elsewhere.