dbrownsemail
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida
I believe I know the answer to this question, but I am at my wits end trying to get the school to cooperate wtih me.
I am the Father of two young girls, ages 6 & 7. Their Mother and I are divoced. We both share parental rights, and my daughters live with me 6 out of every 14 days. Their Mother has been designated as the Primary Residential Parent. With that said, our divorce decree, which was mutually agreed upon during mediation, states that both parents shall be involved in all decisions that relate to the children's education....
My predicament is that my former spouse refuses to forward to me the communications that the school sends home with our Daughters. On the days that our Daughters are with me, I scan the information and email it to my former Wife. This issue has existed since our Daughters began kindergarten. Our oldest Daughter is no in 3rd grade.
In an effort to alleviate this issue, I have met with the respective teachers and provided them with ample self addressed stamped envelopes of various sizes. After the lacluster performance of the first teacher during the first year, I decided that I should also advise the principle of the issue. At that time, she concurred that the envelope idea should work and she commited to me that she would work with the teachers to imporve the lines of communication. While the amount of communication did increase that second year, I would estimate that I was still only recieving aproximately 50% of the communications. Keep in mind that during this time period, I was not aware of things such as two seperate award ceremonies that my daughters recieved the Student of the Month award, progress and report cards, picture days and I was even excluded from the communication that was sent to my former Wife that stated that my youngest Daughter was being moved up from kindergarten to the first grade, due to overcrowding. Of course when I became aware of it a week later, she was immediately returned to her original class. At that point, I began to elevate this issue to the "Cluster Chief" over this particular school, and even shared a few emails with my School Board Representative.
My Daughters have now started their 3rd year at this school. This past summer, prior to the first day of school, I made contact with the new Cluster Chief and also emailed the Superintendent of the Duval County School System. With their help, I was assured that this year would be better. Here we are only 5 weeks into the school year and I was just made aware, "through the grapevine", that my youngest daughter is having reading problems, and that she was going to be enrolled in some sort of remedial reading program. It appears as though my Daughter's teacher recently met, one on one, with my former Spouse.
Is this public school required to provide this information to me, especially given that they have first hand knowledge that the correspondence that is intended for me is being intercepted and not delivered? Is there anything in No Child Left Behind? If I am of limited means ( I am currently attempting to gain primary residential parent status), are there any legal professionals that would consider taking on a case such as this? What about a class action lawsuit. Is there some sort of suite I could file in proper person.
While I do not have intimate knowledge of other similar situations, I am 100% confident that this issue is one that is replayed all over the country. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I am sorry for the length of this post. It is my assumption that this is not the most exciting reading. Thank you for taking the time.
I can be reached offline at [email protected].
I believe I know the answer to this question, but I am at my wits end trying to get the school to cooperate wtih me.
I am the Father of two young girls, ages 6 & 7. Their Mother and I are divoced. We both share parental rights, and my daughters live with me 6 out of every 14 days. Their Mother has been designated as the Primary Residential Parent. With that said, our divorce decree, which was mutually agreed upon during mediation, states that both parents shall be involved in all decisions that relate to the children's education....
My predicament is that my former spouse refuses to forward to me the communications that the school sends home with our Daughters. On the days that our Daughters are with me, I scan the information and email it to my former Wife. This issue has existed since our Daughters began kindergarten. Our oldest Daughter is no in 3rd grade.
In an effort to alleviate this issue, I have met with the respective teachers and provided them with ample self addressed stamped envelopes of various sizes. After the lacluster performance of the first teacher during the first year, I decided that I should also advise the principle of the issue. At that time, she concurred that the envelope idea should work and she commited to me that she would work with the teachers to imporve the lines of communication. While the amount of communication did increase that second year, I would estimate that I was still only recieving aproximately 50% of the communications. Keep in mind that during this time period, I was not aware of things such as two seperate award ceremonies that my daughters recieved the Student of the Month award, progress and report cards, picture days and I was even excluded from the communication that was sent to my former Wife that stated that my youngest Daughter was being moved up from kindergarten to the first grade, due to overcrowding. Of course when I became aware of it a week later, she was immediately returned to her original class. At that point, I began to elevate this issue to the "Cluster Chief" over this particular school, and even shared a few emails with my School Board Representative.
My Daughters have now started their 3rd year at this school. This past summer, prior to the first day of school, I made contact with the new Cluster Chief and also emailed the Superintendent of the Duval County School System. With their help, I was assured that this year would be better. Here we are only 5 weeks into the school year and I was just made aware, "through the grapevine", that my youngest daughter is having reading problems, and that she was going to be enrolled in some sort of remedial reading program. It appears as though my Daughter's teacher recently met, one on one, with my former Spouse.
Is this public school required to provide this information to me, especially given that they have first hand knowledge that the correspondence that is intended for me is being intercepted and not delivered? Is there anything in No Child Left Behind? If I am of limited means ( I am currently attempting to gain primary residential parent status), are there any legal professionals that would consider taking on a case such as this? What about a class action lawsuit. Is there some sort of suite I could file in proper person.
While I do not have intimate knowledge of other similar situations, I am 100% confident that this issue is one that is replayed all over the country. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I am sorry for the length of this post. It is my assumption that this is not the most exciting reading. Thank you for taking the time.
I can be reached offline at [email protected].