well, everyone must have equal outcomes, so... nobody can outshine anyone else, right?

I'm guessing there is some kind of reason this child is not sponsored by the school, and because of that, they will not allow a waiver.

I've dealt with some amazing school admins, and some astonishing stupid ones. Happy that my youngest is almost out of it.

So is Diana Moon Glampers head of the DC school system?

It is bc school funding is based on student FTE. In other words, the schools don't get money for your student when they are absent. In recent years schools everywhere have been cracking down on attendance. We get notices all the time about not skipping school. Of course, this has nothing to do with whether your kid is learning while she is there. It is all about butts in chairs.

Zero tolerance at its best - the administrators are unwilling or unable to exercise common sense.

Not like it's some 'athletic' thing. Those are fine. Because there's no travel or missing classes involved with those.

And what is an "Office of Youth Engagement" ??

"attendance specialist with the school system's Office of Youth Engagement"
-- one reason DC has the (or one of the) highest spending per student in the country.

FWIW, her playing is a strong antidote to her school system's BS.

And what is an "Office of Youth Engagement" ??

Jobs opportunity for the otherwise useless.

And yes, DaveG, I listened to her play on about four YouTube videos. Her poise is amazing, too.

I don't know. If it's okay for her to miss ten days of school, is it okay to miss 50? 150? I can understand why the school has to draw the line somewhere.

I'm guessing she (and plenty of other kids) could get A's on all the tests without attending a single day of school. Would that be okay?

I'm guessing she (and plenty of other kids) could get A's on all the tests without attending a single day of school. Would that be okay?

Why not?

I'm guessing she (and plenty of other kids) could get A's on all the tests without attending a single day of school. Would that be okay? ~kf

Why not Kf? What value is there in sitting in class if you can already pass all the tests for what you were supposed to learn while sitting in class? I have to admit one of my most frustrating college experiences was getting a B when my test scores were 98, 99, and 100. I had poor class participation. Since I already knew everything we were being taught of course I didn't ask questions.

Okay, but now you guys are talking about a major shift in educational policy, and now you're ripping the school for not having a policy that no public school has.

From the perspective of the student and parents, of course the most important thing is learning, doing the work, etc. I can see why a school want want to reserve its degrees (or whatever the middle school equivalent would be) for people that are actually there. Harvard doesn't give degrees to Yale students under the rationale that oh, they're really smart and do the work, and probably some of them read books in their spare time too.

Maybe the school should have granted this waiver, but I'm having a hard time seeing this as an international outrage on the level of expelling someone for biting a poptart into the shape of a gun or using chapstick or whatever. Especially if sitting in class is so worthless, what's the harm here? She and her parents weren't arrested. Now she gets to be homeschooled, and doesn't have to waste any more time siting around in worthless classes.

Why is this kid in public school at all? They are mostly just holding pens providing "free" babysitting services anyway.

"It is bc school funding is based on student FTE. In other words, the schools don't get money for your student when they are absent.... Of course, this has nothing to do with whether your kid is learning while she is there." - Sheep Mom

This is the absolute truth. The parents should have threatened to remove the student from the public school and start home schooling her. That way, the school wouldn't get another dime of funding for her to fill up a seat.

You people just don't understand the high-pressure jobs that school administrators endure.

Alice Deal Middle School's principal has a huge list of concerns.

Is it any wonder that a prodigy would get overlooked with all of THAT going on?!

"This is the absolute truth. The parents should have threatened to remove the student from the public school and start home schooling her. That way, the school wouldn't get another dime of funding for her to fill up a seat."

Hmm. Would the school be brought to its knees, begging and pleading this particular student to stay to keep its funding? Or would it shrug its shoulders, pull out its waiting list (which has hundreds and hundreds of kids on it), and grab the kid at the top of the list? Tough choice.

"Or would it shrug its shoulders, pull out its waiting list (which has hundreds and hundreds of kids on it), and grab the kid at the top of the list?" - kf

I didn't realize that. I come from a small town where something like this would be absolutely devastating to the school district.

Kf, I wasn't ragging on the school so much as I was on you. Thinking public schools are about education is a bit naive. As others have noted they are more public daycares than educational institutions.

The school gets funding based on attendance. That sets the number of acceptable missed days. An individual school cannot waive that requirement. It is set much higher up. In this case she is in the DC public system. So she cost the school ~$30k in annual funding. This won't bring the school to it's knees, but it is a significant sum.

Also there is unlikely to be a wait list of any kind. Not that one would help. This isn't a college, but a K-12 public school. They get paid after the fact, not before.

Just as a comparison Houston area districts allocate ~$5k per student. DC public schools are the most expensive and worst quality schools in the US.

This is the absolute truth. The parents should have threatened to remove the student from the public school and start home schooling her. That way, the school wouldn't get another dime of funding for her to fill up a seat - Fayd

Hmm. Would the school be brought to its knees, begging and pleading this particular student to stay to keep its funding? Or would it shrug its shoulders, pull out its waiting list (which has hundreds and hundreds of kids on it), and grab the kid at the top of the list? Tough choice. - kf

Does no one read the updates?

The arnets did pull her, and the school did come begging, in the form of a letter calling the parents liars and claiming there was a "misunderstanding"

The school district is claiming they 'told' the parents they could ignore the official government letters threatening police arrest and child protective services intervantion

kf said: "I don't know. If it's okay for her to miss ten days of school, is it okay to miss 50? 150? I can understand why the school has to draw the line somewhere."

Information from the actual, linked, article said:

"It would be immoral to enforce a truancy rule for some, but not others, right? But wait, what about Relisha Rudd, the 8-year-old who had been living in D.C.’s family homeless shelter and missed nearly 30 days of school before anyone reported her missing?

Aren’t we supposed to be tightening up on truancy enforcement to ensure that cases like that don’t happen?

Of course. But the fact is, truancy rules in the District are selectively enforced, depending on your Zip code.

The 8-year-old living in a homeless shelter and attending a school overwhelmed with transient children — where truancy can be a sign of something dangerous — racks up 30 absences before someone has the time to notice.

But over in the Other City, where some D.C. public schools are as fancy as their neighborhood, the little concert pianist is collared and the truancy police are on high alert.

School officials who are deciding to enforce the policy for some and not others, who refuse to take a holistic look at the child and her life in and outside school — whether it be at international concerts or in homeless shelters — should be held accountable for their short-sighted decision-making."

Seems an awful lot like that 'line' you're talking about is pretty damn fuzzy.

It looks like things worked out best for the girl. Her parents are freeing her from the isolation, regimentation and oppression of that pathetic, fenced-in, government institution euphemistically referred to as a "school". With her education now home based and self directed, in the real world outside the fence, her educational, social and professional horizons will expand immensely.

I just read the Weekly Message from Principal Albright on the Alice Deal Middle School web site (link posted above by Gog_Magog_... - thanks, Gog). It's enlightening.

Principal Albright writes:

"When speaking to a parent in the hall last week I noticed that a student in the 6th grade had left their locker without its lock. I opened the locker and found the lock, neatly placed with its combination written on a piece of tape attached to the lock. The locker had books and PE equipment – all unsecured for the evening. I placed the lock on the outside of the locker, but left it unclosed so as not to confuse the student..." (Bold face added by me)

His second paragraph describes the deep, existential thought process he worked through on the meaning of the unsecured locker. Then he writes:

"I saw the child’s teacher in the hall. Our team structure is designed to allow much greater connections to occur – and this was a case in point. The teacher knew the student, knew that the student was not in her first period (thus, not her locker) and told me that she would help the student the next morning... All done with a big smile at the end of the day. These are 6th graders, and our job is to help them grow – whether it is solving math problems or securing their locker."

What the hell? Is Principal Albright a moron? Or am I missing something?

He put the lock on the outside of the locker and left it "unclosed" ("it" being either the lock or the locker). He didn't secure the locker, but he seems to think he did. Was it a symbolic securing gesture?

He saw the child's teacher in the hall (presumably the teacher of the child whose locker it was?) The teacher knows the student, and knows the student was not in her first period class; this somehow indicates that it's not that student's locker. The teacher says she'll help that student in the morning. (What???)

An unlocked locker is a minor issue but it seems like this says something about Principal Albright's ability (or inability) to think logically on a very basic level. If that's an example of the ability of school officials' to reason it may explain their unreasonable, inconsistent handling of bigger issues like the truant piano prodigy and the missing little homeless girl.

But maybe I'm missing something?

People with school age children: Please get them away from the government schools.

The district is now claiming it was all a big misunderstanding. Her parents stand by their story. Call me crazy but I might side with the parents here. I think the school has realized how stupid they were once it was splashed all over a newspaper.

Seems to me we should be encouraging kids to embrace classical music, not punishing them for it.

Having a child prodigy attacking "Chopin with the focused diligence of a master craftsman and the grace of a ballet dancer" in the school (even if she misses 10 days of it) will have an osmotic effect well beyond the price paid of her missing more days than regulation.

How many kids get to say they sat next to an international piano prodigy in middle school?

Solution: make the piano recitals part of a class and mark her present.