For the poster that says there is a law in DC that public schools have to accept students who are potty trained, can you provide information on the law? I haven't been able to find any. My understanding is that DCPS takes students who are not potty trained because DCPS has Head Start grant funding and Head Start funded programs don't require potty training.

20:35 here. My child isnt 3 yet (late November bday) and she was nearly trained but I did NOT have help at her daycare or with her father, so she learned to use pullups again last year. I switched daycares but the damage was done during the daytime.

Anyhoo, we're doing better during the day but still not there! She has been having accidents once every 2-3 days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PP obviously missed the article on the FRONT PAGE of the washington post last year.

Yes, public schools can have a policy - and if there are children with IEP's / developmental delays there are other rules.

Last year my child had a lot of accidents (maybe 2 a week at the beginning of the school year) and the school (not IT) was very supportive of working with us - but it was a case by case basis.

No the PP did not miss the article. Read it again carefully. "That's why she was suspended from her preschool. For a month." The child was suspended, not expelled. And, if I knew the parents? I would have suggested they contact their lawyers and let them talk about the likely forthcoming lawsuit.

(In this case the parent is advocating for the school to change its policy, to benefit other children.)

Public schools are for everyone, not just those who can use the potty. They cannot expel children for not being potty-trained.

For the record, this is why some schools opt not to bother with PS/3. They are smart enough to know they're stuck with a problem that is highly likely to resolve itself by PK/4.

I don’t know if this applies to PS or PK, even at public schools. There is not a right to attend PS – the “right” to attend public schools starts at kindergarten. DC has a policy of providing PS to all residents, but not sure that it rises to the level of an entitlement to enroll.

PP-expect a little backslide. My DD "fully potty trained" a month before turning 3. (IE. no accidents, only underwear and toileting herself w/out assistance) In October we had a LOT of accidents. Teachers were great! They never spoke of staying home. I think she just got busy and distracted. It was alarming to see a bag of soiled clothes almost everyday for 2 weeks but they told me to send in extra. Things will work out. Also, get used to dirty underwear while your child learns to clean herself. I know LOTS of parents who still clean their 5 yo's bottoms after #2.

Oh come on! Everyone I know who has tried to potty train their child before two has been successful. Every single one of them. The US has probably the highest average age of potty training in the world. This is not because kids in the US are developmentally different than elsewhere. Its because the parents don't try to train their kids until later and seem to think the kids should learn this themselves without parental input which is particularly strange as kids aren't expected to learn anything else without being shown how.

Anonymous wrote:I can see why some people might think that a policy of having kids toilet trained might sound punitive but seriously, folks, these are three year olds. Unless they have some physical or social problems there is NO REASON why a three year old shouldn't be toilet trained. I imagine that schools have this policy to encourage lazy parents to train their kids.

Our son will be the youngest in his class (birthday end of September) but he's been toilet trained for over a year now. And at night time for more than six months. He was not "advanced" in any way. The reason he was potty trained "early" is because we, as parents, made an effort to actually train him before he turned two. We did it in three days and have never used pull-ups. There is no reason why the rest of you can't do this! (Though I do agree that wiping skills take some practice).

My kid was reading before 3. We just provided some books and answered a few questions and we had an early reader. Seriously, there is no reason why the rest of you can't do this! We, as parents, just made an effort to provide books and to sit and read with DC. The rest of you must be lazy. Oh, and DC wasn't fully potty trained till 4th birthday and still has skid marks in late elementary school. Some kids really do just develop differently, no matter what YOU do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can see why some people might think that a policy of having kids toilet trained might sound punitive but seriously, folks, these are three year olds. Unless they have some physical or social problems there is NO REASON why a three year old shouldn't be toilet trained. I imagine that schools have this policy to encourage lazy parents to train their kids.

Our son will be the youngest in his class (birthday end of September) but he's been toilet trained for over a year now. And at night time for more than six months. He was not "advanced" in any way. The reason he was potty trained "early" is because we, as parents, made an effort to actually train him before he turned two. We did it in three days and have never used pull-ups. There is no reason why the rest of you can't do this! (Though I do agree that wiping skills take some practice).

This is the OP. OK, well telling us now that we are crappy parents by not doing this a year ago is MOST helpful. A parent of mine just died and its been a hard year with his illness with tons and tons of travelling. But please, go ahead and continue judging.

I'm sorry that you've had a hard year. I'm not telling you that you should have done this a year ago -- though I do want to put forward the opinion that your child likely would have been ready at that point -- rather I wanted to encourage you that potty training is really not that difficult. It just takes some perseverance, really only for a few days on the whole (and that means taking a day or two off work and watching like a hawk), and getting rid of those pull-ups. If you keep using pull-ups the child gets mixed signals about what he/she is meant to be doing. Using pull-ups just prolongs the process.

Welcome to DCUM hon, home of the bitches and trolls. I think it stands for Desperately Critical Unusually Malcontented......

Anonymous wrote:I can see why some people might think that a policy of having kids toilet trained might sound punitive but seriously, folks, these are three year olds. Unless they have some physical or social problems there is NO REASON why a three year old shouldn't be toilet trained. I imagine that schools have this policy to encourage lazy parents to train their kids.

Our son will be the youngest in his class (birthday end of September) but he's been toilet trained for over a year now. And at night time for more than six months. He was not "advanced" in any way. The reason he was potty trained "early" is because we, as parents, made an effort to actually train him before he turned two. We did it in three days and have never used pull-ups. There is no reason why the rest of you can't do this! (Though I do agree that wiping skills take some practice).

This is the OP. OK, well telling us now that we are crappy parents by not doing this a year ago is MOST helpful. A parent of mine just died and its been a hard year with his illness with tons and tons of travelling. But please, go ahead and continue judging.

I can see why some people might think that a policy of having kids toilet trained might sound punitive but seriously, folks, these are three year olds. Unless they have some physical or social problems there is NO REASON why a three year old shouldn't be toilet trained. I imagine that schools have this policy to encourage lazy parents to train their kids.

Our son will be the youngest in his class (birthday end of September) but he's been toilet trained for over a year now. And at night time for more than six months. He was not "advanced" in any way. The reason he was potty trained "early" is because we, as parents, made an effort to actually train him before he turned two. We did it in three days and have never used pull-ups. There is no reason why the rest of you can't do this! (Though I do agree that wiping skills take some practice).

20:35 here. I thought night training would be the hardest part, but DD proved me wrong! At this point, I would happily trade so at least we wouldn't be stressed about her making it through the school day without accidents! It's as if she's made a conscious decision not to fully train just because we want her too.lol

Peer pressure helps, I think. And your kid is already night-trained? I wish!

OP, I'm so with you. DD is in a similar boat. Will not stop playing to tell us she has to go. Not a good wiper. She's completely night trained and has been for awhile. I am praying for a miracle over the next month!

My 4 year old is still not the greatest at wiping. You get used to the skid marks.

Anonymous wrote:Hi all - my DD will be entering PS in the fall. She is close to the cutoff so on the younger side. She is doing pretty well with potty training, but I want to make sure that we have her fully prepared. She will be going to Inspired Teaching.

- Currently she is wearing underwear most of the day and rarely has accidents, and in the next two weeks we will be cutting out pull ups for nap time and outings (most of the time they are dry).
- However, she needs to be prompted to go to the potty, probably on an hourly basis. If she is into playing with something she will not stop and tell us she needs to go.
- She doesn't want to poop on the potty. We will be working on that one the most.
- She is fine wiping for #1, but not for #2 (since she rarely goes in the potty).
- She has trouble pulling her underwear and pants up in the back.

So I guess my questions are, how often are they taking these little ones to the potty? And are they going to help them get their pants back up? I KNOW we need to fix the poop issue. TIA!

This is the OP. I don't know if this is at all helpful for future parents (for borderline cutoff preschoolers especially), but I was just looking back at this to see the progress we have made in the past month and figured I'd update.

- no pullups during the day now
- still needs to be reminded to go. She doesn't need to go every hour though, more like 2.
- she is pooping in the potty now, we resorted to m & m's and it worked.
- good wiping for #2 still an issue.
- is getting better with the underwear and pants. she CAN do it, she just gets distracted and easily frustrated (what 2 year old doesn't?) with it and sometimes tries to give up

I guess things are moving along. I don't think I can reasonably expect her to be great at wiping for #2 by the time school starts but we are trying. I am still pretty worried about her needing to be reminded. I don't know if I should just stop reminding her altogether and let her pee herself all day to get the point that she needs to consciously decide to go on her own (consistently). But most days there are no accidents.