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.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Parents: Be Proactive

Nebraska public schools are in full swing for the 2014-15 school year. This is a reminder that we all need to take responsibility for making sure our kids get to school whenever they are able, and we need to get them there on time. When they are not able to attend or they have to be late, it's important for you to keep a WRITTEN LOG of their absences, down to the minute, along with the reason for their absence. Be sure to compare your written log to the school's on-line attendance site at least once a week.

If your child is ill enough to stay home, but not ill enough to go to the doctor (low-grade fever, 24-hour stomach flu, etc.), take a picture! Take a picture of the thermometer with their temp on it. Take a picture or videotape the vomit (I'm not kidding). If you're caught in traffic behind a wreck, take a picture. If your car breaks down, save the repair receipt. Document document document. Unfortunately, this is what it has come to in districts like Lincoln Public Schools. If you are referred to law enforcement for legitimate, parent-approved absences, your attorney can use your documentation and photos to defend you.

And while you're documenting, why not write a letter to your school board and ask them to change unreasonable attendance policies? Those of us in Millard, Gretna, and Omaha Public Schools would be happy to show you what a reasonable attendance policy looks like. There ARE districts that respect parents while providing a top-notch education! (Millard has a 98% graduation rate and a family-friendly attendance policy.)

Be proactive and protect your kids!

Sunday, August 10, 2014

New Attendance Law Takes Effect With New School Year

NFF Parents: The new state law regarding school absences took effect on July 18. As children throughout Nebraska head back to school over the next couple of weeks, we will begin seeing how our own school districts and county attorneys handle the changes. (Please click on this link for a reminder of the primary changes included in the new law.)

http://nebraskafamilyforum.org/2014/03/amendment-2164-fix-to-nebraskas.html

The new law has returned discretion over attendance back to the school districts, within the guidelines set forth in LB464, and many of those districts have revised their attendance policies over the summer. Some of the new policies look great; others continue to be unreasonable. Case in point is Lincoln Public Schools, which still categorizes parent-approved illnesses and medical appointments as “unexcused,” with no differentiation between parents calling their children in sick and kids who are really skipping school.

The Nebraska Family Forum as a group had a great impact on getting state law changed and returning discretion to the local level. It’s now up to you, the parents of each district, to communicate with your school boards if you are unhappy with your local attendance policy.

Several members of the NFF, myself included, have experience dealing with school boards and administrators, organizing other parents, and effecting change. We would be happy to guide you through that process. However, a parent in Omaha, or a statewide group such as ours, cannot resolve a bad attendance policy in No. Platte or Lincoln or Hastings. That is up to individual community members.

Don’t be intimidated by your local school board members. You elected them, and they are there to do what’s best for your children and your families. They are your friends and neighbors and fellow parishioners. NFF members have found that school boards are, for the most part, approachable and open to hearing from the parents they represent. Most of them are parents too, and are more than willing to listen to your concerns.

My advice to all of you is to read your district’s new attendance policy NOW. If you think it’s reasonable, that’s great. If you have issues with the way your district plans to implement the changes to state law, I suggest you take action right now. Don’t let the new policies catch you by surprise. Be proactive, instead of being forced into the position of reacting after the fact. Protect your kids and protect your family, now rather than later. These are OUR schools and they exist to educate OUR children. It is our right and responsibility as parents to speak up and ask for change when school policy is hurting our children.

If you need help approaching your school board, please feel free to contact me at .

Brenda Vosik, Director
Nebraska Family Forum

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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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Monday, August 25, 2014

Parents: Be Proactive

Sunday, August 10, 2014

New Attendance Law Takes Effect With New School Year

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