Parents are welcome in the classrooms. Families and caregivers are recognized as a vital component of the learning process. Their support and nurturing of the classroom and school community is necessary and honored. There will not be Parent Helping for the first 6 weeks to give the students time to adjust and "own" their environment. There are classroom participation sign-up calendars posted by each classroom. Every family has different goals, abilities, and concerns about being in his/her child's classroom. Please take the time to communicate these concerns to your child's teacher to help you have the best experience in the classroom.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
Please arrange for your child to arrive on time and not earlier than five minutes before the start of class. Bring your child into the building and verbally as well as with eye contact and clear acceptance, greet the teacher or classroom support person. If you are arriving or leaving school during Before and After School Care, be sure to sign in and out in the attendance book. Your child will be prepared to leave school at the class ending time. It is not a pleasant feeling to be consistently the last person to leave because your ride is late.
When your child will be arriving later or leaving earlier than regular class time, or leaving with someone other than a parent, the teacher must be informed in writing in advance and the person must be written on the health and emergency form. Any persons unfamiliar to the teachers need to show picture identification.
STUDENT DROP OFF AND PARKING
Please, whenever possible, carpool, take public transportation, walk or bike to school.
Travel east on salmon when dropping off or picking up.
Always escort children into the school buildings and connect with the teacher verbally and with eye contact.
Patience and consideration are always going to be factors at
pick up and drop off times.
SNACK DAYS (for classes that have snack)
A sign-up sheet will be posted for each family to sign up to provide snack and juice or milk one day per month. (Every classroom handles this a bit differently. Please check with your classroom teacher.) The school provides cups, napkins, & water. Your child will pass out the snack, decide how many for each student and experience social responsibility during this time. This experience facilitates many skills and is a strategy builder. Snack day can also be a day families set aside to attend school with their child. Families may come for all or part of the morning or just send a snack with their child. Families are always welcome in the classroom. (Please follow sign-up calendar.) This is a special with your child that they look forward to. For safety reasons we cannon accommodate siblings.
Lunch is provided by each family. Lunch boxes and sacks need to be clearly labeled with your child's name. Since everyone in the classroom experiences lunch together, it helps to have all of the food groups consistently represented in each lunch. We ask the children not to share food. We ask the students to eat their protein first before any sweets. We promote healthy eating habits. Please reserve sweets and pop for home.
BIRTHDAYS AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS
Each classroom celebrates with their own routines/traditions. We want to honor family traditions as well but request no cupcakes. Please talk with your child's teachers/check newsletters for some fun alternatives.
Please send Birthday party invitations through the mail rather then putting them in cubbies or communication files.
MEDICATION
All medication including aspirin, cough syrup, etc. may be given to a child only under the following conditions: the child is well enough to be at school and participate fully in the schedule; the parent has filled out the Procedures for Administering Medication Form; the medication is in the original container, labeled with the child's name and handed directly to the teacher to be placed in a locked cabinet. We cannot dispense medication that needs to be refrigerated because we do not have a locked refrigerator.
ILLNESS
If a child is sick or is too tire to participate in class activities, we will contact the family and ask that the child be taken home. For this reason families have to have a contingency plan for early pick up.
In the case of an emergency (ex. fire, earthquake, etc.), children will be escorted out of the building to a designated meeting place. The emergency meeting is posted on the main bulletin board. Please make note of it. Teachers will carry with them the children's health and emergency forms and will use the contact information on these to call families for early pick up.
Families of designated alternatives need to always be available by phone in case of illness or emergency. PLEASE KEEP PHONE NUMBERS AND CONTACT PERSONS CURRENT ON YOUR CHILD'S HEALTH AND EMERGENCY FORM BY NOTIFYING THE OFFICE, THE TEACHER, AND BAC OF ANY CHANGES.
When inclement weather is expected on the morning of a school day, every attempt will be made to decide about school closures and schedule changes the evening before. For an unexpected or a less definite weather situation, every attempt is made to make a decision as early as possible. Our goal is to make the most appropriate decision for our students and staff based on all information.
We will collect weather-related data from a range of reliable sources and will confer with a variety of staff that lives in various locations around the school. We will then post on our web page ( www.childswork.org ), on our answering machine (503-234-3611 ext 23), and all local TV, radio, news media will be notified (listen/look for Childswork when schools are mentioned on TV, radio or listed on their web pages) if there is a delay or a school closure. If you do not see any announcements posted then we will be open at our regular starting times.