Needing to enroll your kids in PS BEFORE you can tour the classrooms?

[Crazyderiver]

Is this the norm? We recently moved to a new area and everyone here raves about the school district we are in...the test scores, the teachers, blah, blah blah. Wanting to make an informed decision about next year, I called to request a tour of the school and to meet the teachers. I was told I would have to enroll my children first. The principal offered to answer my questions over the phone, but told me I would need to enroll my kids before he would set up a face-to-face meeting and tour. Security reasons I'm sure, but I'm a registered homeschooler in this state. I'm kinda :confused1: and :huh: and maybe just a little :glare: .

[PentecostalMom]

One thought: I would be a little more aggressive and explain that you are new to the area and a registered hser. That you have heard "absolutely wonderful" things about this district and schools and would love to be able to "definitely consider" this as an option for the next school year. Butter him up a bit, kwim?

 

Another thought: Call the local school board and explain to them the same thing and that you would loooovvee to consider their schools/district for your hsing dc, but is it at all possible to tour the school/meet the teachers for your dc before you make such a monumental decision?

 

I am sure someone will cooperate. If not, then it would be a no go for me off the bat.

[Spy Car]

Not the norm here. The best situation is that prospective parents take regularly scheduled tours during the year, as tours can be mildly disrupting to classrooms. But when prospective parents have missed the regular tours at our elementary school volunteer parents (my wife is one) do try to conduct private tours.

 

No school has unlimited resources, but "no enrollment, no tour," is absurd.

 

Bill

[Spy Car]

That is how it is here. I'm not surprised. And anyhow, what is the point. One doesn't have a choice over which public school they can go to.

 

 

Not here. There are an increasing number of school choices available to public school parents with magnets, charters, various "academies," and ISPs, and other programs. There is also "open enrollment," and lotteries, and accomidation of work/day-care situations that give flexability in enrollment in schools here.

 

I have personally toured quite a few schools in our area.

 

Bill

[regentrude]

I have never heard of anybody touring the school before enrolling her child.

Here, where you live decides which public elementary you have to enroll in (there is only one middle, jr high, and high anyway.)

You see the classroom at open house when the child is enrolled and assigned a teacher.

So, I don't find this strange.

[Arcadia]

This is for California

"51101. (1) Within a reasonable period of time following making the request, to observe the classroom or classrooms in which their child is enrolled or for the purpose of selecting the school in which their child will be enrolled in accordance with the requirements of any intradistrict or interdistrict pupil attendance policies or programs."

We don't need to be have kids enrolled to tour our assigned school or lottery schools in our district. There are scheduled dates for tours and open houses for each school and if we miss those, the school would just see when they can accomodate.

[Acorn]

I just registered my youngest for K, and registration is no longer actually held at the school. I would rather my child and I be welcomed into the building instead of being treated like criminal suspects, but I think the school is doing what they can to meet safety guidelines.

[freesia]

I find it strange. I taught in a ps and we had regular open house type days where prospective parents could visit. I think part of it was that it was a neighborhood where private school was a consideration for many.

[Spy Car]

I've toured 6 elementary schools, and (so far) 2 Middle Schools (and both those Middle Schools twice). My child is in Third Grade, so more Middle School tours will be in our future.

 

Bill

[mytwomonkeys]

i actually just called the middle school today & spoke with the guidance counselor. she invited us to come this summer and take a tour with her & go over questions. she was really great! my daughter is seriously considering sixth grade next year & we've never used public school before, so i am looking forward to a face-to-face meeting.

[mathnerd]

Where I live, in all the lottery/charter/special education public schools, there are tours in dec/jan and the seats get filled by march.

But for the other local public schools (regular schools), where you live decides where your kids go to school. We need to enroll the kids in the winter/spring to get into our local school (later would mean your child might get bused to a less desirable school in the system) and then in May there is one meeting in the school Assembly Hall where they show videos of the classrooms (no live tour because it is disruptive) and they park the teachers in front of parents for Q & A and to ask for donations. This is one of the top rated school districts in this area (going by academic scores) and this is how they operate. So, your situation is quite common and I am impressed that the principal agreed to talk to you about the school instead of just handing you a flier (which is how things happen around here).

[jennynd]

Not here... When we tried to make the decision last year and called the principal. The principal asked us to come ove to have a tour. It was after the school day though so no kids around. But the teachers were there to answer questions. Same as my daughter now is deciding if e want her skip kindergarten. The psycologist suggested we arrange a tour and talk to the 1st grade teacher.

[jennynd]

Nm

[jennynd]

Nm

[Erin]

One doesn't have a choice over which public school they can go to.

This might be the difference right here.

 

In my area, schools are very competitive because districts are open, even across state lines. I'm right in the corner of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado and know kids who are rural neighbors to each other with some going to CO, some to KS and some to NE. It's very common.

Consequently, schools do everything they can to entice you into their district.

My daughter that's still in PS is enrolled in a district in a state we don't live in. They're very cooperative with us homeschooling (hoping to not only get DS back in a few years, but not lose DD at all), to the point that they've even offered to loan out materials, have music lessons, etc.

[jennynd]

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This might be the difference right here.

 

In my area, schools are very competitive because districts are open, even across state lines. I'm right in the corner of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado and know kids who are rural neighbors to each other with some going to CO, some to KS and some to NE. It's very common.

Consequently, schools do everything they can to entice you into their district.

My daughter that's still in PS is enrolled in a district in a state we don't live in. They're very cooperative with us homeschooling (hoping to not only get DS back in a few years, but not lose DD at all), to the point that they've even offered to loan out materials, have music lessons, etc.

 

 

Then where does your property tax goes? Here in NY, there s school tax in property tax, so it will be not be allowed to cross the district since you did not pay their tax

[Ecclecticmum]

Gosh.....nope, I'm speechless :huh:

 

We're in Aus (so totally different here, or my experience at least). I toured & interviewed at various private & public schools before deciding the school I thought Atlas would be happiest at (which was a public school). Times for tours were usually set-up outside of school hours (late afternoon). It allowed us to see the classrooms and speak to the teacher and/or principal without bothering the students (here, at least, there is always a couple of teachers hanging around after school lets out, either doing papers/collecting stuff, fixing up their classroom, and the principal usually goes later).

 

So, from my view if they said that to me, unless there was a good reason I wanted my children to go there, therefore I am willing to give the school a "second chance" and try to reason with someone, I would of just gone "prrrpppph :glare: to them".

 

Nothing is free, so even in a public school, your still going to be shelling out a lot of $$$ for anything from uniforms, to trips, school levies they seem to attach to everything, books, pencils, etc. I'm not going to enrol my kid (whose education is my responsibility whether I actually educate the myself or not) to a school I know nothing about. :glare:

 

The school we chose of Atlas was perfect, she even received a little personalized card from the teacher, and a "counting down to school" placement giving parents ideas of what to do to make sure their child is ready. Before that I had her at a lovely local preschool, where the main teacher was very sweet and helpful, especially when Atlas ended up being diagnosed with Type1 diabetes.

 

The reason to pull her from that school was two-fold. One, we moved and it would of been a big problem to get her to school (she would of hardly been home except to sleep), and the next was the laws I looked into regarding schools & diabetes. We had a mini-problem at the daycare where they checked her ketones instead of her blood, and found it 0.01 (which considering they thought it was her blood, would of meant she was dead or in a coma) and didn't call us.

 

The problem we found was they can watch over her diabetes, but the teachers obviously do not have time to micro-manage. At the age of 6, she would of been responsible for checking her levels, giving any extra injections and keeping an eye on thing. The teachers aren't allowed to touch her diabetes stuff, and if she went low and dropped, they can't do anything, if she went comatose, they would have to call an ambulance, then me. Only the paramedics or myself have the "authority", apparently, to give her glucogen. So had she dropped, they would of just been standing there watching her go comatose, whilst awaiting an ambulance, and you'd have to hope they noticed it happen right away. That was enough for me. I now have two kids with type1, and no way am I putting them in school (if they want to, I may think about it once they get more into their teens, but obviously they have to be really responsible teens, which doesn't happen. I've heard bad stories about Diabetics when they get to teen years, either forgetting or frosting their levels in the book) They're young, its hard enough to get them to understand or remind them they can't go out with barefeet due to the Dbts. I really can't see Atlas giving herself extra injections or calling me to explain a level mid-class.

 

So what i am saying, is my mind may be skewed due to having to keep an eye on medical problems, which makes me more paranoid, but (IMO) if they didn't want to just show me, in some way or form, their school (and I'm easy going, I'm happy to just walk around when class is letting out peekin' around for a few minutes before asking the teacher one or two questions. And I'm happy to (well, not happy, but I understand the security precautions in the US, so) to be checked to make sure I don't have some sort of weapon on me.) But I don't like to be told I cannot view something until I'm already a part of it.

 

Is there the option of just enrolling, then viewing, then pulling the enrolment? :laugh:

[Erin]

Then where does your property tax goes? Here in NY, there s school tax in property tax, so it will be not be allowed to cross the district since you did not pay their tax

 

My property taxes go to the state in which I live. Some districts charge a small tuition for non-residents, usually just enough to cover the cost of consumables. But more often than not, there's just some type of reciprocity agreement between neighboring districts.

[Erin]

That's an extremely rural area where warm bodies are a valuable commodity. ;)

[boscopup]

That is strange. I haven't tried a tour here, but I'm sure they would do one at my local elementary. We don't have school choice here (the teacher's union vehemently opposes any bill granting it, even saying "charter schools would take funding away from public schools!" - um... charter schools ARE public schools).

 

 

[AimeeM]

That is how it is here. I'm not surprised. And anyhow, what is the point. One doesn't have a choice over which public school they can go to.

 

I suppose it could be a security measure. Here you don't even go to a school to register. They do it at a local hospital. So you don't even get to enter the school until your kid is a student there.

 

We have several choice magnet and charters here that take (on a first come, first serve basis) student from other districts - they have tons of requests for tours I would imagine, lol.

[jennynd]

 

My property taxes go to the state in which I live. Some districts charge a small tuition for non-residents, usually just enough to cover the cost of consumables. But more often than not, there's just some type of reciprocity agreement between neighboring districts.

 

 

That is really a nice way to get the some healthy competition between schools.

[JFSinIL]

Since the shootings recently, I think some schools are being over-careful. If you enroll your kids, they KNOW you are a parent. Otherwise, they can't be sure you aren't some deranged maniac (although once they learn you homeschool...;-)

[TraceyS/FL]

The problem we found was they can watch over her diabetes, but the teachers obviously do not have time to micro-manage. At the age of 6, she would of been responsible for checking her levels, giving any extra injections and keeping an eye on thing. The teachers aren't allowed to touch her diabetes stuff, and if she went low and dropped, they can't do anything, if she went comatose, they would have to call an ambulance, then me. Only the paramedics or myself have the "authority", apparently, to give her glucogen.

Our elementary school has a nurse pretty much full time now. Insulin and testing materials are kept there, the student comes to the office for it. There is a district plan with the head nurse to sort it out. I don't know what teachers can do for emergencies - I don't have a diabetic child so I didn't ask!

 

I have no idea what happens at the middle school (6-8th grade here), they do not have a nurse, and didn't seem to care to discuss DDs epilepsy with me either....

 

I think I would also be HSing a young diabetic patient too, that is a lot to heap on them in addition to trying to learn.

[Crazyderiver]

 

 

That's what I'd do if I were really curious. The only down side to that is the costs associated with enrollment. Here you have to have to have a physical exam, dental exam, and eye exam. If you already do those and they have been paid for then no extra cost. If not, then yeah that might just be too expensive.

 

I hadn't thought of the fees. I joked with my dh about enrolling them just to see this super-secret school building. I did mention that I was a registered homeschooler and that we were new to the area. He (the principal) said his school was old and didn't have walls. It is an open concept school. I had never heard of that, and yet he still seemed shocked that I would want a tour. He let me know that if I didn't want to drive by, I could see pictures of the OUTSIDE of the school on their website. Me thinks we may be passing on this opprotunity no matter how curious we are now.

[Dmmetler]

FWIW, the reason my DD ended up attending a private school for K was because, after the local PS had decided that she qualified for early entry on a GT IEP, informed me that not only could I not talk to her teacher until fall, but that they couldn't even tell us what school she'd be assigned to.

[Ecclecticmum]

 

That's what I'd do if I were really curious. The only down side to that is the costs associated with enrollment. Here you have to have to have a physical exam, dental exam, and eye exam. If you already do those and they have been paid for then no extra cost. If not, then yeah that might just be too expensive.

 

 

So....what would happen if I was a peg-leg with missing teeth and a glass eye.....would I fail the student entrance? :huh:

 

Or are they checking for gas capsules hidden in teeth now? :confused1: How weird (then again, I know nothing about US schools, so perhaps there is a good reason for it).

 

Here, you either have to have the vacc certificate showing you got the 4yr vax, or a doctors certificate showing exemption from the vax, and have completed a "healthy check" exam (which is to make sure no abuse is happening in the household of any sort, and to catch LD's or problems early, like DS's speech delays etc) it consists of filling out a couple of questions related to the child (can your child speak? does he eat well?) and they glance at that, glance at the child, ask you "all good?" and thats the stamp of approval and end of that.

[boscopup]

I've never heard of health and dental exams being required. Strange! Here, you just have to turn in the vaccine form (or religious waver).

[Erin]

 

This is really awesome and how it should be.

You know, in thinking about it, it really is pretty awesome, though it does go back to population.

In Nebraska, for example (because that's the state I grew up in), the districts were opened in '91 maybe? I think it was my Junior year of high school, anyway. The prime reason was not so much to make schools competitive as it was to make things more convenient for rural students.

My husband grew up in a VERY large school district. Area-wise, that is, not population. Two thousand square miles and 1300 people. Not students mind you-- people.

 

He had gone to a 1 room country school for his elementary years (K-8) and then would have to go to the district high school, 50 miles away. Most people either boarded their kids in town with friends or family, or bought/rented a house for the school year and Mom and the kids would live in town during the week and go home to the ranch on the weekends.

Or, people would attend a closer school, in a different district. In their case, it was only 20 miles to the closer one. However, because the districts weren't open, they would have to pay a fairly substantial tuition. DH's family opted to send their kids to boarding school instead, as the tuition was actually a little cheaper!

 

But, once the districts opened, kids could attend a school that was closer, or a school in the town Mom or Dad worked in, or what have you.

Competition that improved schools was just a really nice bonus.

[SunnyDays]

That's strange. When trying to decide what to do about DS's kindergarten year, we toured four different public schools in three different districts, plus two private schools. All were delighted to have us visit. Open enrollment is not that common here, but not unheard of either.

 

 

[Lily_Grace]

I've never heard of health and dental exams being required. Strange! Here, you just have to turn in the vaccine form (or religious waver).

 

A health exam is required here. There is no 'failing' it, but having a doctor assessment at the beginning of the year lets them know if there are any kids who will have trouble in PE (if it's offered) or if a student appears to not have the physical ability to do something instead of bringing it up in a parent meeting they can just check the file.

 

Dental is not required.

 

 

Oh, and we've toured 2 different schools over the past 5 years before enrollment papers. One I toured twice, once for me, and once for an incoming parent that was looking for specific things and wanted pictures. The schools were always able to accommodate me. I'd be suspicious of a school that DIDN'T open their doors on request.

[TechWife]

And anyhow, what is the point. One doesn't have a choice over which public school they can go to.

 

This is definitely dependent upon where you live!

 

Were we to go the ps route next year, we would have a choice of:

1 year round elementary school (base)

2 traditional calendar elementary schools (base)

13 magnet elementary schools (lottery applications)

 

1 year round middle school (base)

1 traditional calendar middle school (base)

7 magnet middle schools (lottery applications)

 

1 traditional calendar high school (base)

3 magnet high schools (lottery applications)

2 early college programs (competitive applications)

1 women's leadership academy (competitive applications)

1 men's leadership academy (competitive applications)

 

There are 11 charter schools within a 30 minute drive of my house. The grades covered and admissions policies vary.

 

In addition, there are five private schools w/in a 15 minute drive. All five of them have elementary, four have elementary & middle , three have elementary, middle & high school. Add another five minutes onto that drive and you can add in a private middle & high school as well.

 

Then there are the 4,419 home schools in our county that have a total of 7,600 students of compulsory age enrolled.

 

So yes, we have choices. It can be very, very confusing and competitive!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I have never heard of anybody touring the school before enrolling her child.

Here, where you live decides which public elementary you have to enroll in (there is only one middle, jr high, and high anyway.)

You see the classroom at open house when the child is enrolled and assigned a teacher.

So, I don't find this strange.

 

 

As a military family, I know that many of our friends tour schools each time they move. Often this is part of an intense week of house hunting, where they try to get the feel of the future duty station, pick an area to live and find a home to rent or buy. Just last week, my neighbor took a couple that she knew to at least two different secondary schools as part of their house hunting.

 

In our area, most people go to the school their neighborhood is zoned for, but there is some flexibility (particularly as students enter high school and opt for AP or IB schools). But more importantly, people new to the area do consider schools when they are deciding where to live.

 

However, this is also a population dense area. There are three different elementary schools just within what I would consider our neighborhood. At one point, our scout troop has boys from six different schools (three elementary, three different secondary including the science magnet).

[Farrar]

Here, you have a choice of several dozen schools. More than half the city schools are charters. And while you have a "home" school, you can also apply to go outside to a different public school. Tours are common, though I'm not sure what all the policies are as I've never considered it. It's also somewhat competitive, so from what I've seen, the schools usually control the tour schedule and do them for prospective parents at certain times of year.

[Erin]

He (the principal) said his school was old and didn't have walls. It is an open concept school.

I would avoid it like the plague!! Homeschooled kids transitioning into something like this would go crazy!

 

Open concept schools were kind of an unschooling movement in public schools back in the 60s(?) I think. Kids basically wandered wherever they wanted, in order to choose the educational opportunities that interested them that day, and the teacher in that area would teach them. Which is why I'm thinking 60s. Very much a 60s-type of philosophy.

 

But as you can guess, unschooling really doesn't work on that kind of a scale, so they were a miserable flop. Consequently, you have all these buildings with no interior walls that are still in use, because they're too expensive to replace until they actually get old enough to need it.

 

I did some of my practice teaching in an open plan building. It was awful. They had installed cubicle-type walls (because lighting/heating/air/etc. would all have to be redone in order to put in REAL walls) which means there was a never-ending drone of noise from throughout the building.

The teachers hated it. It was extremely difficult to keep younger (and distractible) children on task. Not only did they have the typical distraction of their classmates, but also the distraction of students in other rooms all over the building doing different, and probably far more interesting, projects.

Student teachers and observation students were always sent to this school with the caution that, "HC is going to be a very challenging school..."

It's basically loosely-controlled chaos.

[mommymilkies]

Unless you opt for the private Catholic school or private Evangelical one that just started, you have ONE option in the whole county. It is not uncommon to disallow tours from my experience. Idk about here.

 

But you do need a physical, eye exam, and dental exam before enrolling.

[teachingmy3]

In this day and age, I can certainly understand doing this for security reasons. But I honestly don't think it is for that reason.

[katilac]

 

A health exam is required here.

 

 

For those who live in areas that require health and/or dental exams, how is that handled with lower income students? Those who aren't poor enough for medicaid but not affluent enough for routine well visits? There's no way on earth the majority of kids in my area are getting annual wellness visits of any kind. Vision screening is done in most of the schools, I think.

[zoobie]

 

 

For those who live in areas that require health and/or dental exams, how is that handled with lower income students? Those who aren't poor enough for medicaid but not affluent enough for routine well visits? There's no way on earth the majority of kids in my area are getting annual wellness visits of any kind. Vision screening is done in most of the schools, I think.

 

Eye, ear, and dental exams are required here. There are free dental exams (basically the dentist just looks in and sees if the kid has teeth) available from a list of dentists, and the health department will do the eye and ear exams.

[Lily_Grace]

For those who live in areas that require health and/or dental exams, how is that handled with lower income students? Those who aren't poor enough for medicaid but not affluent enough for routine well visits? There's no way on earth the majority of kids in my area are getting annual wellness visits of any kind. Vision screening is done in most of the schools, I think.

 

I live abroad, so it's really a non-issue, but the sole health clinic has a Physicals day twice a year. The kids start at reception and go along the building to different stations set up - height, weight, eye check, blood pressure.... The process is streamlined to take no more than 20-30 minutes a kid and there's always at least one kid at a station (siblings or friends often go together and split up at the last station, the exam rooms)

[ItoLina]

That is the way it is where I live. I know several parents who have requested tour of a couple different elementary schools and were told they were not allowed to do that. I thought it was nuts.

[Kalmia]

NY state (not city) here too. No school choice. (Unless you You cant even PAY tuition to go to another town's school.) AND they don't want the parents in the school at all except for very scripted situations (where you come in to read a book to the class or watch their odd phys ed performance). There is one elementary school near us that will not allow parents into the building for the first three months of school. CRIMINAL IMO.

[JennyD]

I have never heard of that. Our zoned public elementary school in NYC ran tours for prospective parents several times a year, and our zoned public elementary here in Nashville not only offers regular tours but will also do individual tours for parents considering moving to the area.

[kiwik]

Gosh.....nope, I'm speechless :huh:

 

We're in Aus (so totally different here, or my experience at least). I toured & interviewed at various private & public schools before deciding the school I thought Atlas would be happiest at (which was a public school). Times for tours were usually set-up outside of school hours (late afternoon). It allowed us to see the classrooms and speak to the teacher and/or principal without bothering the students (here, at least, there is always a couple of teachers hanging around after school lets out, either doing papers/collecting stuff, fixing up their classroom, and the principal usually goes later).

 

So, from my view if they said that to me, unless there was a good reason I wanted my children to go there, therefore I am willing to give the school a "second chance" and try to reason with someone, I would of just gone "prrrpppph :glare: to them".

 

Nothing is free, so even in a public school, your still going to be shelling out a lot of $$$ for anything from uniforms, to trips, school levies they seem to attach to everything, books, pencils, etc. I'm not going to enrol my kid (whose education is my responsibility whether I actually educate the myself or not) to a school I know nothing about. :glare:

 

The school we chose of Atlas was perfect, she even received a little personalized card from the teacher, and a "counting down to school" placement giving parents ideas of what to do to make sure their child is ready. Before that I had her at a lovely local preschool, where the main teacher was very sweet and helpful, especially when Atlas ended up being diagnosed with Type1 diabetes.

 

The reason to pull her from that school was two-fold. One, we moved and it would of been a big problem to get her to school (she would of hardly been home except to sleep), and the next was the laws I looked into regarding schools & diabetes. We had a mini-problem at the daycare where they checked her ketones instead of her blood, and found it 0.01 (which considering they thought it was her blood, would of meant she was dead or in a coma) and didn't call us.

 

The problem we found was they can watch over her diabetes, but the teachers obviously do not have time to micro-manage. At the age of 6, she would of been responsible for checking her levels, giving any extra injections and keeping an eye on thing. The teachers aren't allowed to touch her diabetes stuff, and if she went low and dropped, they can't do anything, if she went comatose, they would have to call an ambulance, then me. Only the paramedics or myself have the "authority", apparently, to give her glucogen. So had she dropped, they would of just been standing there watching her go comatose, whilst awaiting an ambulance, and you'd have to hope they noticed it happen right away. That was enough for me. I now have two kids with type1, and no way am I putting them in school (if they want to, I may think about it once they get more into their teens, but obviously they have to be really responsible teens, which doesn't happen. I've heard bad stories about Diabetics when they get to teen years, either forgetting or frosting their levels in the book) They're young, its hard enough to get them to understand or remind them they can't go out with barefeet due to the Dbts. I really can't see Atlas giving herself extra injections or calling me to explain a level mid-class.

 

So what i am saying, is my mind may be skewed due to having to keep an eye on medical problems, which makes me more paranoid, but (IMO) if they didn't want to just show me, in some way or form, their school (and I'm easy going, I'm happy to just walk around when class is letting out peekin' around for a few minutes before asking the teacher one or two questions. And I'm happy to (well, not happy, but I understand the security precautions in the US, so) to be checked to make sure I don't have some sort of weapon on me.) But I don't like to be told I cannot view something until I'm already a part of it.

 

Is there the option of just enrolling, then viewing, then pulling the enrolment? :laugh:

 

I am in NZ, I just turned up, spoke to the principal and he showed me round. It was a fairly superficial tour but we had an afternoon tea closer to starting - because everyone starts at different times this is not too much of a problem.

 

The six year old diabetic in my son's class has a teachers aide who comes and checks her bloods and injects her at set times and stays with her while she eats (the rest of the time she works with another child). At day care (she went to the same one as my son) the pre school teachers did it.

 

Of course as yet we don't have security issues at schools. We walk our little kids right into the classrooms in the mornings and sit round outside the classrooms gossiping in the afternoons while we wait for the bell to ring.

[boscopup]

So your schools don't ever require exams? That surprises me.

 

When I was in school, and I assume they still do it this way, they had one day during the school year that they tested eyes with a basic eye chart, and they also did scoliosis screening. And of course, we have to turn in our blue cards to say that the kids were vaccinated (unless you got a religious exemption from the health department).

 

I think full physicals may have been required before starting sports, but for regular school entry, nope. I know some schools have a dentist come by once a year, but not all schools do that (it's more for the low income schools, where many kids probably haven't ever been to a dentist).