I posted this on TBP, so if you read it there, feel free to go to the next thread

I enrolled my daughter in Kindergarten in June. At the end of July, I got a letter from the school with her teacher, when the meet and greet was, and the supplies she needed.

Today, I got a call. Her birthday is past the cutoff date, so she can't go to school. I've spent $200 to get her clothes (she just had frou-frou stuff for church and ratty shit for play) a bookbag, baby wipes, whiteboard markers, and hand sanitizer.

Oops, the computer must have made a mistake. Too bad, so sad. No, we don't care that your kid is excited to go. We dont care that she's already ahead of the kids coming in to school. And we don't care that this is going to break her heart.

Seriously, since the beginning of the month, all I've heard is her asking me if today is the first day of school. The programs for "at risk" kids are bullshit jokes here, and I'm not about to make that mistake again.

In "97, NC was 41st in literacy. Our drop out rate is through the roof. Is it any wonder? AND they're changing the cut off date for the class next year from October to (depending on who I talk to) August or September. Yeah, that's gonna help. It's not like I'm trying to get a kid in so they graduate at 16 or some shit. She'll be 18, just like everyone else.

She can write, recite the alphabet, knows her numbers to 20 (after that she's sketchy) and understands fractions. Do I need her writing presidental speeches before they'll let her into their "prestigious" public school?

This is why people home school....

And I still have to figure out how to tell her....
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I have found that private schools do not have an age requirement. I'm looking for a school less than an hour away. But I'm afraid all I'm going to find are those awful Fundamentalist Christian schools that think the Earth is 5,000 years old and evolution is a myth

Sorry to hear that-we've been pretty lucky around these parts, and our Public Schools have been really, really good.

Hey-ho fellow NC person!

Preach the pain as the Mrs. and I aren't exactly thrilled at the school my daughter attends, but we don't have too many educational alternatives open to us at this point in time.

We're going to give the school just a few months more of our daughter's time before deciding to either put her in another public school in another district or in one the charter schools we've got floating around.  Private school and home-schooling are distant third options.  Yeah, we won't be able to effect these changes until next year, but we'll be doing something.

And don't get us started on the "why's" of our displeasure.

Good luck!

That's crappy and totally lacking in empathy on their part.  How far past the cutoff date is she?  I'd take it up with the principal, then with the school board or district right away before she misses a chunk of school.  
 
They should have told you at registration that she missed the cutoff - that's one of the few responsibilities of those doing registration.  At this point, they should be more reasonable.
 
But bureaucrats can be dicks so it may not work.

This strikes me as insanely stupid.

My advice: look at whoever said this, and go over their heads. Keep going over people's heads. Insist on talking to the administrators. Eventually, one of them will break just to get you off his fucking back.

You see, one thing school administrators hate (or any middle management, really) is having to concern themselves with whatever problems their subordinates are forced to bring to their attention. They'll be willing to do anything just to get you out of their hair, and what's more they'll be pissed off at whoever said "no" to you in the first place for making you their problem.

RPGPundit

PS: With schools, threatening to involve the media always helps too. Nothing worse for a school administrator than having their local news showing a cute little girl bawling her eyes out because the mean school board won't let her get an education!
But save the threat of this for the management, don't waste it on whoever initially said no to you; go over their heads.

WRT cutoff - around 2 months.

Pundit- We've been through a similar situation when I moved down here as a kid. Mom became a school board member to change rules And I've got my dad's long memory with mom's bitch attitude I sent emails to the state board, called the county board, and an email to the Govenor. Next is my state and national reps.

I'm STILL pissed. It's not good for them.

Thanks for the replies. Your support makes a world of difference, even if it's just a "gee that suxz0rz" comment.

Yeah, I read about your troubles over on TBP, but alas cannot comment there. Indeed, it sucks - nothing worse than having a little kid excited (!!!) about going to school (!!!!!!!!!) and then having to dampen down that enthusiasm. Hell, the school should be flipping cartwheels over an inspired student, even if its just Kindergarden, but this is what happens in any bureaucracy. "Can't do it 'cause 'dems the rules! And no way in hell we can possibly be flexible."

Same attitude that gives you those wonderous "Zero Tolerance" attrocities in schools these days. "Not our fault, we have to follow the rules to the letter rather than use our own judgement or common sense!"

I believe Nazi death-camp guards tried that defense once upon a time.

At any rate, hope you can keep your little curtain-climber's enthusiasm up until she CAN go to school, and then pray those morons don't drum it out of her.

Quote from: WerekoalaYeah, I read about your troubles over on TBP, but alas cannot comment there. Indeed, it sucks - nothing worse than having a little kid excited (!!!) about going to school (!!!!!!!!!) and then having to dampen down that enthusiasm. Hell, the school should be flipping cartwheels over an inspired student, even if its just Kindergarden, but this is what happens in any bureaucracy. "Can't do it 'cause 'dems the rules! And no way in hell we can possibly be flexible."

Same attitude that gives you those wonderous "Zero Tolerance" attrocities in schools these days. "Not our fault, we have to follow the rules to the letter rather than use our own judgement or common sense!"

I believe Nazi death-camp guards tried that defense once upon a time.

At any rate, hope you can keep your little curtain-climber's enthusiasm up until she CAN go to school, and then pray those morons don't drum it out of her.

There's always hope. Good Teachers.

Yeah, I know.  I'm one of the cynical that sees teachers, as a group (read: Union) as not very good for the system.  But damn did my son have a great, dedicated, wonderful woman for his kindergarden class.  In fact, we requested her, and got her, for my daughter this year.

But I'm with Pundit - make the effort to go up the chain.  find out if there's any policy in place which will allow her to opt in even if she's 2 months back in age.  At that point in development they are all over the board, anyway, so I don't see why you can't provide some data showing she won't be a drag on the class.

You and your worse half should have been going at it a couple of months earlier :eek:

The teachers are hit-or-miss, but administration has (in my experience) been nothing but a bunch of shitheads wasting space better used by people that have a fucking clue who are in turn yanked around by fuckwitted politicians that play Indian Giver with the education system (and, are in turn backrolled by those same "future employers" who don't want citizens that can think, but trained monkeys to use as grist for their mills- and monkeys aren't entrepreneurial types).

Bradford, my father always said " those who can, teach. Those who can't become administrators." He taught school and is the standard I hold all teachers to. As my son gets older, I find that the teaches are less and less like dad

Is there really such a large overhead regarding school administration? 'Round here, it's mostly done by some of the teachers and a few secretaries. Well, and the central agencies. Are US schools more independent, i.e. there's no central authority of e.g. Colorado High Schools taking care of things?

Here, we have the school with a bit of leeway, then the county School board, with a bit more, then the State school board, who has to listen to what laws Raleigh thinks up.

Quote from: SosthenesIs there really such a large overhead regarding school administration? 'Round here, it's mostly done by some of the teachers and a few secretaries. Well, and the central agencies. Are US schools more independent, i.e. there's no central authority of e.g. Colorado High Schools taking care of things?

Ahh...The DOE. For those of you not in the states, that's the Department of Education.

Yes, that's at the federal level.  So you can imagine the overhead...

An interestingly related, unrelated tidbit: Today on Snopes I read that it is true that Alabama has, as a state, outlawed fractions and decimals in teaching math.

Apparently teaching 'irrational numbers' leads to problems in teaching logical (rational?) thought and by removing fractions they no longer have to worry about the lowest common denominator.

Nice try Spike, nice try...