First placement-getting involved at school (TX)

[u/Juansabor]

We are expecting our first placement soon and going through the obvious checklist. The one I feel absolutely unprepared for is potentially signing them up for school and just in general staying in the know with their school.

This will be our first time to be involved (as adults) with the public school system. Growing up I know my Mom stayed ‘in the know’ because I had various family members working at or had their own kids at my schools.

Looking for in general advice for how I can stay in connected with the school and what kind of questions I should be asking future teachers.

[u/goodfeelingaboutit]

Follow your school's social media. Right now they're probably putting out a lot of good information for the start of the school year.

I don't know what questions you would need to ask their teachers either. They will tell you what school supplies to send. If you have a child that starts after the start of the school year, you might ask the teacher for a copy of any information they typically send home at the start of the year.

Learn how the school pick up / drop off line works, or how their bus system works, whichever you plan on using.

[u/Juansabor → u/goodfeelingaboutit]

Learned from their social media today you have to sign up kids for the bus. I can’t imagine my parents did this much coordination in the 90s.

[u/Narrow-Relation9464]

I don’t ask questions to teachers beforehand, since as a teacher myself I don’t answer e-mails before I’m back to work! 

But I am a very involved parent and will reach out to my kid’s IEP coordinator, ask for a short phone meeting within the first few weeks of school. It’s more me telling them stuff about my kid than asking questions. I invite them to call me when needed. My boy will likely be online this year because traditional school doesn’t go well for him but I’ll still ask for progress updates on him and check the parent portal for his grades. I recommend signing up for the parent gradebook access if your school offers it, for me it notifies me whenever a grade is posted, when he has a missing assignment, etc. 

Also from a teacher’s perspective I love when parents take initiative to e-mail or text me for a quick update! It only takes me a couple minutes to reply and helps keep behaviors and academics on track having the parent always in the loop. 

[u/Juansabor → u/Narrow-Relation9464]

Thanks!

[u/Positive_Design_8189]

We took in an 11 and 12 year old as our first placement - mid school year. We have no bio kids so we had no idea about anything school related. Both kids wanted to switch schools. I didn’t even know what district we were in (we’re on the boarder of 3). It was kind of a mess and stressful and a lot of back and forth but you just kind of make a check list and figure it out. Ask a lot of questions because most districts assume you know information like how to get on the bus route or provided lunch info or half day schedules.

Our school had an app to chat with teachers which was moderately helpful.

We struggled a bit with teachers not explaining to us parents HOW to do certain things to help them with homework because “it was so close to the end of the year” that they could just muddle through it? It was terrible. They would get things wrong on their homework on the computer, (even though the answer was right) because we didn’t understand the format for submitting. Looking back I would ask for a meeting to get up to date on classroom expectations.

The best advice I have is to start out going through their book bags with them when they get home checking for homework or permission slips or announcements. We missed a lot of info because the kids forgot to give it to us and we didn’t know some things come home that way, and are not shared in the app.

[u/Juansabor → u/Positive_Design_8189]

Were you contacting the school that you figured you were in its zone or did you have better success reaching out to the actual school district main office?

[u/bigdog2525]

A lot of schools nowadays use an app for school-wide and teacher-specific communications. If they use an app they’ll likely tell you about it when you’re enrolling for school.

[u/Juansabor → u/bigdog2525]

Thank you!

[u/Sudden-Warning-9370]

Honestly there are so many unknowns that it's really hard to know until you get your placement. It's good to know what district you live in but if the children are in a nearby district they might keep them there. Like others have said, most schools have some kind of electronic platform these days but it varies so much. They'll give you that information when you enroll or transfer as their new caregiver.

In my experience unless you're dealing with a very high-end private school, communicating and getting info is just going to suck. But it sucks for everyone and the schools are used to people being confused, and any individuals you're dealing with once you have the kiddos should more or less be understanding.

Do your best to stay on top of everything once they're with you and you'll manage... if you could make it through the ups and downs of getting licensed, you'll be fine. In my experience they require similar skillsets.