Give Me Your Honest Opinion!

[sackett22]

Just the other day, my wife and oldest daughter went to Brookhaven, MS because my brother in law and his fiance had their first child.

Now due to this my 13 yr old daughter was out of school for that one day. Not such a big deal, we knew where she was.

Funny thing is the school automated system called my phone at just after 7pm that night to inform me that my daughter had not been in school.

What concerns me about this is that what if my daughter had gone to school and something had happened to her "God forbid" and we had no knowledge of the fact that she never made it too school. Shouldn't there be some system setup that if your child has not made it to school by at least 2nd period they contact you to inform you that you child is not there. I know this is a lot to ask, but it seems more sensible to me than having an automated system call over 3 hours after school has let out.

What do you think?

[firefly]

I totally agree with you on that, Sackett!

[dollfus46]

Just the other day, my wife and oldest daughter went to Brookhaven, MS because my brother in law and his fiance had their first child.

Now due to this my 13 yr old daughter was out of school for that one day. Not such a big deal, we knew where she was.

Funny thing is the school automated system called my phone at just after 7pm that night to inform me that my daughter had not been in school.

What concerns me about this is that what if my daughter had gone to school and something had happened to her "God forbid" and we had no knowledge of the fact that she never made it too school. Shouldn't there be some system setup that if your child has not made it to school by at least 2nd period they contact you to inform you that you child is not there. I know this is a lot to ask, but it seems more sensible to me than having an automated system call over 3 hours after school has let out.

What do you think?
I'm not up on school procedures anymore, but if they can call you at 6 pm they can call you by 11 am. Roll should have been turned in by then.In my day, they never called, period. I'm sure teachers on here can have more personal experience as to why it can or can't though.

[luvnlife]

My kids attend Petal. If they miss school I have always had a call early in the am. I even got a call on my cell phone a time or two.

[Chichiguita]

Hmmm...

In Indiana, sometimes the nurse would call by 9...but we were to call in an absence by that time. So if we didn't call--they did.

Since I have been here, I was told (after calling to report the absence)--that I could just wait till he returned and send a note.

I have considered the "call from school" more an attempt on the part of the school to keep their own records, rather than to "help us (parents) out.

Could be that they are waiting to see if the child will show up later in the day? Maybe a call at 7 p.m. is more an attempt the "tell on" a child than check on them...especially a middle school child. Don't mean to be glib--just a guess.

I can see why it would be nice to recieve this information earlier.

[luvnlife]

I think this is one of the best ideas they've come up with. I'm just glad they came up with it AFTER I graduated.;) My poor mama, she didn't have a clue:smt009

[MamaTyson74]

I dont understand why they cant have their automated system call earlier! Its a nice thing they are doing but you need to know earlier just incase something has happened. As for my kids school, they dont call. They even tell me when I call that I just need to send a note the next day. Now when I was in school they ALWAYS called by 10 am. A few times I was able to skip school and they believed the friend that called in for me :kekeke:

[wilkiesan]

It's my understanding that the system is setup to continue calling until someone answers or an answering machine picks up. Perhaps that is why you got the call at 7pm. It normally starts calling at 9 -10 am.

[mac]

When I was in high school, the call came around noon if you were out. I'm not sure why the HPS system calls so late. Maybe Wilkiesan is right and they do call earlier. Makes sense. I don't know about your caller i.d., Sackett, but mine only shows the most recent time if a number has called more than once in a day, so if they called me at 9, 10, 11, and 12, the only time that would show up would be 12.

[Maggie-Doodle]

Well Sackett, I graduated HHS in 1969..."way back then" if the kid wasn't in class by 9 a.m. the office was calling home...it wasn't an automated machine, it was staff wanting to know where the child was...IMO that is the way it should be too.

[Beauregard's Daddy]

I used to just pick up the phone and call the school myself. "Excuse me Miss ______ this is Mr. BD my son is not going to be in school today. Thank you" click, hello free day! Let's watch the Cubbies, go to the beach, whatever, whoooaaa!

[Scarlett O'Hara]

My oldest daughter used to call and check out my youngest daughter and her friends............now you have to go to the school to check the kids out, though........I guess they wised up!!!

[dyates]

Some must do it differently because they call first thing in the morning at the school my children are in. The last time I got a call I was just picking up the phone to call the school and let them know one of mine was sick. It was probably 8:30.

[mac]

Well Sackett, I graduated HHS in 1969..."way back then" if the kid wasn't in class by 9 a.m. the office was calling home...it wasn't an automated machine, it was staff wanting to know where the child was...IMO that is the way it should be too.

That was probably possible back before the government and everybody else started piling up b.s. paperwork on them. I'm sure the staff would be more than happy to stop doing all the other crap they have to do so they can personally call parents. Schools today are nothing like they were when I was there-- and I graduated in 1997, so it hasn't even been very long. I can't imagine the differences that have taken place since my parents finished in '69.

Another thing I've noticed since I started working in schools is the astounding number of absences. It's rare for me to have a class where someone's not missing. (And while I'm bitchin', I can count on one hand the number of times a student has come to me for makeup work.) People apparently think nothing of letting their kids miss school. I've got kids who have missed 10, 15 days. They're just as bad about checking them out early. One kid in my 7th period class gets checked out at least 20 minutes before the end of the period every single day-- if she's not already gone to cheer at a ballgame. It's ridiculous. Anyway, my point is that I'm sure it'd be easier to call 10 parents than it is to call 50 or 100. Heck, Sackett, they probably started calling the parents on the list of absentees that day at 8 a.m. and just didn't get to you 'til 7!

[JimmyJam]

I had a student many years ago who was checked out by his mother EVERY day 10 minutes early from my 6th period class. One of the other students finally told me that the kid was a terrible driver, and had been involved in 3-4 wrecks in the parking lot already that year, so his mom would check him out so that he could leave before the lot got all congested. :laugh:

That was more important to her than his education. :smt009

[luvnlife]

I had a student many years ago who was checked out by his mother EVERY day 10 minutes early from my 6th period class. One of the other students finally told me that the kid was a terrible driver, and had been involved in 3-4 wrecks in the parking lot already that year, so his mom would check him out so that he could leave before the lot got all congested. :laugh:

That was more important to her than his education. :smt009

I'm thinking before I'd go up there everyday I'd just say "junior, now you wait about 15 or 20 minutes after everybody leaves, then drive home" Hello?????????

[XC9]

I think this is one of the best ideas they've come up with. I'm just glad they came up with it AFTER I graduated.;) My poor mama, she didn't have a clue:smt009
I hear ya :kekeke: My poor parents were clueless too. I am with you, glad they didn't call back then too. Bet we would have been in trouble.