This Will Go On His (My Five Year Old) Permanent Record
Today I was annoyingly reminded of why I chose to homeschool my kids a few years back, and why I didn't want them back in "the system."
Although the threat of Corona Virus is far from Sunny San Diego, the school systems still decided to send home warning letters, telling us to keep our children home if they have low grade fevers, coughs,or the starts of a cold.
Usually here, they want them to be SICK, before we keep them home.
I am of the thinking that it is better to keep the child home if he is getting sick, rather than waiting for him to be full blown sick. A bit of rest, sleep and relaxation wards of most illnesses.
The school finally agrees with me.
Or so I thought.
Today, as I brought my son into school after having him be absent for two days, I was told by the nurse that his attendance was less than stellar.
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I agree. It is the first time he attends school and being in a room full of 15+ germ carriers who don't know how to wash their hands, plus two teachers makes him sniffly often.
Then she looked me straight in the eye and told me: "You should be concerned as this is going on your son's permanent record."
I just looked at her back, and told her thank you for the information.
Really though? WTF cares. He isn't even in kindergarten. What does "permanent record" mean anyway?
It means that my son has been getting tracked by "the system" since he was four years old. It means that there will be an attendance log that carries with him until he is 18 years old (and perhaps beyond) it means that if he ever gets "in trouble" "they" will look at his attendance since before kindergarten as "evidence."
And it means nothing.
Because he is five.
Permanent record. SMH...
That is so absurd. We had a school that would call us within the hour if our daughter was absent. They would want us to take the child in to be sent home by the nurse, or to take the child to the doctor to get an excuse. If we told them we were keeping the child home because of a fever, they'd question our qualification to make the assessment.
Here in Texas, I don't know how it works in California, schools are compensated by the state based on attendance. So, I know they were trying to keep the cash flowing in by providing a paper trail. But, we weren't paying $40 for a doctor visit to make the school happy.
Nobody has brought up the "permanent record" of any of our kids. I'm 45 now. My permanent record has never been requested.
Schools do get an income based on attendance, but, it is not daily attendance. Either the kid is deemed as a student of that school or they are not. If a kid is absent 10% of the time, it does not take 10% of the income away.
Something I learned while working as a teacher was that if a child is seen on campus, it counts towards their attendance. They used to have "runners" which were school officials who would "catch" kids who were ditching, and run them to the other side of the school, doing that would make the kids run through campus, and then their attendance would be counted.
That was when I lost respect for the whole attendance thing. I will make sure my children are there enough so the school can get the compensation they need for teaching my children, but I am not bringing an unwell child to school.
Thank you for commenting, I appreciate knowing that this happens in Texas and that the crazies go beyond California.
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I got sort of scolded by my son`s school secretary for keeping him at home for 5 days and not taking him to see a doctor when he had a bad cough. This is when his pediatrician knows he has croup and his cough never coughs to his lungs. I get annoyed because she was not even a nurse and had no idea about the symptoms my son had. It was an annoying episode!
The rule around here is that if it is 3 or more days of absence, they have to get a Dr. Note.
The rules on coughs are, "coughs are ok, as long as there is no fever." Makes me kind of queasy to know that they don't mind the kids coughing everywhere - its not like the cleaning crew wipes down counters and desks...
Whatever happened to "Mother knows best?"
Thanks for stopping by, it makes me feel oddly better that other parents go through the same thing.