Can a charter make us do DL for PK?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| I have absolutely no interest in doing DL with my 4 year old. We tried joining some of the meetings last spring, and she got nothing out of it. I don't want to avoid doing something like taking her on a hike or building a fort or reading books to try and get her to sit in front of the computer screen. If she were in a regular school I'd happily unenroll her, but she's in a charter we really like. Can they kick her out if she doesn't participate in distance learning? Should I just ask them explicitly, "What is the bare minimum to remain enrolled?" |
Anonymous
|
Yes, you should ask that.
You won't be the only one. |
Anonymous
| They can totally kick you out. I think they can require better attendance than OSSE guidelines do, but not sure about that. |
Anonymous
schools, in general, are stricter about attendance K onwards. I'd second checking with your school. I have a feeling that DL now would be better than spring, the schools have had some time to prepare this time and use the experience from spring. Your kid is also 6 months older, so I wouldn't rule DL out completely. |
Anonymous
Can't hurt to ask. Our charter explicitly stated that kids wouldn't lose their spots if they remained in daycare, home-schooled, arranged alternative care. |
Anonymous
If you can pod up with anyone else at the school, they may allow credit for participating even if it isn't the same preschool classroom as your child is assigned. I heard our IB school is doing that and thought it was a very nice way to offer flexibility. |
Anonymous
| Our charter very clearly communicated the minimum required to be considered "present" during any given day. They were also clear that these standards applied PK3 - 5. The standards could be met with no time in front of a live teacher (for example, by submitting completed work, or logging in and completing lessons on certain apps). Our school was clear that if any students were consistently, not tuning in to live instructions, the parents should have a reason. Not that it was impermissible, or that children would be required to sit in front of a screen, but as a heads' up that parents who did not want their child consistently tuning in to live instruction should be prepared to explain the situation to the school (day care, working parents, etc all implied to be permissible reasons). Definitely ask, and don't be surprised if the minimum to be "present" is quite minimal. |
Anonymous
|
It isn’t just about you. The school gets money for every student that is enrolled. If your child never shows up they are not teaching them and should not be getting paid.
You need to meet them halfway and participate. If you don’t the school will need to boot you out or risk being investigated for fraud. |
Anonymous
They can set higher standards. Ask your school. |
Anonymous
It can't hurt to ask explicitly, though my experience is that sometimes they are a little bit hard to pin down on this issue, I think because they are specifically concerned about the implications of lottery seats and PK participation. For every parent in your position, there is a parent (or 100) who want your seat at the charter and will scream bloody murder if they hear that people who got those seats are not participating in DL. Just figure out what you need to do to be marked "present" every day, whether it's logging into Canvas or what, and do that. For PK, they are only scheduling like 30 minutes a day of programming, so it can't be that much. I know my PK3 child is not going to want to sit down for the daily DL lessons, so I'm not going to try particularly hard for those. Like you, I'd rather just take her outside or read books or break out her art supplies. But it sounds like there will be some specials programming (music, yoga) that I could see her liking, as well as read-alongs (she has liked the public library story times we've watched). And our school has one parent-teacher meeting each week as a check-in to see how DL is going, and I am actually looking forward to these because I think it's a good opportunity to get to know the staff and to ask questions about ECE development or behavior that they might have insight/ideas for. I don't anticipate we'll be spending more than 5 hours a week on DL, max. |
Anonymous
|
They maybe offering things like morning meeting, lunch with friends reading time and games. We enjoyed some of the specials like music, art class, PE which gave us great ideas on extra purposeful fun learning activities.
They may also count time using on line reading programs like KidsAZ or Storyline or math games. We also had the option to keep a reading log for non computer reading time and send pictures of math worksheet & games. Your teacher has put in a LOT of work to try and make this the Best experience possible given the situationeet them at least halfway. |
Anonymous
| Just do it, OP. I know you’re annoyed but please respect he teachers. It’ll be like 30-60 minutes of your day. |
Anonymous
The issue is that many families with working parents will need to keep their PK child in daycare and the daycare isn’t equipped to participate in DL for a cohort enrolled at multiple schools. |
Anonymous
Then you unenroll from PK4 at the charter and go to your IB. |
Anonymous
Haaaa... nice try, spot-stealer... I’ll do the minimum and keep mine |