Teacher absenteeism

dreamer

New Member
THis caught my eye and I just had some.....wandering thoughts.

I am NOT in Chicago, but it still gave me questions etc.

I know my oldest child, when her problems became their worst in elem school, her teacher was absent a LOT.....at least one day every other week. BUT for my dtr that seemed to be a GOOD thing.....that teacher according to my husband who was a um class parent and our scout leader who was also a class parent said that teacher was very short tempered, used swear words AT the kids, and cried often in class and yelled daily. She DID retire at the end of that school year. Sadly she returned as a sub in my sons class 2 years later. My sons teacher at that time had some very sick parents she was trying to juggle the care of with her own parenting of her own young children and her job.....
SADLY, my sons IEP called for some accomodations that subs were not aware of and did not follow thru with. At one time he had subs every day for 3 months. He also had a sub at least one day a week for the whole school year. Sometimes it was a long term sub, sometimes not. Some of his accomodations were to help my son develop long term goals....but with the inconsisitancey of teachers and follow thru- of course the outcome was not happening.

I am human and I do understand....people get sick, people have lives, but my concerns were that how could we work with my kids if they had such inconsistantly?
AND if part of the absenteeism is related to poor conditions in a school or classroom, so bad that the teacher has difficulty getting to class, how does it hit the kids in the school or classroom?

By the time my oldest began HS - even the teacher in the ed bd class would stand in front of her class of 8 and cry. Or yell, or take out a cell and talk to her friends on it due to her being overwhelmed.
THat teacher did not call in sick, but, a couple times when she called me or emailed me, LOL, I suggested maybe she SHOULD call in the next day- at times when she would be sobbing in my ear, telling me she simply did not know what to do with the class.

I did not post this to get advice, really. ANd I did not post this to criticize any teachers - I mostly posted just as ....wandering thoughts. I am not sure what the answers are to any of it. I guess I am thinking out loud here while I am sitting here getting my kids off to their classes this morning with their different start times.
I certainly DO understand people being absent at work, and I do understand subs do not know who has what in an IEP,
I know when I worked in the nursing home, my patients - LOL_ some of them would say oh please do not have tomorrow off. LOL. (nevermind I was working 6 days a week, already, they did not want to have someone else care for them on my day off, LOL)


SO many little ins and outs that affect how well a school career can go for a child.
 

Sheila

Moderator
Teacher absenteeism does make a difference.

One year difficult child had a teacher start the year with a problem pregnancy. She was there about a week, then a sub came in for about one month. The original teacher decided not to return after the baby was born, so a permanent replacement came in. Another year, one of difficult child's teacher's was out about 6 weeks because her husband died. Last year one of difficult child's favorite teachers left in January because of health reasons.

There have been a lot of incidental absenses almost every year except 1st grade.

It's probably difficult to stay healthy with kids bringing in so many illnesses.

My son has always required a lot of consistency. I can usually tell when there's a sub because I get a call from school about difficult child's behavior. This year is no exception. :tongue:
 
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