How often does a typical kid end up in the office? What for?

[Anonymous]

How often does a typical kid end up in the office?

How many times per month/quarter/semester/school year?

What for?

[Anonymous]

What grade?

[Anonymous]

The school office? Never, in the case of my two (now teens), and I can't imagine we're unusual.

[Anonymous]

For disciplinary purposes? 0

A couple of times in elementary, I got stuck in beltway traffic, called the office that I would be late for pick-up, and my son waited with the front desk lady.

[Anonymous]

It’s extremely rare these days. Most public schools have moved to a model in which the teacher has to make (and document) multiple attempts to address non-dangerous behavior by working with the child and parents before an office referral can be made. My school has a Google spreadsheet that has to be filled out three times before a referral can be made. I wrote one referral in the past two years. It was very frustrating to the kids who had to sit through disruptive behavior by a classmate, but it makes the school look good on paper and parents appreciate not having big to pick Larlo up at 10 AM because he’s throwing stuff in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Never for my kids or for me in school.

I have friends with I'll behaves children and they are constantly in the school office.

[Anonymous]

1. Disciplinary purposes
2. Late elementary/middle/early high

[Anonymous]

Disciplinary purposes =

1. Classroom Engagement
2. Peer relations

So anything that can get you to the office.

[Anonymous]

One of mine - never.

The other one - all the time.

[Anonymous]

My kids- never. Well behaved and respectful. (we have gotten it home about too much talking). A kid in one of their classes often goes. It’s usually the kids with poor impulse control. They refuse to follow the rules, disrespectful to the teacher, spit, kick kids, use profanity, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of mine - never.

The other one - all the time.

What for?

How do you handle it for yourself and for the kid?

[Anonymous]

At my kid’s high school they just send the school cop aka “resource officer” to the classroom

For example, when my son argued with the substitute teacher that his regular teacher let him keep his earbuds in while doing independent work, they sent the cop to take him out of class into the hallway. I was never called, only heard about it a year later.

My friend’s 9th grade son had a similar experience when he refused to wear his shoes in class.

[Anonymous]

I have 4 kids. Oldest in college, youngest in middle school. From my observation. "Most" kids never end up in the principal's office. A small percentage of kids end up in the office a couple of times and the consequences work and they clean up their act and don't end up there again. An even smaller percent of kids are there often. One of our kids has an IEP for anxiety and we have had a LOT of visits to the office. During one meeting with the VP the very kind and patient Vice Principal told us that he spends 10% of his time with 90% of the students and 90% of his time with 10% of the students. Of that 10% about half are there because they caused a problem and half are there because they suffered the problem. We have had 2 kids who fall in the "never" group, 1 that fell into the 2x in the office in middle school and one that is in the office often.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of mine - never.

The other one - all the time.

Same. For the second half of 1st grade, he was in the principal's office several tlmes a week, if not more that I just didn't even hear about. Never after that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 4 kids. Oldest in college, youngest in middle school. From my observation. "Most" kids never end up in the principal's office. A small percentage of kids end up in the office a couple of times and the consequences work and they clean up their act and don't end up there again. An even smaller percent of kids are there often. One of our kids has an IEP for anxiety and we have had a LOT of visits to the office. During one meeting with the VP the very kind and patient Vice Principal told us that he spends 10% of his time with 90% of the students and 90% of his time with 10% of the students. Of that 10% about half are there because they caused a problem and half are there because they suffered the problem. We have had 2 kids who fall in the "never" group, 1 that fell into the 2x in the office in middle school and one that is in the office often.

I forgot to answer the question about how we handle it. We back up the school 100% on consequences. If our kid caused a problem at school they get whatever the school punishment is plus something at home. Typically the consequence at home is a loss of screens plus a written apology to the teacher. The written apology helps us determine if the child actually understood why they got in trouble.