Conference days

In this district, a couple of times a year, students are dismissed early and we use the afternoon (or evening) for parent conferences. For my students, we are already mandated to meet every year to review progress and update IEPs. Consequently, conference day is usually a pretty boring one for me. Parents of my kids just don't usually bother to come in, even when specifically asked to meet, so I wander around without much to do.

On our last conference day, I had just 4 parents coming in. It wasn't bad, just a headache making sure everything went ok. Starting with the parent who returned the form requesting a conference with me, signed, but minus her child's name. I made the extra effort to figure out who this was, which involved going to the office and looking up permanent records (the name she signed is not the name we have in the computer system, thereby requiring a visit to the records). She also did not make a preference as to time, and the form only reached me on the day before conferences. So, I picked a time for her and sent home an appointment slip. The afternoon of the conferences, guess who showed up 20 minutes late, having forgotten to arrange to leave work early?

For the same conference day, another parent texted the homeroom teacher after hours Wednesday (conferences were Friday), wanting a conference. It was set up, and I decided I would join them, as case manager for his child. I also sent home the invitation for the child's IEP meeting, as I had promised on the phone a few days before. When the day came, guess who didn't show up and didn't bother to let anyone know? By the way, he also emailed the other day to say he won't be attending the IEP meeting either. Nice to know my time listening to his complaints over the phone was wasted.

When I make an appointment with a professional service provider and then don't show up, they charge me for the time. We need to start doing the same. When we set up an appointment with you, that means someone else can't have that opportunity and gets upset. Then you don't show up, and we could have met with someone else.

A little courtesy and consideration for others is all that's needed.