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

[Anonymous]

We just got the note from our admin that we are required to go through a very complicated process including a TB test to be approved...is this a new requirement and are other schools actually doing this?

[Anonymous]

It's not new. Schools were just not following it before.

[Anonymous]

teachers are probably freaking out at the prospect. Good luck getting chaperones when requiring a whole host of things.

[Anonymous]

From the DCPS website https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-volunteer-faqs

Do I need to go through the volunteer clearance process?

Anyone who has the potential to be alone with a student or is volunteering on a regular basis needs to go through the clearance process. DCPS does not process volunteers who are placed at charter schools, private schools or other off-site locations.

(there's more - see the link)

[Anonymous]

Some schools have been able to get a mobile TB tester to come to the school and test a bunch of parents who want to volunteer. DCPS also used to have a mobile fingerprinter but it broke in like 2010 and they didn't replace it. So when I became a volunteer I had to wait hours at DCPS HQ. And then you have to repeat it every 2 years--I asked if they could just re-run the same prints they already took and they said no.

So now I just give money to the school and volunteer my time elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Is this for field trip chaperones, or just volunteers who do so on a regular basis in the classroom?

[Anonymous]

My school said it was just for field trip chaperones.

[Anonymous]

They do this for a reason. I'm glad...it's a process but it keeps us safer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this for field trip chaperones, or just volunteers who do so on a regular basis in the classroom?

Both

This is a good thing. Don't parents want to know that their children will be with adults that have been background checked?

Also, if parents are already background checked by DOD, military etc. there is a form to fill out to skip fingerprints and they just have to get a tb test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They do this for a reason. I'm glad...it's a process but it keeps us safer.

Yes. I'm rolling my eyes at complaints. I was on a field trip with my child last year and another parent had an ankle monitor on.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Our school also talked about this and then backed off. I hope they do implement it this year.

I'm surprised at the responses in here because if a child was hurt on a field trip and the adult that was responsible for the child had a criminal background, ya'll would be posting about how incompetent DCPS is.