I don't know. I think this is a case where I would encourage your child to speak with his teacher to explain the situation. I have a child just like yours, and something similar happened. I didn't engage the teacher myself, but supported him to advocate for himself. 5th and 6th grade are great ages to start learning to develop arguments/reasoning to negotiate outcomes with others. What's the worst that can happen? She says no. Best case, she works with him. Good learning opportunity (and hopefully she's reasonable; that is not his fault).

Anonymous wrote:My, gosh. It's fifth grade. Let him learn from this when the stakes are still low. This is what grade school and middle school are for!

--Parent of college students

What is he supposed to learn from this? To check all his friends desks if his homework is missing.

I would fight it - have him right a letter as it is about the principle, not the mark. But he had the bulk of the work done and by no fault of his own it was taken from his desk. If in college, your son / daughter's roommate takes their laptop with their assignments on it right before the deadline - the principle is the same. There should be an appeal process.

Even if he doesn't win the appeal, he learns to advocate for himself.