Skip to main content

Slipping Through the Cracks


Meet "Kayla." Kayla is from Alabama, and moved to Oakland shortly before school started in late August. There was some problem with her vaccinations - either she didn't get them all in Alabama, or Alabama doesn't require the same tests as California, or the paperwork didn't arrive in time - I don't remember. Regardless of the reason, Kayla was not allowed to start school on the first day of school. Her mother tried to bring her, and she was turned away and not allowed to start for a week. Since then, Kayla has come to school almost every day, missing a few days here and there when she was sick, and currently has 13 absences, all but 5 from illness.


Meet "Jennie." Jennie has 45 absences. Her mother always excuses them, explaining that Jennie has been throwing up or having diarrhea. Jennie's brother has almost as many absences, for the same reason. For a variety of reasons, I suspect Jennie's father of being violent and abusive toward Jennie's mother and perhaps the children. My unprofessional guess would be that the extreme gastrointestinal distress exhibited by Jennie and her brother, as well as their guarded - almost silent - demeanor, might be a direct result of the tension in their home.

Guess which child was brought to the attention of the attendance review board?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you guessed Jennie - the child who has been absent over a third of the year, who acts like a scared rabbit, and who is probably desperately in need of some intervention - then you are logical, kindhearted..... and haven't been listening to a word I've said.


Kayla's mother (remember, 13 absences, 5 of which were because the district/state wouldn't let her start) received a letter saying that her child was truant, the case was going before the attendance review board, blah blah blah. She was not happy. To quote her, "First they tell me my child can't come to school yet and now they're saying I don't sent my child to school?"

She has a point.

I was supposed to fill out a form detailing how Kayla's "truancy" has affected her behavior and academics, etc. I skipped all the boxes to be filled out and just wrote in big letters something like "Kayla does not have a problem with absences. She was not allowed to come to school for the first week. Since then she has been sick a few times. She is not behind. She should not go before the attendance review board." Then I attached a sticky note saying that I had another student who has missed 45 days of school, and that I've brought this up to Highly Defensive Administrator many many times - can we do something about this one, please?

We'll see.
Labels:

Comments

Unknown said…
You know, the thing that constantly strikes me is the arrogance of management towards line people. It doesn't matter whether it's in the for-profit or non-profit / school milieu, the fact is that the people on the line with the children are the only ones capable of gathering valid "field" data, just like the sales for talking to the customers is the only group able to get that data, or the people making the product are the only ones to be able to tell you what's really going on with the raw materials and the process for making the product.

What is wrong with managers' and administrators' education that this isn't relentlessly reinforced?
1:44 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class....
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other pri...
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea...
Post a Comment
Read more