Posts by Christian Richardson36

Susan James said:Setting the legal stuff aside, you two really need to find a way to work together if your child is going to be in her class. I'm not sure if digging through the school handbook is going to help your communication or your future relationship (and that "triangle" thing 😍)
especially when it involves questioning why she didn't start two weeks earlier or why she didn't send notice sooner (honestly, it's possible she left a message for her substitute about the meeting, and the sub just missed it for whatever reason)

If you found out at 8:00 PM on Monday, you could have called Tuesday morning and just said, "I'm so sorry, I already have a commitment, but let me know when else I can stop by so we can meet."
Just some polite communication ☕

It isn't right for her to hold you accountable like that. She could have just given you a call to see if you could make it or when you'd be free to introduce yourselves.

I'm not trying to defend her, but just like you could have had a surgery scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, she could have had a perfectly valid reason to be out for those first two weeks.
I'm guessing she might have been using some leave to help her kid adjust to daycare after maternity leave 😬

And if she had her baby on September 17th, 2011, she wouldn't have needed to start two weeks early; she would have started now, once her maternity leave ended.
Or she would have had to end her leave two weeks early 🤔

Here's my take—I wrote that her absence was justified. A mother has every right to be on leave, and that isn't the issue here. The real problem is that she showed up for her first day of work and immediately announced a meeting for the very next day. She knows full well that my child is new to this grade and this school, and that I don't have her contact information—unlike the parents of the other kids. And she surely knows that the principal has my contact info, if she was truly so desperate to see me specifically on Tuesday. On that same sheet with the contact triangle, she listed the meeting times as Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings... fine, she probably mentioned that at a parent meeting—but what bothers me is the attitude. It's clearly based on the assumption that my child is her only student, or that I don't have any other responsibilities to juggle.

As for cooperating—on the first day of enrollment, the principal asked me for all my details, and as soon as she heard I work as a graphic designer, she immediately jumped in with, "Oh, well, then you can help us out with the school newsletter!" After receiving a letter like this from a staff member at the school, I am going to think very, very hard about whether I want to cooperate or if I can even trust the quality of what they do.

The crux of the matter is that I have another child attending this same school—and that teacher gave us a full week's notice regarding the parent-teacher conference. It was the exact same story for my high schooler. But for my youngest? Well, I had already committed to obligations for that Tuesday afternoon long before this popped up, so it’s incredibly frustrating when someone who should have started planning two weeks ago—but justifiably failed to do so—suddenly decides to hold me accountable instead.

What does "advance notice" actually mean in a practical sense? I didn't even find out until Monday night around 8:00 PM because that's when I finally walked through my front door, so if we're being strictly accurate, we're looking at less than 24 hours of lead time. That’s why I’m asking—I’ve been scouring the internet trying to find this school's official handbook or bylaws, which I assume should be public record—other schools in our district make them easily accessible... As for her little "triangular" logic—honestly, I could have had a surgery scheduled for that day, couldn't I? My kids are new to this school, so I haven't established a rapport with her yet. And she certainly doesn't know me—she has no idea what my schedule looks like, or what my kids have going on.

That’s why I’m looking for the legal perspective here. One shouldn't just assume that I'm unavailable for a meeting without considering all the underlying circumstances, right?

I’m not entirely sure if this is the right sub for this particular grievance, but I’m looking for some perspective on the following:

From the very first day of the school year, the elementary teacher was out on maternity leave;
for those first two weeks, the kids had a substitute instructor:
then, during the third week of classes—on Monday afternoon—the permanent teacher finally returns from leave and immediately announces to the students that there will be a parent-teacher conference tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday);
of course, I can't make it—I have prior commitments already on my calendar, plus I'm juggling the schedules of my two older children who are also in school;
and then, instead of an apology for the short notice, they send me a formal letter essentially holding me accountable—they even included this little diagram depicting a triangle of "Student – Teacher" and "School – Parent."

In any standard American school district, how much lead time is a teacher actually required to give before scheduling a parent meeting? To me, it feels incredibly unreasonable to suggest that 24 hours is sufficient notice—but if anyone here is familiar with the specific district policies or general educational standards regarding this, I would truly appreciate your insight.