Originally Posted by Pemberley
Originally Posted by blackcat
Parents can be in the school but they have to sign in at the office w/ a photo ID. So parents do not walk their kids into the building in the morning (even kindergartners), they are dropped off at the door or in carpool, then the kids make their own way to their classrooms. If a kid shows up to class late, the teacher sends them to the office and they are marked tardy. Since my kids tend to get distracted, or it takes them forever to take their coats and backpacks off, they don't necessarily show up to class on time.
Parents can eat lunch with their kids (as long as they sign in) but no one is really allowed to volunteer for grades 2+, unless it's for a field trip or special event. For K-1 the teacher will put you on a volunteer schedule maybe twice per month if you want to come in. Otherwise there are no parents in the building.

What Blackcat reports is WAY more access than parents were allowed at the public DD attended for 1st and 2nd. No parent volunteers, no eating lunch, no going past the office. Period. You could only enter the front door if you called in advance to advise that you were coming. Last year DD had a surgical procedure on her face and asked me to walk her to her classroom because she had a bandage on her face and was uncomfortable about how she would be received by the other kids. Nope, not allowed. Assigned to make a special treat for the class exploration of holidays around the world? Dropped it at the office and they called the classroom only after DH and I left the building so someone could come pick it up and bring it down the hall.

Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy huh?

Wow - both of these just make me feel sad! Our schools are so very different from that - I hope that all that uber-protectiveness is serving a good purpose.

Originally Posted by blackcat
or it takes them forever to take their coats and backpacks off, they don't necessarily show up to class on time.

My DCD-ds moves so slowly, he was often *inside* his classroom (because that's where the cubbies were) in elementary school and was still marked tardy because he'd still be at his cubby taking off his coat and boots instead of having made it to his desk by the time the teacher took attendance. We're not talking a huge classroom at all... but for some reason his teacher couldn't see him standing next to his cubby!

polarbear