How much unresponsiveness to email do you tolerate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op stated that she will fwd emails after 24 hours with the off base hope that it might 'jeopardize their career and advancement opputunitues'. That's bullshit.
Moms- accept your kids. Please. And accept yourself. Then you can let go of the anger.

Peace

I've re-read the thread and didn't find the quote you cited. This is the closest thing I found - a lot different than what you imply. Yet, another illustration of why a paper trail is so important.

Honestly, I don't care if you laugh at me; it just reflects your lack of professionalism. I can assure you that supervisors above you take note of your lack of response and snickering and it is a detriment to your career progress and opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh op. You don't get it.

This is OP and I haven't commented in several pages. Clearly there are also others who hold teachers accountable.

The teachers are not your enemies. In fact- they are the only real ally you have. Principals & admin tell parents whatever to pacify. Making enemies with the person who teaches your kid is so so dumb. So dumb.

This is so true! OP has things so, so backward.

[Anonymous]

Wow. After reading through this thread, I'm very thankful my child's teacher communicates effectively and quickly. After hours, weekend, holiday or not, and that I am not limited to a certain number per month. We speak daily and sometimes multiple times a day about DC.
OP email the service provider for questions or concerns in regards to that. Do you see the teacher daily? If I email DC teacher and she needs to find out before she can answer and it might take a few days, she'll reply back.right away and say exactly that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For therapy services questions, you should email the provider directly. If you do not know the contact info, email the case manager for that. Just FYI, many therapy service providers do not work for the county full time. Further, some respond to emails only when they are working at the school in question. I, for instance, do not work for the county full time. I do not respond to emails on my non-duty days. To respond to most emails would require me to have access to data located in my office at the school. Further, on my non-duty days, I have another job to which my time is allocated. I know of treating therapists who work in the school system only one day per week, and they respond to emails on that day. Service providers other than teachers often have irregular schedules. Bear that in mind and the classroom teacher (or at least the RTSE) are typically aware of the work schedule.

What a bullshit answer. No parent should ever have to know the schedule of a school service provider or if that provider is at that school full time or not. Your post indicates you believe a response but answer the question and that you don't have an out of office message when you're not in. Not acceptable. A 'response' does not require the complete and full answer to a question. A 'response' can be an acknowledgement of the email and an indication of when a complete and full answer can be expected. The key is to manage expectations. Our school psychologist is only part time yet has an auto-response indicating when she will be in office and able to respond to email. When she returns, she follows up that email with either an answer or date when she expects to have the answer. My expectations are managed. If I need a more immediate answer, I forward my email to someone else I believe can assist and also acknowledge I know the psychologist is out of the office. Waiting a week with no acknowledgement of receipt is unprofessional and unacceptable.

I'm appalled at the lack of basic professionalism on this thread. What poor customer service skills you have.

PP here. I agree with you that an out of office message should be in place in this circumstance. That is the county's expectation, as well. To clarify, I do not reply to emails on my non-duty days because I do not check my MCPS email on those days because I am employed elsewhere at those times. When I am on-duty with MCPS I typically respond to emails immediately. Of course, a reply should be expected within 24 hours, I only point out that there are other factors.

Further, you may not be aware that MCPS's technology is abysmal. I've sent emails that are supposedly never received, have sent an email that somehow was received in duplicate half a dozen times, and my out of office response is not always reliable. I test these things myself periodically and I print every email of import that I receive/send. It's an annoyance, but a necessity. I'd save them electronically, but my computer's hard drive is full and the county will not deal with this. This is another layer of challenge that we face. Finally, I think it is appropriate to seek guidance elsewhere if a timely reply is not received. In the case of therapy service providers, the best POC would be the RTSE, who would likely be able to inform you of other factors that may exist.

In sum, there are many constraints that exist in the school system. Regardless, if you have a pressing concern, go right ahead and bump your question up the chain. There are always some parents who abuse our time, but there are always school staff members who abuse their position and don't do their job. It goes both ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op stated that she will fwd emails after 24 hours with the off base hope that it might 'jeopardize their career and advancement opputunitues'. That's bullshit.
Moms- accept your kids. Please. And accept yourself. Then you can let go of the anger.

Peace

I've re-read the thread and didn't find the quote you cited. This is the closest thing I found - a lot different than what you imply. Yet, another illustration of why a paper trail is so important.

Honestly, I don't care if you laugh at me; it just reflects your lack of professionalism. I can assure you that supervisors above you take note of your lack of response and snickering and it is a detriment to your career progress and opportunities.

PP, thanks for defending me. I am not OP. I definitely do not elevate non-responses in order to get the non-responder hoping that someone's career will be jeopardized, but I do find that the non-responders are often quite willing to carry on and do things that jeopardize their career on their own instead of taking the lifeline they have been thrown when I politely raise a question about something that has gone wrong.

As for "accepting" myself and my kid, I whole-heartedly accept us both. I accept that my kid is a gifted/high IQ child with learning disabilities. I accept that my GT/LD child needs some changes to the classroom experience to be able to access the high level of instruction that he is capable of. I accept that I know better than anyone what my child needs and is capable of, because I am the one who interacts with him for the most number of hours per week. I am the one that has read and knows in detail his entire 10 year developmental history, neuropsychological testing and academic history. I accept myself, and I accept that many others will mis-read my support for my son as "denial" or "bitchiness" or "angry" or "helicopter mom".

What I will not accept is someone who has little knowledge of my son telling me that he is "stupid" or "lazy" or "unmotivated". I know better than anyone how hard he is working to compensate for his learning differences. I will not accept a teacher who refuses to provide accommodations or specialized instruction per the IEP. I will not accept the judgment of an IEP team that implies that the reason my child is not on grade level is that he is not able, particularly when his neuropsychological report indicates otherwise and when the school has consistently failed to provide adequate specialized instruction.

What I will not accept is teachers and IEP team members who choose to label me instead of fixing their mistakes. I accept myself. I accept that I am a well-educated parent capable of reading the law, the neuroscience and the educational literature. I accept that I am an equal at the IEP table and in my child's education.

It took me a long time to accept these things. Early in our special education journey, I was all too willing to accept others' criticism of myself and my child and to doubt what I knew to be true.

To the PP who said, "accept yourself," if you are a teacher, I feel very sorry for your students. There are a small minority of teachers who choose to blame their own failures on their students. They say to themselves, "I taught it. He didn't learn it. He must be stupid. It is so sad that he can't accept himself and his parents can't accept him." When you are a teacher with this perspective, you are failing some of the minds in your classroom and you are negatively affecting their lifelong trajectory. That is a tragedy for which you should feel very ashamed.