About the School-Within-School at Peabody

Policies and Procedures

Security
Upon entering the Peabody building all parents are asked to sign in at the security desk at the front door on the first floor. If you are volunteering in the building you will need a visitor's pass. If you are arriving late with your child or picking up your child early please sign the Early Dismissal or Tardy logs in the SWS office on the third floor.

Attendance
Regular, full-time attendance is mandatory. Please review the DCPS pamphlet on attendance. All students are expected to be in school from 8:45AM until 3:15PM. Out-of-boundary students who are frequently absent or tardy will be asked to enroll in their neighborhood school. Any student who is absent for more than 10 consecutive days will be referred to the local school attendance committee for an attendance intervention plan. Any student who is absent for 20 consecutive days will be made inactive in the school's enrollment and not counted in the membership.

If your child is going to be absent or tardy please call 698-3283 and leave a message for the teacher on the morning of the absence. A note explaining the child's absence should accompany the child on their return to school. We discourage parents from taking students on vacations during school days as those are not counted as excused absences.

Arrival and Dismissal
School begins at 8:45AM and ends at 3:15PM. A Parent, guardian, or childcare provider must supervise any student arriving at school prior to 8:45AM. If students arrive after Morning Meeting has begun in their classroom, parents are asked to wait with them until morning meeting has ended (usually around 9:30am). A parent or guardian must escort tardy students to the classroom after signing the tardy log in the SWS office. Likewise, in consideration of SWS staff obligations after school hours, students must be picked up promptly at 3:15PM. Parents who are consistently late picking up their child from school will be asked to make other after-school arrangements.

SWS Teachers need the time before 8:45AM and after 3:15PM to prepare their classrooms, to meet with each other, and to take care of school related business. Please be considerate of their time in scheduling your child's arrival and pick-up times.

Students should line up at their classroom number on the playground in the morning and will be dismissed from that spot in the afternoon. Please pick up your child from their line on the playground so that the teacher knows who picked up the child. During inclement weather, SWS students are asked to assemble on the 5th street side of the basement (near the girls bathroom) to meet the teachers or assistants in the morning. At dismissal time during inclement weather, Ms. Breipohl and Mr. Burst's classes will be dismissed from the first floor 5th street stairwell, and Ms. Ricks and Mrs. Chapman's classes will be dismissed from the first floor playground stairwell.

Communication
Every child at SWS has a special plastic folder with their name and symbol on it. The folder is essential for communication that goes from school to home and back. Please help us by remembering to put it back in your child's backpack after retrieving all the notices.

Concerns about your child – Write a note and send it in your child's folder, leave a phone message, or schedule a meeting with your child's teacher. Parent conferences are also scheduled three times during the school year to review your child's progress with the teacher.

Concerns about the school or classroom – As a teacher-directed school the members of the SWS staff have weekly meetings and are in daily contact with each other to address any problems that may occur. If you have a concern about your child's classroom or the school in general, we encourage you to talk first with your child's teacher. The lead teacher is also available for discussion of any concerns regarding the school. We ask that all SWS parents respect the requests made by Peabody school staff regarding the playground, hallways, and parking restrictions. It is important to the integrity of SWS that open and positive communication is maintained between Peabody and SWS staff and parents.

Parent Conferences – Parent conferences are held at the beginning of the school year and three times during the school year (two weeks after the end of the fall, winter, and spring advisories).

Discipline
SWS has adopted the Responsive Classroom framework to make decisions regarding behavior in the classroom. It is a framework that engages students in making decisions about the rules and routines of the classroom and encourages respectful interactions between and among students and teachers.

When students misbehave, they are given the opportunity to change their behavior through reminders and redirection. If a student is not responsive after repeated redirection the teacher may call the parent or put the child in time-out for a short period of time (3 to 5 minutes) until he or she is ready to return to the classroom activities. Time-out is a consequence, not a punishment, and is used to help a child reflect on what they will do when they return to the activity they were asked to leave.

In cases when a student is continually disruptive the parents will be contacted to arrange a meeting with the teacher and/or the school counselor to discuss the appropriate course of action to be taken. The course of action could include putting the child on a half-day schedule for a short time, or establishing a behavior contract between the child, the teacher and the parent. The focus of managing behavior at SWS is on rewarding positive behavior and helping students resolve conflicts through negotiation.

All SWS parents have signed an agreement that they will take responsibility for ensuring that their child will exhibit satisfactory behavior. Those students who are attending SWS as out-of-boundary students may be asked to return to their neighborhood school if parents are uncooperative and students are unable to change their behavior.

Health Records
Current immunizations or notes of exemption and current records of physical and dental examinations must be provided for all students. Physical and dental examinations must have occurred within 150 days prior (which is April 15) to the beginning of the school year to be considered current. If your child received a physical and dental examination prior to April 15 of the current calendar year, have your physician and dentist complete the forms indicating no change in health status. Upon review of the health forms the school nurse will notify parents whose children's health records are not up to date. Students may be excluded from school if their health records are not submitted within ten days following notification of delinquent records.

Illness
Students who are ill or have a contagious disease should be kept at home. Students with contagious diseases such as chicken pox, conjunctivitis, or ringworm, will be required to bring a doctor's statement certifying the condition is no longer contagious upon returning to school.

Medications
Students requiring medication during school hours must have a form (available from the school nurse) filled out by the parent and their doctor giving permission to a certified person in the school to dispense medication.

Injuries and Emergencies
Please be sure that your child's teacher has current home and work phone numbers where you can be reached in the event of an emergency. You will be contacted if your child suffers any injury during school hours. The school nurse is in the Peabody building two-and-a-half days a week. She attends to all minor injuries and informs parents of the injury. When the nurse is not available a teacher or assistant will contact the parent.

Clothing
Dress your child in clothing that is appropriate for all types of play and can be easily managed by your child. In the course of a day a child may paint, use clay, climb outside, have lunch and snack, and be engaged actively in many other activities. Comfortable clothing that children do not have to worry about getting dirty will help your child participate fully in the activities of the day.

Learning to manage their own clothing during toileting is an important skill for young children. They gain a sense of selfÐconfidence and independence when they are able to manage their own clothing. Please avoid belts, buttons and buckles that are difficult for your child to manage on their own.

Bringing Things from Home
Each classroom teacher has established guidelines for bringing things from home for sharing or for rest time. We ask that children refrain from bringing very valuable or irreplaceable things to school. Although we make every effort to safeguard all the children's belongings, there are times when things may get lost or broken. Children are encouraged to keep things of value in their backpacks or keep them at home.

Lunch
Your child may bring a bag lunch or purchase a hot lunch from the cafeteria. Menus for school lunches are posted on the parent bulletin board on the first floor. A school lunch costs $1.25. Parents can purchase a ten-day lunch ticket for $11.50 from the cafeteria staff. Children bringing bag lunches can purchase milk for .35 cents.

Lost and Found
Check the large bin on the first floor stairwell of the playground side of the building. Labeling all of your child's belongings will help to prevent their loss.

Parking
Parking on the Peabody grounds is reserved for teachers and staff only. Parents are asked to find parking on side streets and refrain from blocking the entrance to the playground when dropping off or picking up students.