We have an IMPORTANT NEED for you to adhere to our guidelines for student plans for after school. To review, I have outlined our policies below. Many parents are calling in changes to student schedules every day. Additionally, many parents are calling our office after 3:15 P.M. in order to contact their child to inform them of a change in their after school plan. This is unsafe for students. It causes disruption and confusion at the end of the day and it is very difficult for teachers and office staff to run down the many personal messages being called in. Please help us keep a timely, dependable and safe schedule for children by doing the following:
1. UPDATE all information for your child such as phone numbers and addresses. If a child is left at school unattended and we cannot reach the parent or the emergency contacts to provide transportation for the child, we have no choice but to contact the Anchorage Police Department and/or Office of Children’s Services.
2. Discuss with your child at the beginning of the day what their plan is for after school. Each child should know their plan before they leave their house! This should be communication between the family and the child ~ not depending on the school to make and/or change plans. Calling in changes to a child’s schedule should be an emergency last resort, not a daily occurrence.
3. In the case of an emergency that may cause a change to a child’s schedule the information needs to be phoned to the office PRIOR to 3:00 P.M. After this time, students are changing classes from specialists, getting their papers together and getting ready to end their day. This is not an effective time to try to get information to students.
4. If your child has multiple schedules they must remember, such as going to different parent homes or daycare on different days of the week, you are responsible for creating a schedule for your child, provide it in writing to the child’s teacher and the office and follow up with your child ensuring that they know the routine. If this schedule changes, you must provide the school with the changes in writing in a timely manner. It is important that your child have a consistent and reliable schedule.
5. Custody Issues are not issues for the school to sort through, especially at the end of the day when students are trying to exit the building safely. Please solve all of your custody issues, including appropriate student information, appropriate transportation schedules and appropriate access to your child’s information outside of the school and in between rational adults. Bringing these issues into the school setting is upsetting to students and staff.
6. Release of Students will not be made to anyone not on your emergency contact information. We will not release students to adults that are unknown to us and who are not authorized to pick up students. If you want someone to have access to picking up your child, it must be documented with the front office, in writing and with current contact information. If we ever have a question about your child’s transportation or release, we will need to contact you!
7. Lottery: We want to inform you about a change in the application process for children who live in the Birchwood ABC attendance zone and who wish to attend Fire Lake Elementary. Historically children from the Birchwood ABC attendance zone who wished to attend Fire Lake were automatically accepted as students. For the 2017-2018 school year children who live in the Birchwood ABC attendance zone who wish to attend to Fire Lake Elementary will need to apply online to be entered into the lottery. Lottery applications are due no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 23, 2017. We encourage you to visit our schools for Visit Our Schools Month during February to learn more about our programs and to see what might be a good fit for your child. Please feel free to contact our offices with questions.
