RSS | Education | NewsSpoiler.com

Play Hooky Parents, Pay Dearly

Matthew — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:44:04 GMT

Austin, Texas - Playing hooky from a parent-teacher conference? You`d better have a good excuse.

A Houston area legislator wants to subject parents or guardians of children to criminal charges for skipping a scheduled meeting with their child`s teacher.

Rep. Wayne Smith, R-Baytown, said it is time for the state to crack down on Texans who are shirking their parental responsibilities by failing to meet with the teacher when their child is having academic or disciplinary problems.

"I don`t know if it`s been getting worse, but it`s a problem right now," Mr. Smith said. "It`s certainly worse than when I had kids in school."

Under the bill, parents or guardians of children who miss a scheduled conference with a teacher could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor and fined up to $500. Parents or guardians of children could avoid prosecution if they have a "reasonable excuse" for failing to show up. State education officials or school districts would probably be left to define what`s reasonable but, for example, a medical emergency would probably suffice.

Mr. Smith said his goal is not to punish parents or guardians of children but to get them to show up for meetings so they can communicate face to face about their child.

"The concept is to get parents or guardians of children into the classroom," he said. "If the child has education or learning problems, or disciplinary problems, the parents or guardians of children need to know about it. They need to discuss it with the teacher because the child`s future is at stake."

Plenty of hurdles remain before the bill becomes law. The House`s leader on education policy, Rep. Rob Eissler, said he has concerns about specifics of how it would be enforced. But some parents or guardians of children and education groups say the overarching goal - more parental involvement - is a good one.

Donna Holden, who has three sons in the Plano school district, likes the idea.

"Parents or guardians of children need to be in touch with what is going on in school, and they should be held accountable," Ms. Holden said. "If a child is acting up in school in a way that is inappropriate, and the parents or guardians of children refuse to come in for a scheduled meeting, they should be held in contempt, or something like that.

"Not showing up is a bad example for their child."

Ms. Holden suggested that such incidents be handled the same way as truancy cases.

Other parents or guardians of children have reservations.

"It sounds pretty harsh to me," said Heather Ashwell-Hair, president of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Council of PTAs, even though data in her school district shows a "surprisingly high number" of parents or guardians of children who fail to attend scheduled conferences.

"Too often, parents or guardians of children want to put the responsibility for raising their kids onto the schools, and I understand the concerns of those who support this legislation," she said. "We have to make our parents or guardians of children more accountable, but I don`t think this is the way to go. Instead, we need to work on educating our parents or guardians of children about the importance of these meetings."

Leaders of teacher groups agreed something needs to be done, but they also questioned whether charging parents or guardians of children with a crime is the best solution.

"We certainly appreciate the intent of the bill, which is to increase parental involvement in their child`s education. But we`re not sure by making this a crime their behavior is the way to achieve that," said Larry Comer of the Association of Texas Professional Educators.

"Unfortunately, teachers often don`t hear from some parents or guardians of children until the end of the school year, and that`s after they have learned their child won`t pass or won`t be allowed to graduate," he said.

Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association said it is "a sad state of affairs when we have to start fining parents or guardians of children to get them to come to school and talk about their children. But apparently it is reaching that point."

Mr. Kouri said parent or guardian of children no-shows at teacher conferences have become a serious problem in many schools.

The likelihood of a child being successful in school is diminished when there is no communication between the parents or guardians of children and teacher, he said.

The bill, which is expected to be considered in the House Public Education Committee that Mr. Eissler leads, specifies that the parent or guardian of children has to receive written notice by certified mail, listing at least three proposed dates for the parent-teacher conference. A parent or guardian of children who ignores the notice or schedules a meeting but fails to attend would face charges - unless there was a valid reason for not showing up.

The measure also states that fines paid by parents or guardians of children would be used to either provide additional compensation for teachers in the district or to purchase school supplies other than textbooks.

Mr. Eissler, R-The Woodlands, called the proposal an "interesting concept," although "it sounds like it might be a little too much work for both sides."

"You have to define what is an official request [to the parent], how many requests have to be made and what happens when parents or guardians of children who don`t show up say they told the school they couldn`t make it."

Mr. Eissler said, however, that he "would like to see parents or guardians of children more involved in school with their kids."

Asked about reaction to his proposal, Mr. Smith said teachers have been generally supportive, while school districts have been more cautious - mainly because districts are not sure how they would administer the law.

"That`s one of things we`re still working on," he said, adding he also plans to address other criticisms of the measure.

Ms. Holden said her sons` Plano schools work with parents or guardians of children in scheduling parent-teacher conferences. "They`re pretty flexible, and in some cases, you can do it over the phone," she said.

But she added that there should be allowances for parents or guardians of children who work because some companies are not lenient when it comes to letting employees off in the middle of the day to attend a parent-teacher conference.

Call it the Whiz Quiz.

Matthew — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:15:50 GMT

A random alcohol test Pequannock school officials are considering will be able to tell if students were drinking alcohol up to eighty hours earlier.

Have a drink of alcohol on Friday night, and the school officials say it will show up in a urine screening (Whiz Quiz) Monday.

"If you're drinking alcohol anytime in the last eighty hours, this test is going to get it," Pequannock Superintendent Larrie Reynolds said. "We would know, and the child`s parents would know."

The school board will vote on the test at its next meeting in February. If approved, Pequannock will be one of a few New Jersey school districts allowing the conduction of such screening.

Middletown has been using the eighty-hour test sence last spring for students suspected of using drugs and drinking alcohol. This month, the Monmouth County district expanded it to include a random pool of about eighteen hundred students.

Last week, the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School district changed its drug-testing policy to include using an alcohol-screening device, such as a Breathalyzer, at school-sponsored events. Like the eighty-hour test, the goal is to discourage students from drinking alcohol, not catch them, district Superintendent Charles Shaddow said.

Unlike Breathalyzers, which measure the alcohol level of air in the lungs and evaluate more recent use of alcohol, the test Pequannock is considering screens for ethyl glucuronide, or EtG. The substance is produced by the body after it metabolizes alcohol.

The test has been used primarily for professionals who are recovering alcoholics and must submit to monitoring to keep their jobs, said Gregory Skipper, an Alabama physician who helped develop it.

But EtG screening has been criticized as being too sensitive because using mouthwash or a hand sanitizer containing alcohol may give a positive result.

Last fall, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration issued an advisory on the test, saying more studies were needed to find a way to distinguish between drinking alcohol and using consumer products that contain alcohol.

Skipper, medical director of the Alabama Physician Health Program, said the test could work well in high schools, but districts need to have screeners who understand how it works.

"It`s more prone to false positives," Skipper said. "There`s a risk if the school doesn't have a system in place to deal with these borderline cases."

Pequannock officials said they're aware the test can be sensitive and would adjust it to avoid positive results for innocuous items.

Students would not be punished or lose school privileges if they test positive, Reynolds said. Instead, they would receive counseling, and their parents would be notified.

That`s what Middletown does, too, said district Superintendent Karen Bilbao.

Middletown randomly tests about 180 students each school year, and the EtG test costs about twenty dollars per sample plus the cost of the test conductor -- more than twice other drug screenings. Bilbao said the extra expense is worth it.

"If the student is getting involved (with drugs or drinking alcohol), we want to be able to provide early intervention," Bilbao said. "We wanted to give them a really strong deterrent tool."

In 2005, Pequannock became the first district in Morris County to conduct random drug and alcohol testing and the first in the state to let middle school students volunteer to be tested.

The district randomly screens high school students who play sports, participate in after-school programs or drive to school. If the test comes back positive, they lose those privileges.

Last year, Pequannock began looking for another way to determine if students had been drinking alcohol, after parents and teachers said in a survey more needed to be done to address teens and alcohol.

The current saliva swab test the district uses only detects alcohol that has been consumed in the last several hours. The district wanted to give its students a reason to say no to drinking alcohol on the weekends and other times after school, Pequannock officials said.

"That makes a significant difference in how students view this," said William Trusheim, principal of Pequannock Valley Middle School. "If they believe the test is rigorous, they really need to take heed."

Last year, 202 students were monitored, and two came up positive for drug use, Trusheim said. There have been no positive results for alcohol.

Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said the random testing does not work as a deterrent and invades the privacy of students and their families.

"Medical care and treatment are issues between parents and children," said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey. "Random drug testing is a poor substitute for substantive programs that are proven effective in deterring drug and alcohol use."

The ACLU points to studies that show involving students in extracurricular programs as the best way to prevent drug and alcohol use.

Parent Bobbi Jo Murphy, who has a child who will attend the high school next year, said she welcomes the test.

"You want to give kids something that lets them say, 'I can't take a sip of beer, because I don't know what will happen on Monday,'" Murphy said. "It gives them a way out, so they don't lose face with their peers."

But high school senior Nick Laprezioso doubts the new program will work.

"Do you really think that`s going to stop us from going to a party?" Laprezioso said. "I think they should focus more on the drug problem than on alcohol."

RE: Book Costs

amy — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:20:36 GMT

Yes, I agree books are way too high. I understand why some people don't go to college. Without some kind of fin. aid, the average Joe could not afford it. It is really ironic, you have to make college degree wages to afford books and tuition before you even start school. (Talk about putting the cart before the horse!)

Book Costs

Matthew — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:03:36 GMT

Book costs for college are really high. I went to the book store with someone to get their books for their classes that they are doing on the Internet. Two books cost nearly two hundred and fifty dollars. The two books look as though they should have only cost forty dollars for both of them. Looks as though the college is taking advantage of the government while they charge so much for one book. I mean this is unbelievable, they are robbing the government and people that are paying for college with out any financial aid.