Northern Fairfax General :
Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
FCPS request for doctor's notes
Posted by:
lisah
()
Date: February 27, 2016 07:55PM
I have two children at Woodson High School. The new principal, Mr. Poole, is mandating after a certain number of excused absences, absences the parents have excused, the parents must provide a doctor’s note. This news was delivered in a form letter generated by attendance. Nothing else. There was no conversation, and Mr. Poole refuses to reverse the decision. He insisted that he had to, that it is out of his control. In FCPS policy 2232.3, it states, “The principal or his designee determine whether or not absences will be excused and may require a physician’s note in cases of chronic or long-term illness.” This is neither a case of chronic illness or long-term illness.
He MAY request a doctor’s note, but he doesn’t have to. He has dug in his feet. He knows what is best for my kids.
We need to foster a mutual respect between the students and the administration. Don’t waste your teachers time, don’t make extra work for your teacher, and don’t be late to class, it’s rude. In return, the administration should respect the students. They are thinking feeling human beings. Don’t use some random number of missed days as an excuse to make them sit in class, whether they are passing or failing. The only issue this addresses is your attendance rates. These children should not be used for your head count.
Everyone in the system is stressed out. The administration has pressure to show performance with numbers. The stress if passed down to the teachers, and in turn the students. Everyone feels powerless. The only difference is the students really are powerless, especially if you try to make the parent powerless. We need our parents to help us make decisions. If the child thinks they can’t make it to school, we can talk to them, and together decide what is best for them. This is how we teach them to be autonomous, build self-confidence and be successful. The rest of us can just quit. No one makes us do anything.
In all reality, it really doesn’t matter what he wants. I will not be providing doctor’s notes for absences, and every time my children miss a class he will basically tell them that I have no authority and the absence is unexcused. He will try to scare them into submission. He will try to make my kids believe that we have no rights. He is large and in charge.\
After five unexcused absences, we will have a meeting. We will just keep meeting with subsequent unexcused absences, until the school year ends. He has no authority to fail a child for attendance. Hopefully I can keep my kids from stressing out over these meetings. They don’t like to break rules, but I don’t want them to grow up and not question why they are asked to do something. That would mean they are idiots.
Has he learned nothing from the suicides at Woodson HS?
When people feel powerless they either get mad, and fight, or they give up, and stop caring. They don’t respect their oppressors. They hate them.
He MAY request a doctor’s note, but he doesn’t have to. He has dug in his feet. He knows what is best for my kids.
We need to foster a mutual respect between the students and the administration. Don’t waste your teachers time, don’t make extra work for your teacher, and don’t be late to class, it’s rude. In return, the administration should respect the students. They are thinking feeling human beings. Don’t use some random number of missed days as an excuse to make them sit in class, whether they are passing or failing. The only issue this addresses is your attendance rates. These children should not be used for your head count.
Everyone in the system is stressed out. The administration has pressure to show performance with numbers. The stress if passed down to the teachers, and in turn the students. Everyone feels powerless. The only difference is the students really are powerless, especially if you try to make the parent powerless. We need our parents to help us make decisions. If the child thinks they can’t make it to school, we can talk to them, and together decide what is best for them. This is how we teach them to be autonomous, build self-confidence and be successful. The rest of us can just quit. No one makes us do anything.
In all reality, it really doesn’t matter what he wants. I will not be providing doctor’s notes for absences, and every time my children miss a class he will basically tell them that I have no authority and the absence is unexcused. He will try to scare them into submission. He will try to make my kids believe that we have no rights. He is large and in charge.\
After five unexcused absences, we will have a meeting. We will just keep meeting with subsequent unexcused absences, until the school year ends. He has no authority to fail a child for attendance. Hopefully I can keep my kids from stressing out over these meetings. They don’t like to break rules, but I don’t want them to grow up and not question why they are asked to do something. That would mean they are idiots.
Has he learned nothing from the suicides at Woodson HS?
When people feel powerless they either get mad, and fight, or they give up, and stop caring. They don’t respect their oppressors. They hate them.
Re: FCPS request for doctor's notes
Posted by:
lisah
()
Date: February 29, 2016 08:14PM
The tyranny of doctor’s notes
Russell Saunders / April 3, 2012
This post is both an observation and a related query. I want to know if what I’m seeing is particular to my area, or if it’s happening all over the place.
As one might imagine, I see patients for all manner of medical complaint. Some of them are complicated and severe, and some are minor and self-limiting. Because common things are common (a medical truism, of which we are reminded in our training when we go off investigating bizarre and rare diagnoses), I see many more patients for the latter kind of problem than the former. Strictly speaking, a lot of people come in to see me for things that probably could have been monitored at home without medical attention. Mind you, I am not complaining about that fact, as these sorts of “bread and butter” visits are what keep a medical office’s doors open.
A large factor in parents’ decisions to bring their kids in for a visit is their own caution or anxiety. Educating parents about major vs. minor symptoms, what can be treated at home vs. what needs to be seen, etc is an important part of my job, as is allaying anxiety to whatever extent possible. Taking care of parents is as much (or more) a part of my job as taking care of the kids, which I think almost any honest pediatrician would say. If I didn’t like dealing with worried parents, I shouldn’t have entered the field.
That said, I have had a truly stupefying number of appointments that the parents themselves view as totally unnecessary. They don’t think their kid needs to be seen, and they know I don’t think so either. They’re missing work they don’t think they need to miss, and are languishing in my office for reasons they consider ridiculous.
Why are they there? Because their kid’s school demands a doctor’s note. Any absence attributed to illness must be verified by me, with a note documenting same. Otherwise it is unexcused, for which the student is penalized. It matters not if the illness is as minor as a cold, or if the student has an otherwise spotless attendance record. It makes no difference if the child was sent home by the school nurse (in which case a note stipulating that the child is well enough to return is required) or kept home at the parent’s discretion. Every absence requires a note, which requires a visit.
This is, of course, totally idiotic. I am providing a service when I see ill children, even if the illness is mild and the service is really for the worried parents. Those visits have value, even if they’re not “necessary.” A visit for the sole purpose of verifying the parent’s claim of sickness is a complete policy fail. It robs parents of their authority and subjugates them to the dictates of the educational bureaucracy. It contributes needlessly to medical costs and wastes everyone’s time. (Were I in cahoots with the local school nurses, I could not design a better kick-back scheme if I tried.)
When did this happen? I seem to recall that my mother’s say-so was enough to keep me home from school for a few days. I think a doctor’s note was required for lengthier absences, but for a day or so all that was necessary was for her to tell the school I was sick. When did this change?
An addition wrinkle to my observation is that it is not consistent with all parents/patients. My office is situated in an area with great socioeconomic diversity. Many of my patients attend the local exclusive and famous (you’ve heard of it) private school or the affluent public school nearby. Many of my other patients live in the much poorer surrounding areas, and attend the much less well-off schools. Whenever I offer a note to the wealthier parents, they wave it away. Apparently their word is still good. It is students who attend the less cushy schools who need the notes from me, and it is their parents whose authority has been usurped. If my observation is a true reflection of reality, then it reflects something disgraceful.
So, here comes the query — is this true where you live? If you have kids, can you keep them out of school for a day or two due to illness without needing to schlep them to the doctor? Or must you also procure a perfectly useless note from a medical provider? If so, how do you feel about this policy?
April 3, 2012 in healthcare policy.
Russell Saunders / April 3, 2012
This post is both an observation and a related query. I want to know if what I’m seeing is particular to my area, or if it’s happening all over the place.
As one might imagine, I see patients for all manner of medical complaint. Some of them are complicated and severe, and some are minor and self-limiting. Because common things are common (a medical truism, of which we are reminded in our training when we go off investigating bizarre and rare diagnoses), I see many more patients for the latter kind of problem than the former. Strictly speaking, a lot of people come in to see me for things that probably could have been monitored at home without medical attention. Mind you, I am not complaining about that fact, as these sorts of “bread and butter” visits are what keep a medical office’s doors open.
A large factor in parents’ decisions to bring their kids in for a visit is their own caution or anxiety. Educating parents about major vs. minor symptoms, what can be treated at home vs. what needs to be seen, etc is an important part of my job, as is allaying anxiety to whatever extent possible. Taking care of parents is as much (or more) a part of my job as taking care of the kids, which I think almost any honest pediatrician would say. If I didn’t like dealing with worried parents, I shouldn’t have entered the field.
That said, I have had a truly stupefying number of appointments that the parents themselves view as totally unnecessary. They don’t think their kid needs to be seen, and they know I don’t think so either. They’re missing work they don’t think they need to miss, and are languishing in my office for reasons they consider ridiculous.
Why are they there? Because their kid’s school demands a doctor’s note. Any absence attributed to illness must be verified by me, with a note documenting same. Otherwise it is unexcused, for which the student is penalized. It matters not if the illness is as minor as a cold, or if the student has an otherwise spotless attendance record. It makes no difference if the child was sent home by the school nurse (in which case a note stipulating that the child is well enough to return is required) or kept home at the parent’s discretion. Every absence requires a note, which requires a visit.
This is, of course, totally idiotic. I am providing a service when I see ill children, even if the illness is mild and the service is really for the worried parents. Those visits have value, even if they’re not “necessary.” A visit for the sole purpose of verifying the parent’s claim of sickness is a complete policy fail. It robs parents of their authority and subjugates them to the dictates of the educational bureaucracy. It contributes needlessly to medical costs and wastes everyone’s time. (Were I in cahoots with the local school nurses, I could not design a better kick-back scheme if I tried.)
When did this happen? I seem to recall that my mother’s say-so was enough to keep me home from school for a few days. I think a doctor’s note was required for lengthier absences, but for a day or so all that was necessary was for her to tell the school I was sick. When did this change?
An addition wrinkle to my observation is that it is not consistent with all parents/patients. My office is situated in an area with great socioeconomic diversity. Many of my patients attend the local exclusive and famous (you’ve heard of it) private school or the affluent public school nearby. Many of my other patients live in the much poorer surrounding areas, and attend the much less well-off schools. Whenever I offer a note to the wealthier parents, they wave it away. Apparently their word is still good. It is students who attend the less cushy schools who need the notes from me, and it is their parents whose authority has been usurped. If my observation is a true reflection of reality, then it reflects something disgraceful.
So, here comes the query — is this true where you live? If you have kids, can you keep them out of school for a day or two due to illness without needing to schlep them to the doctor? Or must you also procure a perfectly useless note from a medical provider? If so, how do you feel about this policy?
April 3, 2012 in healthcare policy.