Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do parents need to be in the school? I don’t recall my parents ever being at school during the day. They came for Back to School Night, and Parent-Teacher conferences, and that was it. Maybe to pick me up when I got sick a couple of times.

Allowing parents to come in and observe classes, etc., is useful for fostering trust and may help to avoid those annoying emails from parents teachers on this board constantly complain about. As a parent it is hard to know what is going on in the classroom, particularly with young kids.

Allow parents to come in and observe classes? I've literally never heard of this. WTA helicopter F?

Anonymous wrote:We're at a Title 1 DCPS and have the same policy, OP. Though they no longer refer to it as "Covid protocol." They just don't want parents in the building.

We are allowed in for special events but, for instance, if my kid has a doctor's appointment, I have to tell the security guard at the front door that I'm there to pick her up, and then she is retrieved and brought to the front door to me. And when I drop her back off, I can't walk her to her classroom or even enter the building -- I drop her with the security guard and she walks to her classroom alone. She's in kindergarten.

I hate it. I get limiting how much time parents spend in the building because you can get overzealous parents who are around all the time and disrupting classes or just clogging up hallways. And I understand having security protocols in place and making sure any adult entering the building is actually a parent and has a reason to be there.

We started school during Covid so I have no idea if it was like this before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus people. Parents, stop. Just stop. Get out of the school. You want to meet with the teacher? Set up a meeting. You want to "observe" a classroom? Call and ask to do so and set up a specific time (if they say yes.) You do not need to have complete information or control of everything all the time. It doesn't allow your kids to develop any kind of independence nor does it allow the professional educator to do their job. Don't believe me? Head on over to Reddit and see why we can't fill teacher jobs...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/17ah0xf/tried_a_seating_plan_for_2_days_gotten_parent/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179zb7e/whats_the_dumbest_parent_question_youve_ever/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179rxvj/when_will_us_schools_bring_back_consequences/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179xzuv/why_is_it_such_a_struggle_for_parents_to_check/

Oh, and also if you didn't already know .... there's a crime wave in DC and a school shooting issue that might affect the way people feel about school safety.

Parent wants to observe a classroom? After grade 2 or 3, that's potentially going to get your kid picked on. I'd have been mortified if my parent tried that growing up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're at a Title 1 DCPS and have the same policy, OP. Though they no longer refer to it as "Covid protocol." They just don't want parents in the building.

We are allowed in for special events but, for instance, if my kid has a doctor's appointment, I have to tell the security guard at the front door that I'm there to pick her up, and then she is retrieved and brought to the front door to me. And when I drop her back off, I can't walk her to her classroom or even enter the building -- I drop her with the security guard and she walks to her classroom alone. She's in kindergarten.

I hate it. I get limiting how much time parents spend in the building because you can get overzealous parents who are around all the time and disrupting classes or just clogging up hallways. And I understand having security protocols in place and making sure any adult entering the building is actually a parent and has a reason to be there.

We started school during Covid so I have no idea if it was like this before.

There is literally no reason why you should be able to pick your daughter up from class or walk her back to class after a doctors appointment. What you described is exactly how a school should work.

I think it's weird that a parent can't even enter the building. I would be find with a policy where you walk your kid into the front office and then they either walk to their class alone or get escorted, once the admin has confirmed that the class is in the classroom (they could be at a special or at recess).

I also think that on a case-by-case basis, a parent might walk a young kid to the classroom, say if there is something they need to inform the teacher of regarding the child's absence (like if my kid just got a flu vaccine I might want to tell their teacher so they understand if he seems low energy). Yes, I can text the teacher or send a note with my kid, but I could see in certain situations where it would be useful of the parent to just drop the child off directly.

There are ways to limit parents in schools without having a policy that requires them to hand their children off to a security guard at the door. It's a very cold and impersonal way of interact with families, IMO.

Randomly entering the classroom to "tell the teacher something" is extremely disruptive. You just write a note, FFS. If you are concerned about your kid's "low energy" keep them home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're at a Title 1 DCPS and have the same policy, OP. Though they no longer refer to it as "Covid protocol." They just don't want parents in the building.

We are allowed in for special events but, for instance, if my kid has a doctor's appointment, I have to tell the security guard at the front door that I'm there to pick her up, and then she is retrieved and brought to the front door to me. And when I drop her back off, I can't walk her to her classroom or even enter the building -- I drop her with the security guard and she walks to her classroom alone. She's in kindergarten.

I hate it. I get limiting how much time parents spend in the building because you can get overzealous parents who are around all the time and disrupting classes or just clogging up hallways. And I understand having security protocols in place and making sure any adult entering the building is actually a parent and has a reason to be there.

We started school during Covid so I have no idea if it was like this before.

There is literally no reason why you should be able to pick your daughter up from class or walk her back to class after a doctors appointment. What you described is exactly how a school should work.

I think it's weird that a parent can't even enter the building. I would be find with a policy where you walk your kid into the front office and then they either walk to their class alone or get escorted, once the admin has confirmed that the class is in the classroom (they could be at a special or at recess).

I also think that on a case-by-case basis, a parent might walk a young kid to the classroom, say if there is something they need to inform the teacher of regarding the child's absence (like if my kid just got a flu vaccine I might want to tell their teacher so they understand if he seems low energy). Yes, I can text the teacher or send a note with my kid, but I could see in certain situations where it would be useful of the parent to just drop the child off directly.

There are ways to limit parents in schools without having a policy that requires them to hand their children off to a security guard at the door. It's a very cold and impersonal way of interact with families, IMO.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus people. Parents, stop. Just stop. Get out of the school. You want to meet with the teacher? Set up a meeting. You want to "observe" a classroom? Call and ask to do so and set up a specific time (if they say yes.) You do not need to have complete information or control of everything all the time. It doesn't allow your kids to develop any kind of independence nor does it allow the professional educator to do their job. Don't believe me? Head on over to Reddit and see why we can't fill teacher jobs...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/17ah0xf/tried_a_seating_plan_for_2_days_gotten_parent/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179zb7e/whats_the_dumbest_parent_question_youve_ever/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179rxvj/when_will_us_schools_bring_back_consequences/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179xzuv/why_is_it_such_a_struggle_for_parents_to_check/

Oh, and also if you didn't already know .... there's a crime wave in DC and a school shooting issue that might affect the way people feel about school safety.

Parent wants to observe a classroom? After grade 2 or 3, that's potentially going to get your kid picked on. I'd have been mortified if my parent tried that growing up.

Anonymous wrote:Jesus people. Parents, stop. Just stop. Get out of the school. You want to meet with the teacher? Set up a meeting. You want to "observe" a classroom? Call and ask to do so and set up a specific time (if they say yes.) You do not need to have complete information or control of everything all the time. It doesn't allow your kids to develop any kind of independence nor does it allow the professional educator to do their job. Don't believe me? Head on over to Reddit and see why we can't fill teacher jobs...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/17ah0xf/tried_a_seating_plan_for_2_days_gotten_parent/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179zb7e/whats_the_dumbest_parent_question_youve_ever/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179rxvj/when_will_us_schools_bring_back_consequences/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/179xzuv/why_is_it_such_a_struggle_for_parents_to_check/

Oh, and also if you didn't already know .... there's a crime wave in DC and a school shooting issue that might affect the way people feel about school safety.

Anonymous wrote:There is a happy medium between (1) having parents coming and going at will, getting in the way, dropping in on teachers unannounced, or posing security risks, and (2) creating a prison-like environment.

I think it's totally fine to limit parents to the lobby/entrance of the school except for events like BTS night or when they have an appointment with a teacher or admin. It's even fine to say "please don't come into the lobby during drop off, it gets too crowded." Of course schools should have limits on how much parents are in the school.

But I think it's weird to not even allow parents in the lobby during low traffic hours, to drop off a kid or items for the classroom or the school. I think it's weird to have parents communicate with the front desk via intercom when picking up a kid for a doctor's appointment, instead of just coming in and telling the security guard or the admin "Hi I'm here to pick up Larlo for his doctor's appointment -- I emailed about it yesterday."

TBH, if anything, it seems more secure for an interaction like that to happen in person in the school as opposed to via intercom -- if the parent was behaving strangely or something seemed off, you'd be much more likely to pick up on it if it was in person.

I will also say that my school doesn't let parents see their kid's classroom until BTS night, which is at the end of September, and I find that weird because I think it would be easier to prepare my child better for the school year if we could do a classroom visit before school starts. At least for early grades, I guess by 3rd or so it matters less. But for a K or 1st grade student, it feels weird to not even know what their classroom environment is until a month into school.