Trying to support the teacher

[Flournahfam]

My child has not been completing his assignments so his teacher emails me to let me know. I offer to support her at home by enforcing consequences at home such as eliminating video games or TV for every day he doesn't finish his work and rewarding him with these same privileges when he does his work. I created a laminated behavior chart where she could initial by the day of the week and he would be responsible for taking it to her. Her response: "I do have 20 other students and I can't promise I will get to it". On a side note, I'm a middle school teacher of 128 students and have placed students on the same behavior chart. I'm trying to support the teacher but I keep getting pushback. How else can I support her in the least invasive way?

[Matt_2011]

I had the same thing last year with my 5 year old . A week ago he just stared kinder and km waiting to see if he improves or has the same difficulties of last year. Does your child is under IEP? Have u talk to people from the school district? Or maybe try to get together with principal , teacher and staff from school ? Try to have in writing a doctors evaluation and one from your self in how he is being affected and send it to Ca department of education or to the IDEA .

[Flournahfam in reply to Matt_2011]

Hello! He has a 504 plan but she keeps changing her story every time I say like did you provide simplified directions? She's like yes I broke it down for him in 3 steps even though she initially said the directions were to do an assignment that involved 3 steps and he just stared at the screen for an hour and wrote about 6 sentences instead of 3 paragraphs. When I asked him about it, he said it was 3 paragraphs because it was 2 sentences in each. That tells me he doesn't know what one paragraph consists of but he's being penalized for it instead of being taught. You're right it is time to have a meeting with his teacher face to face instead of emailing back and forth. Thank you!

[TracyandMarc]

Having a face to face meeting with the teacher like Matt_2011 suggested is a really good way to show the teacher that you really are there to support her and help in any way you can from home. Email is a great tool but it is really hard to get your feelings across sometimes. If the problem continues you might want to consider a sit down with the principal, schools counselor and teacher, this can help others understand that maybe your child's teacher needs a little help. They might be able to help her make a separate set of instructions for the assignments and then she might not feel so overwhelmed in having to do it all herself.

I have had to go as far as going to the superintendent due to issues with my daughter's teacher and principal, by law the school has to do everything they can to support and accommodate anyone with a 504 plan, these plans if written correctly are part of your civil rights and if they are not followed it's considered discriminatory.

I hope everything works out with the face to face and you don't have to go through what I did.