What Is a Reasonable Time Frame for a Teacher to Return Your Call?

I don't mean to change the subject on you, but I am going to take you in a whole new direction. It matters not what the appropriate time frame is for her to call you back, you should not be calling her at all. In fact, your call never happend. You cannot prove that it did. She has never had one indication from you that you find your child's IEP implemention inappropriate and she has carte blanche to ignore any verbal (also known as non existant) utterances about her failure to provide FAPE to your son (Free and Appropriate Public Education.)

Never place a call again about an IEP issue of this magnatude. The written word will get thier attention, esspeically when you copy her boss, the special education director of your school district.

From what you have written, your speech therapist has violated your rights, is failing to provide FAPE, and if I were your advocate, you would have already called a meeting to see if you could get your child a new therapist.

What your son is getting is covered under IDEA, and you have significant rights, read about them at www.wrightslaw.com and write to the special education department at your school and request an IEP meeting. Your son may need more than speech if he is having such an issue with behavior in therapy, this would be my strategy, to request a "change" in therapist to see if he can manage better, before you request more expensive evaluations and serivices from the district.

M.

Hi J,

As a former teacher, I always made it a point to return calls from my class parents within 24 hrs. I find it odd she hasn't returned your call. Is it possible that she was out Friday and Monday? I would think with a message on her voice mail that she would be able to return your call at a time that is convenient for you. If I've contacted one of my children's teachers, they've always returned calls or responded to my emails within 24 hours as well.

As for the homework and behavior rewards, your friend is right. They should be separate. You son has been told he gets to go to the treasure chest for completing his homework and he expected it. The teacher is sending mixed messages. I encourage you to take the time to observe her class. You have the right to do so. If you feel your son won't do well with you there then find a friend or possibly his other speech therapist to observe.

I taught pre-school and kindergarten and 3 y/o's can not be expected to sit long periods. His teacher needs to find some new tricks to make this experience positive for your child.

Good luck,
J.

First I'm extremely disturbed that the teacher is talking about YOUR son with OTHER parents. She has no right to talk about your son with other parents. It is non of their business. She can talk about that it is difficult to get the kids to concentrate but never pointing out one child. That's absolutely horrible. If you called on Thursday, personally I would expect a call back by Friday, but I may be asking too much. This is your sons education and a very important time for him. He is supposed to be learning that school is exciting and fun and very enriching so it's important that they work with you and him to tweak things so they work for him. And sitting still for an hour at 3 years old?!?!? I'm sorry I have a very calm daughter (as well as a very active one) but I don't think even she would handle sitting still at a desk for an hour.. that must feel like an eternity at that age!!

I have a nephew that was having a hard time at school. His teacher really seemed to have it out for him because he was a little over active and his behavior was maybe not the greatest. They had to change school because they could not work together with the teacher and he was really hating school. After they changed schools he has been doing GREAT.. absolutely loves school and looks forward to going and his behavior is sooooooo much better.

I would definitely be calling his teacher back and make sure you get an answer from her as soon as possible. It's Tuesday and I would think they should be able to at least call you back to decide a time to meet.

.

24 hrs

I would take my child out of that class. Is this the speech therapist that is saying this? My 3.5 yr old has caught up in speech but before that his tantrums were horrible do to his lack of communication skills she should expect the kids at this age to be more frustrated and break down. I don't like the idea of a 3 year old being at a desk for an hour that is horrible and is not going to help with learning.

I teach and this makes me uncomfortable. There is no way a 3 year old should be expected to sit in a desk for an hour. The teacher is very unprofessional. I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt that she didn't receive the message, but it is hard to do when her behavior is so uncouth. She should have spoken with you by the day after the call at the latest. I would want to sit in on her class without my child knowing I am there if possible. Ask around and see if you can find other parents that can give you recommendations for this teacher and if there is another teacher in the area you may be able to switch to.

I will just try to answer the question in your post's subject line.

If you call or email or write M-Th, then 24 hours is reasonable. Reasonable to at least get an acknowledgment...For example, "Got your message, can we schedule time to talk about it next week?"

Sometimes teachers are out. Sometimes email is down. Something the message left may require some serious thought and planning or may require the teacher to get others involved before responding.

I did not read any other responses....but frequently speech teachers are PT, and if they are out sick or have an emergent family issue in their own lives, then it can take a week or longer to respond to parents.

However, I'm a little shocked that you would offer suggestions to her so early on in the program and to a trained professional, the one who IMHO probably knows what's best. It sounds like you are trying to push her into making changes just for your son.

Speech therapy requires a lot of personal effort and concentration. Her system of rewards sounds very normal and designed to get the child to focus on their specific speech and developmental delay. Being at Sunday school and making crafts cannot be compared to this very specific learning environment.

Mom, I recommend you calm down, take a big breath and find out what you can do to be more supportive of this new environment.

Our school asks that the teachers be given 24 hours to respond. After that we are ask to call again.

I have all kinds of problems with the way this is going. She has handled things poorly in several areas that others here have already mentioned. To answer your question though, I teach high school, and we are expected to respond to parents as quickly as possible, within 24 hours at the latest.

I agree with the 24 hours, but let's say she didn't get your message until Friday, and didn't get a chance to call you back, she should have called Monday morning for sure.

I also agree that her calling your son "immature and a copy cat" is totally unacceptable and I would speak to her supervisor.

I hope that you offering suggestions will at least help her consider some other options - an hour is a long time for a 3 year old. I'd also consider asking for a new speech therapist or going to a private one vs. the public school system.

Your son is 3 and from what you described, he sounds like every other 3 year old I know. They are all immature and copy cats, I mean come on there are 3. The teacher sounds like the problem, not your son. She should have the skills and tools to handle this and it's not the kids fault if she doesn't. Knowing there was a problem, she should have returned your call by Friday afternoon b/f the weekend, even if it was just to set-up a time to discuss the issues further. It's pretty inappropriate for her to make the comments she made about your son to other parents so ask her to please only talk to you about issue with your son. When I was reading this the 1st thing I thought was that the homework reward and the behavior rewards should be separate (b/f you even said it). Good luck, you're in for a long ride dealing with teachers and your son. =)

SHE MAKES A THREE YEAR OLD SIT FOR AN HOUR? she says he is immature? REPORT HER.

24 - 48 hours.

Depending on the setting, especially if a teacher is constantly 'on' all day long (like elementary teachers), she may only have a window of 30 minutes per day outside of her lunch that is 'plan time'. All her lesson planning, legal paperwork, returning calls has to happen during that time. If something comes up during the day, especially in a special needs school, that requires her immediate attention because the health or safety of a student is at risk, then that takes priority. Of course, she should take time either before or after school to return your call.

I totally agree with Marie,its really hard to wait so long as you did,My daughters teacher is so nice she reply me, within couple hours of my e mail ( its fastest ,convenient & easy way to reply)OR may be she did'nt listen your message or did'nt recognize you ,so its better to contact her one more time.Give her a chance one more time & try to have her e mail address so that next time you can shoot her an e amil to get quick reply.

GOOD LUCK

24 hours.. Remember, teachers do not always have time to speak between classes or sessions they need to be ready for the next set of kids, write down any notes. Get their next plans ready so when the next set of kids come in she is all set up.

They may have scheduled meetings pending.. Even once your child is in elementary school it is still difficult sometimes to have "on the go conversations"..It is better to schedule them.. Teachers are on a tight schedule..

Also, she does sound like she was have a hard day. She needs to do like the other therapist and incorporate some movement for for your son.. He may need individual attention in his own therapy.

Remember she only has them 1 hour a WEEK! She has a lot to try to get through and if one in 3 children is not able to participate.the other 2 are missing out completely.... maybe a new plan needs to be made just for him..

Her saying he is immature and a copycat surprises me since 1 this is a teacher and 2 she is an early intervention specialist. I would call her back I think 1 day is enough. My middle daughter went to a similar preschool, she has Autism, and they got back to me within a day. Now that she is in elementary school I email them, it's much easier for them to get back to me.

I would address her rude comments and your sons behavior. BTW my daughter has bad behavior issues and with the Autism she mimics a lot. This teachers comments were inappropriate and could have been reworded a lot better!

EDIT I missed that you said that she told other parents this. I would call her immediately I would also talk to whomever is running this program and tell them what she is telling other parents about your child.

I agree that she SHOULD have called you back in 24 hours, at max, by the end of the day on Friday.

I have a 2 1/2 year old (will be 3 in March) who also has speech for childhood apraxia of speech. His speech is through EI right now, but once he turns three, it is handled by the school district....it is no longer EI. The school district has different policies about how things are handled and it is much more structured and goal oriented (I know this cause I have an older son with ADHD/possible Aspergers).

An hour is a really long time for a child to sit, especially a boy, and if he has sensory issues as well (which it sounds like he might) they need to incorporate some movement or at the least some motor breaks. You might also help by giving him some motor/heavy physical work/activity right before you take him if you can. Does he get OT too? Sounds like maybe he could benefit from that too, and I would recommend you request him to be evaluated for that. It is likely that if he requires OT and ST that you could get him in the early childhood preschool that the district should be providing.

IMHO, I would have called and just left a message and said to please call or email you. I would not have left recommendations on her voice mail because she may be feeling defensive there since she is the therapist. Not that I don't think you have a valid point, cause you do...you are his Mom, you know what works best for him. But I would wait until I actually got to speak with her before giving recommendations. AND if she doesn't respond to you or won't communicate with you adequately then yes, you do need to call an IEP like a previous poster below suggested. I am always one who tries to work directly with those working with my kids....some teachers/therapists don't have to have those formal things down in writing to work appropriately with your child, maybe they just needed to take a slightly different approach and once you bring that to their attention, they do it, and it's fine. But others do need to have it down in writing, and it is to your benefit legally to do it that way.

I do think it very unprofessional and inappropriate for her to be saying those things about your son to others. It is REALLY hard for our kids to sit and work so intensively on things that are hard for them. Talking about a particular child to other parents is wrong. If there were difficulties and their children were in the room, she could have said, we had a rough day or something and left it at that.

That time frame is very ambitious for a 3 year old.....I would maybe ask if he could have two 1/2 hour sessions a week instead of 1, 1 hour session. I know I struggle with EI with this as well, trying to get an 2 1/2 year old to do a 1 hour speech session is just not realistic....but it the way their system "works"....in one hour time slots. And if they won't, then again, call an IEP, and be prepared to present to them why this is needed (with some research to back it up). Try to take a collaborative approach with them. Say, OK, this isn't working. What can we do to make it work? If therapy isn't working it's not the child's fault, it's the therapy that needs to be changed. Not all kids work the same/have the same issues so if something's not working for a particular kid, they need to be flexible to change things so it WILL work. Have some ideas in your head and have research done to back up why you think it will work/be helpful so that when they question you they will learn that you have done your research. The more they see that you know what you are talking about, the less they will try to steamroll you. The wrightslaw website that was mentioned below is a good one.

Ok, so she is NOT a teacher, she's a Speech Therapist I'm assuming? And this program is offered to your child free of charge as part of an Early Intervention Program by your school district?

Your child goes to prek everyday? and is pulled twice a week for speech therapy? I'm sorry, just want to clarify. Or your child just goes ONLY for speech therapy, not for school?

To answer your actual question, I think one or two school days is a fair length of time, however I've never had to wait even til the end of the day.
Like another poster said, maybe she didn't get it, couldn't hear it, was out that day, etc. Why not give her another calling saying I'm sorry to call again, just wanted to make sure you got my FIRST call....Please don't be timid about getting the service you think is right for your child. You are his only advocate. Always be 'nice', never be TIMID!

I'd pull my kid out of that classroom.

Since this is a specialty class, chances are that teacher is only in the school a few days a week. It's possible she hasn't even received your message yet. I recommend calling the school in the morning and inquiring as to when she's in the building. Also ask if you can have her e-mail address.

My daughters teacher has always returned my call within 24 hours. She is in 3rd grade now and ever since Kindergarden this has been the case. Maybe it is different in pre-school?