what are my options?

[nighttech]

What is the name of your state? TN

My child attended private Catholic school in the state of TN. My child was in the 8th grade, which means they advance to either a public of another private school at this point. ALL the students in my child's class, which was the ONLY 8th grade class, either failed or were accepted conditionally for highschool. The students were not stupid, lazy or any other adjective that some may wish to respond with. Granted some may have been, but my child was a Beta club member along with the others that needed summer school to be accepted into private highschool.

It took more than a month for the final report card to be issued and I found a discrepancy. I called the school and was told by the principal that I needed to talk with that teacher directly. Little did she know that I had prior to my phone call to her and was told my child's grade was not the grade reported on the report card.

So what I see is a principal that lies or tries to place the blame on others and children that did not learn the grade appropriate materials.

I would surmise that those that paid for the education did not recieve it. I also would be lead to believe that the principal lies.

Do I have legal options?
I really do not care to hear from one member that I have a lazy child. This is not the case.

 

[Crazed98]

Your post is extermly confusing.

I am guessing you are trying to say that the principal screwed up all the students grades??

That makes no sense it makes a school look bad when the students fail and normally that would be that last thing a principal or teacher would want.

If there was a mistake with a grade then you would ofcourse have to talk to the teacher. They are the ones who either write the report cards or submit the grades.

If the teacher was the one you called and she said the grade on the report card is wrong then bring it back and have it changed I don't see what the problem is.

 

[ceastwood]

similar situation

Hi, I am also in TN and have, I beleive, a similar question. My son was enrolled in a parochial school last year. Tuition was ~$4000/yr. We had numerous problems during the year. The principal, vp, and teachers, recommended testing for ADD/ADHD. Despite, other evidence that ADD/ADHD was not the problem, my husband and I did follow their advice, that same day, and consulted with the special education director of our public school district. We were told by them that testing would take up to 40 days to get started as other children were ahead of us. We relayed this to the parochial school. (the evidence that I referred to was that our son was found to need glasses severly for near work, he was prescribed a lens with 5x magnification and the optomitrist said that he did not know how our son was doing anything in school without them. We were also told by doctors that he had perceptual deficits that required vision therapy and we began a course of 12 weeks of therapy. This all occurred the same week that the shcool recommended testing for ADD/ADHD).

Complaints from the teacher and principal continued and increased. They said that now that he had the glasses he should not be having any trouble. The optomitrist told us that we could not expect to see improvement for at least 6weeks and even longer for the avoidance behaviors to change. However, due to persistent pressure from the school and a desire on our part to be cooperative, we went ahead and talked with our pediatrician about private testing. The pediatrician did not feel testing was appropriate given the recent discovery of vision deficits, but understood our position with the school. He also said that given the challenges that our son was facing and the impact it was having on his confidence and school experience, he was only 6yrs old, that he may benefit from some counseling. So he referred us to a private child psychologist. We saw this psychologist for 8 sessions, at $135/each. The psychologist did not fell that testing was appropriate either, but provided the school with recommendations for behavior modification. The recommendations were not followed completely. The school continued to report difficulty with increasing intensity. To the point that they recommended that we find another school for next year - 1st grade. All of this occurred with in the 40 day period that the public school sp.ed. director told us to wait for testing.

Academically, we were told that our son was adequate and he was promoted to the first grade by his teacher. Despite this, my husband and I felt that our son was not doing as well as he should be and may not be ready for 1st grade. We also knew that his confidence and attitude toward school was very negative. So we sought help through Sylvan learning Center over the summer. On Sylvans assesments of our son's reading capability, we are told that he is over a year behind and they told us that "it is as if kindergarden never happened" and that he likely will not make it in 1st grade. Sylvan recommends a beginner reading program that is used for children who have not yet attended kindergarten. This is necessary or else he will have to repeat kindergarden or participate in a "pre-first" program. Because of his age, he will be 7 in September, repeating kndergarden may not be the best option. The cost for the Sylvan program is ~ $4000.

I have given this lengthy history in setting us this question. Do we have grounds to request tuition reimbursement from the parochial school since they not only failed to teach him anything, but misrepresented that fact and promoted him to the first grade, setting him up for failure? Thank you for any advice.

By the way, we have already gone ahead with the Sylvan program and he is doing very well. No problems with behavior or learning.