Reply to S/O - Avoid Focus School

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I'm the teacher you responded to and parent conferences are a whole other ball of wax. We have a committee of teachers who meet in October and stay at school until after 9pm to schedule parent conferences. Before the meeting we send home a form to ask preferences for which day and time of day and whether an interpreter is needed. We secure our half day interpreter provided by the county months in advance, and then secure other school staff who volunteer to interpret for hours each day. When we schedule conferences, we schedule the entire school at once. We make sure we schedule parents for the date they requested and the general time they requested. We take siblings into account and schedule the sibling conferences back to back but with a 15 minute break between each conference for parents to get from one room to the other. After conference appointment forms have been sent home then any changes necessary have to be made through the office, as any one change has a domino effect on the schedule.

Conferences run from 8am to 8pm on both days. Teachers prepare for every conference, and for me the number of no shows unfortunately outnumbered the number of parents who attended this year. Of course my 7:45pm was a no show :(. Admin makes you hold the conference even if the parent was a no show, so then you have to spend the days following the parent conference days calling and emailing to try to schedule a make-up conference. I actually don't mind if parents come late because at least they come and if they're willing to wait a little while then it's pretty likely I'll have a no show pretty soon and we can do it in that slot as long as they don't need an interpreter.

[/quote]

I work in healthcare, and anyone who works in a healthcare setting where the providers accept Medicaid understands that there is a whole series of issues that comes along with accepting these patients - high no show rate being one of the main ones.  It's frustrating for us, and I can imagine it being incredibly frustrating for teachers.

It's fine if it happens occasionally, but if it happens with the majority of the parents, it starts to grate on you and affects morale.

Though, on the flip side, I also have friends who teach at wealthier schools who complain about 'entitled' parents.  So, always pros and cons like another poster commented.  [/quote]

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