Nebraska Family Forum

It is the Mission of the Nebraska Family Forum (NFF) to promote education policies in our state that preserve and protect parental authority and the integrity of the family. In so doing, we will preserve the cooperative and respectful relationship between school authorities and parents, preserve a family-centered community, and provide a well-rounded education for our kids.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Call Family: Nothing excessive about it

I have four children attending Millard Public Schools. I am concerned greatly about the implications of Nebraska’s school attendance law and the policies it has inspired. I recently received a letter from the Douglas County Attorney because of this law. All of my children are doing well in school and are actively participating in being good citizens in their classes. They are not behind in anyway.

My third grade daughter’s teacher has told me that she is a wonderful student that enriches the overall feeling in the classroom. My oldest son is being recognized as a Rotary Honor Roll student at the Qwest Center at the end of this month. Our second son was selected to participate in the Blair Honor Band. Our kindergartner is doing the normal things kindergartners do but and is trusted by her teacher to take other students to the office if they need assistance.

Of course, as a responsible parent who tries to teach my children to love school, it concerns me that I am being questioned about the decisions I am making regarding my children’s reasons for being absent. The reason for this year’s absences include the following: Our grandparents and cousins came to Omaha for a long weekend to have a family reunion in September after not seeing each other for a year and a half. I felt it was important for my children to spend time with their family. My older boys did not join us because the demand on them to miss school is heavier.

Another day, I took my daughter to her school field trip instead of going with her class because I was not allowed to bring her baby sister along. At the time, her baby sister was nursing and so I could not leave her with someone. Most parents go on this field trip and I thought it unreasonable that school policy should prevent me from going with my daughter just because I have a nursing baby. Even though, we attended an educational class at Vala’s, arrived there before her class and stayed later, and talked to her teacher during the day she was still marked absent.

In February, our great-grandmother passed away, and her funeral was in Idaho which meant that our children missed two and half days for that. Unfortunately, one of my kids got sick with the stomach flu the night we got home. In addition she had 5 sick days earlier in the year. There have been days, where I know that my kids are not feeling the best, but I have sent them anyway especially because I am concerned about the implications of the new school attendance law and will not risk my family becoming involved with the county attorney.

While I understand that the bill is written to help those who are truant, the net is being caste way too wide. The law defines my children as being “excessively absent”, but I don’t believe there is anything excessive about their attendance records. I believe that for a person to be truly well rounded, there are more experiences to be had than just what is going on in a classroom. Sickness is not something we can control completely. I want to be able to make good responsible decisions about our children without feeling that I am a bad parent for making that choice. I would love to take advantage of opportunities to send my children with their dad to work on “Take your Child to Work” day with about being worried that I will be reported to the District County Attorney.

Please understand that we are one of those Nebraskan families that is working hard for a bright future. I encourage you to amend the law and find a better way to help at risk kids.

The Call Family
Millard School District
Omaha, Nebraska

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The Personal Impact of Nebraska's School Attendance Law

We began collecting stories in April of 2011 and will continue to collect them as long as the law is abused. The stories we have collected demonstrate how our community has been impacted by Nebraska's school attendance law that counts all absences rather than "unexcused" absences for purposed of "truancy".

It may seem by the district by district breakdown that the law has impacted Millard Public Schools the most, but it is important to note that the Nebraska Family Forum grew out of the Millard Parent Society and therefore the awareness within Millard Public Schools is longstanding.

Out of the 3000+ cases referred to the Douglas County Attorney last year only 400 came from MPS. For every story collected here it is reasonable to assume that they represent dozens more who are affected who have not written their thoughts in a public way.

Nebraska Family Forum: What we Stand For

Mission:

NFF Guiding Principles:

Family is Key: We believe the family is the single most important element to a child’s ability to learn and be successful in school and life, and parents are the foundation upon which family success rests. For this reason, it’s imperative that the state honor the authority of parents as they exercise their natural rights, obligations, and responsibilities to raise, manage, direct, and educate their children.

Freedom in Education is essential: We believe that flexibility in education, school choice, stimulating curriculum, quality teachers, and innovative education reforms are essential to a family centered education. We support policies that will lead to greater parental influence in education innovation, curriculum, and choice.

Family struggles are a healthy part of life: We believe that the fundamental right of a parent does not cease to exist simply because a parent may fail to be a model parent. Parents often struggle to meet the needs of their children, but this is not in itself sufficient cause for unwanted and unwarranted government intrusion into family life. We join with Father Steven Boes of Boys Town in "proclaiming that not only are there no bad boys, as Father Flanagan taught, but there are no bad families.” There is always at least one person in a family that wants what is best for their children and is willing to ask for and receive the help they need.

Government Intrusion can be Harmful: We believe that the right of parents to raise their children without undue government interference is a fundamental liberty that has long been protected by the Constitution of the United States and is not void upon the enrollment of ones child in a public school. We warn that governments who seek to micro-manage the everyday choices of parents in pursuit prescribed outcomes, will do great harm to the integrity of the family and by extension, the well-being of children and society as a whole.

The Simple Truths

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~ Ernest Dimnet

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ~ William Butler Yeats

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. ~ B. F. Skinner

Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. ~ G. M. Trevelyan

Every educated person is a future enemy. ~ Martin Bormann

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. ~ Michel de Montaigne

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. ~ Mark Twain

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. ~ John W. Gardner

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding. ~ Ezra Pound

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. ~ Robert M. Hutchins

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. ~ Albert Einstein

To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks. ~ A. A. Milne

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~ Albert Einstein

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. ~aya Angelou

Dad kept us out of school, but school comes and goes. Family is forever.

I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it's just depressing to me. The poor little kids. ~ Dolly Parton

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Call Family: Nothing excessive about it

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