Parents

Communication

Since as parents you are the child’s first teachers, you are our partners in education.  Therefore, regular communication with you is an essential part of your child’s school experience.  Scheduled parent conferences allow teachers and parents to discuss student achievement as well as to develop means to assist students in areas of difficulty.  Teachers are not available for calls during the school day.  It is school policy that teachers’ home phone numbers are not released to parents.  Parent-teacher conferences are made through the school office or a parent may request a meeting with a teacher by simply sending a note to the teacher in question and the teacher will arrange for this meeting outside class time at a mutually convenient time.  The meeting should take place in the classroom or someplace that ensures privacy, never in a hallway or in a public area of the school.  A parent who is refused such a meeting should notify the principal.

Just as the parents look to the school to provide the facilities and the trained personnel that are essential to their child’s proper development, so the school looks to the parents to assume active responsibilities that cannot be delegated to others.

No school can be wholly effective in teaching the values of religion and the virtues of honesty, respect for authority, consideration for the rights and property of others, and standards of personal morality and integrity unless these principles have been established, upheld, and valued in the home.  If parents cooperate with the school, instill respect for the integrity of its teachers and administration, and actively support their authority in the home, this is likely to be reflected in the positive attitudes of their children.

Confidentiality

There is a professional and moral ethic that requires all persons to safeguard all information of a privileged nature.

It is imperative that such information be regarded as a sacred trust.  If there is evidence of knowledge that could impact on the health or safety of any person, the teacher has the responsibility to share the information with the principal.

Under Section 423 of the Child Protective Services Act, school officials are required to report when they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child coming before them in their professional capacity is an abused or maltreated child.  If the teacher or school nurse suspects abuse or neglect, he or she must immediately confer with the principal to discuss the aspects of the abuse and to determine which person on the school staff will report the alleged abuse to the proper agency.  In so reporting, no allegation is made against a parent or care giver.  Rather, it is a judgment by the school that the child may be presenting signs of abuse or neglect.

The rules that govern privileged information apply, as well, to any personal or academic information that is discovered through daily classroom instruction or other social interaction with students, parents or peers.  Always the sense of the sacred should prevail.