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Parent visits to classrooms/schools

As an ELC staff member, I have received complaints from parents and advocates that schools are not letting parents visit their child's classroom, visit classrooms that have programs that might be better for their child or even be recommended by the school for next year, not let their experts vist, and so on. The law requires schools to give families reasonable access to the school and the child's classroom. We'd like to hear if you have been running into this kind of problem with your school district.

Want to share your story? Can an ELC staff member call you for details? Want to email me personally?

Thanks, Janet Stotland (jstotland@elc-pa.org)

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Permalink Reply by Esther Falcetta on July 14, 2010 at 5:23pm

Janet -

As a parent advocate in a rural district, I can say that parent involvement is largely non-existent. I've heard from parents in similar demographic areas that if the PTO or PTA is active with their volunteer efforts, it can be a better experience. Here in Grove City, we are currently forming a community-school partnership group that will attempt to bridge the gap between home, community & our school buildings. Thank goodness for the National Standards for Parent Involvement...but I anticipate a slow process. RE: your comments about visiting classrooms that 'might be better for the child'. If you are referring to parents being permitted to sit in on classroom instruction in order to gain a firsthand concept of what classroom would be best for their child's placement, I'd say this is also almost non-existent. Yes, the law requires 'reasonable access', but there's an awful lot of 'wiggle room' with that term 'reasonable'. Personally, I encourage parents to be proactive and at least attempt to make the request, then have their backup plan of an advocate or the EdLaw Consultline, ODR, etc. if necessary. RIght now, we're running into a lot of difficulty with our gifted students. The district is not fully compliant with the Chapter 16 guidelines, but of course, bringing it to a point of compliance is more work than most people want to deal with. So, the parents complain and will sometimes just 'get around' the problem, but for the most part, the scheduling is done with no parent input and requests for schedule changes are not welcome...even with IEPs. Of course, this is also technically not the LAW, but for whatever reason, it continues to happen.

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Permalink Reply by Janet Stotland on July 14, 2010 at 5:35pm

Thanks for the update, Esther. I am also interested in your new "community-school partnership group." Have you checked out our new website at www.schoolvictories.org? It's a place where a group can share with other groups about school reform work. Check it out! Join up!

Janet

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Permalink Reply by Esther Falcetta on July 14, 2010 at 6:14pm

Janet -

Don't you just love the efficiency of this mode of communication!? Thanks for the link to School Victories - that is awesome. If you'd like to chat by phone, I'll be happy to fill you in on the details of our CSP. Truthfully, there are times when the phone is just easier than typing it all out! My cell # is 724.372.0963 and I work from home, so feel free to call anytime.

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Permalink Reply by Paula Lackore Rule on July 16, 2010 at 1:16pm

Hi Janet. It's Paula. The last time I dealt with this issue, parents (including myself) were being told that "privacy laws"-- FERPA and HIPAA-- were precluding parents from observing students "in action" in the classroom. Parents were allowed to visit the empty classroom, talk to the teacher about curriculum etc, but were not allowed to observe a class in session. As far as I know, that has not changed--- at least in the public schools. You got to an APS, and they let you observe anything you want to observe for the most part. Go figure.

Paula Rule
Education Attorney and Advocate,
Pittsburgh/Beaver/Butler

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Permalink Reply by Janet Stotland on July 16, 2010 at 2:27pm

Hi Paula,

Several years ago we sent an inquiry to to the FERPA office in D.C. re: whether a visit to a classroom can present a FERPA problem. I have their ruling -- which is that it is not a FERPA violation since it does not involve a disclosure of information from a student's education records. If you run into a school district that is making FERPA a bar to a parent's visit let me know and I'll forward a copy to you. Can't figure out any theory for it being a HIPAA violation.

Hope that helps,
Janet

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Permalink Reply by Paula Lackore Rule on July 16, 2010 at 2:30pm

The HIPAA excuse was pretty obscure and made absolutely no sense. It involved a claim that somehow visitors would be privy to health information simply by visiting the classroom. As far as I know, it only happened in one district, and has not occurred recently. I would love to see the ruling from the FERPA office in D.C. Parents still run into this one quite a bit, in my experience.

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Rittenhouse on March 8, 2012 at 1:14am

Janet,

I am a parent and a long-time PTO volunteer in the Hempfield School District in Lancaster county, and our elementary school PTO is having some serious issues with the District administration and School Board attempting to severely limit parental involvement. All parents are banned from classroom observation or from simply taking a forgotten lunchbox or musical instrument to their child's classroom. Another instance occurred when a friend asked to observe a kindergarten classroom in an attempt to decide between public and private school for her daughter; her request was denied. Ultimately, she choose private school, partly because of the way she was treated for simply asking to observe. Currently, the School Board is considering revisions to their Policy 907 on School Visitors which would limit visits to once per quarter, "unless requested by district personnel for an educational purpose."

I would be happy to share further examples with you on the phone. I would also like some advice about the legality of restricting parent participation to such an extent.