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 Playing the System... 
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Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2003 5:10 pm
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As the attendance "nazi" for my school, I am constantly disappointed by parents "playing the system". We continually get calls that ask when a full day is - 11:30. This way, parents can pick up students to take them where-ever, and it count as a full day for the student even though they have missed 3 hours of instruction. What do you all think about this? Should schools allow such obvious violations, or should there be some kind of consequence for habitual "early releasers". What do ya all think?


Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:35 am
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I agree with you Michael in that children are missing valuable hours of instruction when they are signed out early. There are times when children need to attend appointments and such that justify an early dismissal, and because of this it is hard to make a blanket statement changing the rule. I know you are in elementary and in my experience in both elementary and middle I see more early dissmissals in elelemtary than in middle. I think some parents feel elementary school is less important and its okay if little Johnny leaves early. This thought is unfortunuate because elementary school is where the solid foundation is built for success throughout schooling years.


Tue Oct 28, 2003 9:32 am
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Michael,

I am curious, in your experience is it the children that need the instruction the most who are missing class due to their parents allowing them out?

To me this is a dangerous issue - whose children are they ultimately and whose responsibility should it be for deciding where their time is spent. If a child is performing well in school - I don't see any problem with parents electing to take them out of school for whatever reason.

If these half days are interfering with the child's class work then I think the issue should be addressed individually.

As usual just my 2 cents.


Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:30 pm
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Like Michael, one of my responsibilities is attendance. (Kind of ironic now that I am missing so much work) Anyway, I agree. Many people take advantage of the attendance policies at schools. The difficulty is that the students are not our children. All we can do aside from enforcing the attendance laws and policies are to encourage parents to have their children at school.


Wed Oct 29, 2003 8:12 pm
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What shocked me when I taught first grade was the number of parents (usually higher income) who planned family vacations during the school year, not school breaks, because the beach, Disney World, etc. were less crowded during these times. The parents would ask me to send home all their child's work before the vacation, but as you know, one can't "send home" most first grade work such as a reading group.


Tue Nov 04, 2003 5:44 pm
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