For crying out loud, School District! (venting)

[Kogarashi]

Arrrrgh! I'm getting really frustrated with my oldest daughter's school district, thanks to their complete inability to keep track of information and constantly hounding me for the replacements.

Last year my oldest enrolled in a preschool class that is part of the local school district. Now, the particular school where she had preschool shares a district office with the school where she would be attending kindergarten, and the various programs are tied together including sharing information for moving up to the big K.

My daughter turned 4 at the tail-end of December, and in January had her 4-year-old physical at the pediatrician's. About this time, we received forms from the preschool nurse to fill out for kindergarten regarding physicals and immunizations, and dutifully filled ours out and turned it in.

We heard nothing until late April, when the school nurse sent home to each parent a letter explaining what items were missing for kindergarten prep, as well as another copy of the form to have filled out. I was confused as the school already had this information, but took it to the pediatrician's office nonetheless and got it filled out. I took it to the nurse myself, only to be told, "Oh, we already have that information. The note on the cover letter said you were missing these three immunizations."

One problem: there was no note on the cover letter, otherwise I would've gotten those three immunizations done. Rather than argue, though, I went back to the doctor and scheduled the shots. Oldest wasn't happy, but the information was sent in to the school and all was well.

Or so I thought.

Cue the first day of Kindergarten. I'm sitting in the parent orientation session after the kids have all gone up to their classes. We're told to check with the school nurse to see if our kids are missing anything from their required physical forms. I hadn't heard anything from the school district all summer long regarding physicals or immunizations, so I assumed that they had all the forms squared away, but thought I'd check anyway just to be sure. Sure enough, the school nurse had nothing from the preschool about the health forms.

So I dutifully collected the health form again, and took it with me to my prenatal appointment the following Wednesday (since we're on the university health plan, our OB/GYN and pediatrician are in the same building). After my appointment, I once again dropped it off with the pediatrician's receptionist. She asked me for a fax number so they could send it in right away, since school had already started, and I told them I would call back once I got the number from the school. After that, I headed down to the school to wait the fifteen minutes before Oldest got out of class. We headed to the office, I got the fax number, and I called it in to the health center. The receptionist thanked me, and I thought it was done again.

Silly me. What should I get in my daughter's folder today (eight days later)? Another copy of the form and a letter telling me that they don't have her health information, and that if I don't get it to them ASAP, my daughter will be "excluded from school" (their words).



I've currently got Hubby on the job of calling the nurse to find out what's going on, because I'm sick and tired of repeatedly filling out this form only for someone to drop the ball between me handing it in and the kindergarten nurse getting it. If I call, I'm probably going to end up yelling at someone. I don't know if it was the doctor's office not faxing it after all, the school receptionist not giving it to the school nurse, or the nurse misfiling it, but I've done my part more than once.

[dalesys]

Wanna bet they're filing it under "K" for Koga and searching under "R" for Rishi?

"We're kindergarten. we don't know the ABC's yet." also applies to staff, apparently.

[AccountingDrone]

Walk it into the office, with 2 copies. Hand their copy to them, and have the nurse or whomever it goes to countersign your copy indicating that she recieved their copy. Then every time they bitch about needing a copy, fax over a countersigned copy, and tell them to stuff it.

[Kogarashi]

A bit of follow-up (as things hopefully improve).

The nurse called my husband back this morning before we left for the school. It would seem that very very few of the kids' preschools actually bothered to forward on the kindergarten-prep forms, and somehow that doesn't surprise me. Doesn't excuse in my mind the fact that the kindergarten had all of July and August to notify the parents that they didn't have the health forms yet. Seriously, how are we supposed to know this if we've dutifully handed in the paperwork when told? Parents are not psychic; we don't know what we need to have for school if you don't tell us! But then the school couldn't be bothered to send out the kindergarten teachers' supply lists either, so maybe that should've been a clue.

Anyway, the nurse told my husband that I could bring in a copy of the form to her in person Tuesday or Thursday, when she's at the K-2 building instead of the 3-8 building. Hubby thanked her, then we both agreed that I would check with the school office to see if it was hiding there somewhere.

I walk Oldest down to her school. After dropping her off at the cafeteria, I head over to the office and speak with the receptionist. She doesn't remember getting my daughter's forms, and as the fax machine is right next to her desk, every form that comes in gets delivered promptly, so if it had come in last week like it was supposed to, it would be in the nurse's hands now. I got the fax number again just to make sure I had it correct, since I'd since tossed the piece of paper she gave me last week, thanked the receptionist, and left.

Once we got home, I called the pediatrics department at the health center. At first the receptionist who answered (who was not either of the receptionists I spoke to last week) told me that there was a ten-day turnaround on health forms. I explained that the receptionist last week promised to get it filled out ASAP and faxed in to the school directly since school had already started, so the receptionist today took some information and went looking for the form. She found it in my daughter's file, but lo and behold, the fax form attached to it doesn't have a fax number on it.

The receptionist was very helpful, though. She took the fax number I had on hand and filled out the form, promised to fax it in once the patient load died down (she had ten more people in the call queue, plus several people in the office itself, and was probably by herself that early in the morning), and then verified my address so she could have the original form mailed to me as backup.

So in all, it's currently in the health center's hands. Hubby and I are going to call the nurse's office on Tuesday (as I said, when she's at my daughter's building) to make sure she got the form. If she hasn't, I'm seriously going to giftwrap the original copy and give it to her in person. Or at least add a gift bow to it or something because if I don't, I might yell. And I'd really rather not yell at someone at the school before the first month of classes is even done.

Dangit, now I just want to go into labor so I can be at the hospital where they've got awesome cheesecake on the menu.