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Re: [ Schools/Education ] Kids being pulled from k
Posted By: Sam In Response To: Re: [ Schools/Education ] Kids being pulled from k (Interested reader)
Date: Thursday, 8 June 2006, at 12:28 p.m.
The instructions were not clear that the re-registration was for the current school year, and we were uncertain whether or not we would be moving. Additionally, my wife had a problem with my son's passport, and needed to resolve these for filling out the forms (she did manage to resolve them, but this made the timeframe very tight). The initial re-registration period closed more than a week ago. For those taken out of school, appointments for re-registration were occurring until at least next Thursday, for four hours per day. Assuming at least 3 could be done per hour, this would be around 75 students who were affected (assuming taking Friday off from re-registrations).
The "deadline" had been pushed off before. No indication was given as to what, if any, actions would be taken for failure to re-register.
If I were going to contest the re-registration process, I'd contend that it's not a good way to detect fraudulence. Presumably whoever had falsified the first time could falsify the second. I'd also suggest that carrying it out at the very end of the school year is near-purposeless. If the school had actual evidence, the soonest they would be able to remove students would be after 21 days. What's the point of removing students a week before the year ends? I don't need the schools to be engaging in some sham process, and even if they were they could seek to minimize the impact on the children. The interest of the schools is in reducing the burden on us as taxpayers. Removing students now probably wastes more in lost time, effort, and legal opinion than it saves through the days a student may not be in a classroom. However, I'm not contesting the re-registration, as misguided as I think it may have been. I'm contesting removal without notice.
I'd add, I received a letter last night, postmarked June 5th, noting the initial indication of suspect residence and indicating that an appeal could be made to the BOE. The letter also indicated to respond to the superintendent's office by June 9th as to whether I would be contesting the removal. My wife had called June 5th for advice and was told that no decision had been made yet and that there would be some discussions on it that evening. So -- they sent the letter June 5th, dating it March 31st. After sending the letter, someone decided to remove the students as of June 7th, in mid-day, two days after sending the letter and two days before the date indicated to contact the superintendent. And 19 days before it would be legally permissible for them to remove the child. So, they came up with a process that didn't follow the requirements of the law, but then they didn't even follow that process.
The superintendent's office has retreated on keeping students from attending school, but claim that those who miss their re-registration appointments will be removed the following day. I do not plan to miss the appointment, but this remains a reckless violation of law. Given the communications they've already sent, claiming ignorance of the law even prior to their missive is pretty dubious. They certainly cannot claim ignorance at this point, but state instead that they will willfully violate it. Perhaps it's just a threat to encourage compliance, and I certainly hope that's all it is. They certainly have not, however, indicated that they've done anything wrong nor apologized for their violation of civil rights.
All that said, I like the schools, the teachers, and the district. I think overall it serves our children reasonably well (though of course, as any parent, I'd always like to see improvements). I think the pioneering Korean-English classes are a wonderful testament to the innovation of the district and potentially as great or even greater benefit to the native English-speakers as to the Koreans.
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