My daughter was late for school & I cldnt get here there :(
@shaggin (74987)
United States
February 9, 2011 9:36am CST
Today my daughter was running late and just missed the bus. I went out to start my van and clean the snow off the windshield. I hadent driven it since it snowed two days ago. It was a very icy slushy snow. It froze onto the window and I could not get it off with the ice scraper. I cleared it off as bed as I could and then I went and got hot water and dumped it on the windshield. It cleared it off great but then slowly that little bit of water on the window froze back up lol so I still couldnt get her to school. About 45 minutes late for school she finally got there when my sister got home to run her up for me. I wish it was summer then we could have just walked to school but at -5 we cant walk there it would be way to cold especially with my 3 year old.
Missing the bus and having your kid be late to school because of you not being able to drive your kid to school is considered an illegal tardyness. Since my daughter has missed so many days of school where I forgot to send in doctors excuses I will probably have to go to court over it as they warned me before.
4 responses
@moondancer (7431)
• United States
9 Feb 11
Do you not know a neighbor that you can count on in times like these? When my children were in school I knew all of my neighbors. MY children were friends with most of their children and we helped each other in hard times.
If not maybe you could have a neighborhood meeting of the parents and bring up some of the problems that some of you may have at times even in the summer;
parents being late after school and needing someone to watch the children for 30 minutes or so
Children that miss the bus and need a ride
a parent that can be the weekly parent to offer to be the parent to watch the child that needs that 30 minute "parent" until theirs comes home.
a parent for the week that offers to give a ride if someone needs it that week
a phone tree if a child is missing and can not be found
A couple/few of parents to walk the young ones to school and pick them up on warmer days
get a local officer to help you with the other things you could add to your list.
Or ask the other parents to chip in with ideas...
1 person likes this
@moondancer (7431)
• United States
9 Feb 11
The schools do go too far on many things, that should be an excused tardy...go over the schools head.
Have a meeting with the school board. Fight for your rights.. They do not know how to act when you do this.
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
9 Feb 11
My mother, father and sister live across the street. My sister had just left the house to go help a friend do a job luckily for me the lady didnt show up so she went back home. So she was able to drive my daughter to school. My dad was at work so my sisters car was the only one able to be used by them and luckily she came back and didnt work. Thats not good for her but it worked out for me. I called her other grandfather and you'd think he'd offer to drive her but he just said he would have her dad come up and drive her which means she would have been an hour late for school. The school doesnt care what the excuse is unless they have a doctors note its an unexcused tardy or absence. All the other neighbors I couldnt ask to help out. I only have a few neighbors one cant drive and another is very old and falls about every day and an ambulance crew comes and helps him up. No way would I ask him to take my daughter to school. I will just have to insure she doesnt miss the bus again if my window is froze over lol. The van started up fine but usually on really cold mornings it wont.
@moondancer (7431)
• United States
9 Feb 11
Hun, they have these shiny blanket things that almost look like aluminum foil and it keeps snow from piling up on the windows. I have one. They are great. I forget where I bought it. I got one for everyone in the family. So we all don't have to fight the mess in the winter.
Maybe you can search the net and find one. They did not cost that much either. I may have gotten them at the auto parts store in town. Or the Dollar Tree.
1 person likes this
@bounce58 (17380)
• Canada
12 Feb 11
Although there wouldn't be an excuse for missing the bus, I think it shouldn't be illegal tardiness if you can't drive your kid to school because of the weather. I find that people here where we are a bit lenient if the weather is uncooperative. Your place should be too!
Winter comes every year, and things like these should be expected.
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
12 Feb 11
It says right in our guidebook that being late for school because a vehicle wont start is considered an illegal absence. I called them to let them know she would be a half hour to an hour late. There really wasent anything I could do. I hope they wont make me go to court about it. Its not like I let her skip school because she missed the bus it was just a matter of when I could get her there. She was 45 minutes late.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
11 Feb 11
We almost had to go to truancy court when Kathryn was in kindergarten. You see, they made us enroll her in the school that is districted for where our house is instead of letting us enroll her in the school that was the closest to where we lived at the time (we were renovating our house). Every time that there was a traffic accident, she would end up being late to school. However, we somehow managed to make it without truancy court. Perhaps where your daughter has recurring problems with her tonsils you could get the doctor to write a blanket note for her.
1 person likes this
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
12 Feb 11
It is so stupid when schools do that. I know kids who have to ride an hour bus ride to school when there is a bus that goes near there that could pick them up and take them to a differnet school and they could be there in 15 minutes. Its pointless. I hope someday in the future this will change. I will likely have to go to truancy court as well eventually but I'm trying to avoid that as best as I can.
@infatuatedbby (94909)
• United States
12 Feb 11
I am sorry to hear that your daughter was running late. And that sucks that it is considered illegal tardyness, but things like this happen. Couldn't you tell them she wasn't feeling well in the morning then she felt better?
Sorry to hear, good luck!
1 person likes this
@shaggin (74987)
• United States
4 Mar 11
Well its been a few weeks now and I havent heard anything bad from the school yet so I am hoping that they will not give me a hard time about this. Sometimes they will mail you something in the mail long after the issue but I am hoping that is not the way it will be this time. Seems like so far I am in the clear.
