Can a very young child be required to sign an agreement?

[HRE0927]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

Montana.

Sorry, preview option deleted my question.

My kid started kindergarten this week. The school wants all children and their parents to sign an agreement, which covers use of the school's computer network. My daughter is five and cannot read, nor would she understand what she is signing....she can't even sign her name, just print it. I have no problems signing it....but asking a kindergartener to sign is silly.

Can the school require that a five year old sign this?

 

[Antigone*]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

Montana.

Sorry, preview option deleted my question.

My kid started kindergarten this week. The school wants all children and their parents to sign an agreement, which covers use of the school's computer network. My daughter is five and cannot read, nor would she understand what she is signing....she can't even sign her name, just print it. I have no problems signing it....but asking a kindergartener to sign is silly.

Can the school require that a five year old sign this?

It isn't silly. Explain to your child what is going on and tell her that she now has a chance to be a big girl and put her name on the line saying that she understand what you explained to her.

This is a teaching moment for you and your child, don't turn it into a fight with the school.

Don't people in Montana have real things to worry about?

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

Montana.

Sorry, preview option deleted my question.

My kid started kindergarten this week. The school wants all children and their parents to sign an agreement, which covers use of the school's computer network. My daughter is five and cannot read, nor would she understand what she is signing....she can't even sign her name, just print it. I have no problems signing it....but asking a kindergartener to sign is silly.

Can the school require that a five year old sign this?

Yes.... Pretty standard agreement.

 

[Just Blue]

It isn't silly. Explain to your child what is going on and tell her that she now has a chance to be a big girl and put her name on the line saying that she understand what you explained to her.

This is a teaching moment for you and your child, don't turn it into a fight with the school.

Don't people in Montana have real things to worry about?

Me and my daughters have been signing these agreements for 18 years. I don't understand OP's issue.

 

[Antigone*]

Me and my daughters have been signing these agreements for 18 years. I don't understand OP's issue.

Lil tigi has put her name to that blue form for as long as I could remember. It really is a no-brainer.

 

[Just Blue]

Lil tigi has put her name to that blue form for as long as I could remember. It really is a no-brainer.

I know. To me it was an opportunity to teach "contractual agreements". The younger you teach a child, the more they learn.

BTW: Px Hx is a must.

 

[ecmst12]

It is kinda silly since it would have no force in law whatsoever, but of course it's a teaching opportunity. NEXT year, she'd better be able to write her name and read at least some of it!

 

[HRE0927]

Really? My posting history? I didn't realize I was asking ridiculous questions, either this one or in the past. I've posted a question about my SIL's drug charges, our potential use of her car (which we didn't use), and about a situation my husband was facing as a manager with one of his newer employees. Are these reasons to mention checking my posting history? I swear, I am not crazy.

I don't really have a problem with signing the form....I have no problem at all personally signing it. I just feel somewhat uncomfortable with my 5 year old signing a document that she doesn't understand. I was under the impression that contracts signed by a minor were unenforceable....but I'm sure that there is a lot of kindergarten jitters (on my part)....kindergarten has certainly changed since I went through years ago.

And to answer the question.....yes, people in Montana do have more things to worry about. We periodically have bears in our yard, a cougar uses our property on his weekly circuits around the mountain, the dang deer keep jumping my fence and eating the veggies in the garden, and my neighbors continue to ignore the city's trash regulations and instead burn everything in their firepit. Oh, and there are forest fires everywhere.

 

[HRE0927]

It is kinda silly since it would have no force in law whatsoever, but of course it's a teaching opportunity. NEXT year, she'd better be able to write her name and read at least some of it!

Haha! She can print her name, and read some of the words, but the biggest issue will probably be about network security.

 

[ecmst12]

It is legally unenforceable against her, so there's really no reason to be uncomfortable with it. Explain the rules to her the best way that you can. It won't make her nervous unless you give her the impression that she SHOULD be nervous! I don't think you want to impart to her a lifelong fear of signing papers...

 

[HRE0927]

It is legally unenforceable against her, so there's really no reason to be uncomfortable with it. Explain the rules to her the best way that you can. It won't make her nervous unless you give her the impression that she SHOULD be nervous! I don't think you want to impart to her a lifelong fear of signing papers...

Thanks! We haven't even discussed it with her....we just got it yesterday afternoon and I was thinking that the form may have been included in her packet accidentally, but apparently these are standard for even kids her age.

All i would do is just explain the form to her and have her print her name....she likes doing big girl stuff anyway.

A form-signing phobia??? Does that exist?

 

[Banned_Princess]

my child and I have been signing the computer usage and code of conduct papers since kindergarden. The school just wants to know parents have gone over it with their children. I'm sure there has been a time I forgot to do this. the school took no legal action against us for failing to return, or even breaches in the code of conduct.

 

[Just Blue]

Thanks! We haven't even discussed it with her....we just got it yesterday afternoon and I was thinking that the form may have been included in her packet accidentally, but apparently these are standard for even kids her age.

All i would do is just explain the form to her and have her print her name....she likes doing big girl stuff anyway.

A form-signing phobia??? Does that exist?

It does. I have known people that have difficulty with filling out forms and signing their names to forms.
As sad as that is, it IS a "real disability". It seems to begin with parental influence.

YOU are held to the contract legally. Your child is not. Explain to your 5 yo (in her age appropriate terms) what this "contract" means. It is a educational tool for you both.

Enjoy this time with your child...It does pass quickly. LOL (So says me..the Mom of a 23 and 10 year old.)

 

[xylene]

While I agree with the others that this is probably no big deal, I am leery of the school asking a kindergartener to personally sign for network admin / computer use policies.

Not just because the notion of a 5-6 year old child signing to anything is like this is bordering on asinine.

This smacks of school policy kabuki theater more than anything.

I'd have the kid scrawl on it in crayon or whatever and then demand some hard answers about what the brass tacks of school computer security was, how my child would be PROTECTED, not this form signing pantomime that some of the other advisers seem to think is a great lesson...

 

[tranquility]

Schools ask for such kabuki theater for a couple of reasons. First, while it has no legal significance as to making an agreement, it could go a way to showing the child was aware of the policy. Second, for older children, it creates a psychological agreement with the policy. "You said you agreed with it." can be a powerful control on children as no one wants to be seen to be hypocritical.