Let's Blame the Teacher

Yesterday when I got to school in the morning I had an email from Mr. Principal. In the subject line it said "Let's Chat." I read the email. I opened the email, and it seemed that a parent had called Mr. Principal, complaining that I had not responded to a phone call in a timely manner. Really? Now, I do hate having to return phone calls. I prefer that parents contact me via email, but not all families have computers at home. But, I would say that mostly I return phone calls within 24 hours. But at my first break, I went to Mr. Principal's office. It turns out is wasn't about phone calls as the email implied (that was Mr. Principal's mistake). A parent called, saying that I did not send home school information in a timely manner, and that because of this, the family was always missing events and opportunities for the child. I have to admit that passing out info at the end of the day often slips my mind. The end of the day is always hectic. Plus, we are supposed to hand out notices on Thursday, so I begin a pile as things appear in my box, only to forget by Thursday. But I know I'm not the only one who does this. As well, our school has made valient attempts this year to send home as much email via email as possible. Often the only kids getting a hard-copy handout are the few without computers/internet access at home. Those handouts only go to specific kids. I call them my "Red Dot Kids," as on the top copy on the stack will be a red dot, letting me know that it only goes out to the few. When I had out notices, I generally get a kid to pass out notices that go to all students, and then organize the red dot handouts for the Red Dot kids to line up and pick up. My first impulse was to apologize, as I'm sure I have slipped up from time to time. But now I kick myself for doing that. How dare he assume that the parent is correct in saying the her kid is responsible and brings home every handout from school? Really? Have any other parents complained in my class that I don't pass out information in a timely manner? Back in February I had an conference that started out badly from the beginning, as the parent hadn't even seen the report card yet, even though I had sent them home the previous week. That was apparently my fault. I can pass out notices, and can send them home, but I have no control over whether they get into the backpack and then get handed to the parent. I think I know which student it was, though. Later that day, even though it wasn't Thursday, I passed out any notices I had (I have decided to no longer wait until Thursday, but pass out anything asap so if the parent complains again, I'll no it wasn't me). I had two notices to go out; one notice went to all students and gave info about the upcoming Art Walk at school on Friday. The other notice went to Red Dot Kids and was informing parents that Wednesday was a late-start day (also timely). I have about 11 notices in my Red Dot stack, but after kids came up to get them, five notices still remained. The student who I suspected of being the cause of this complaint did not come pick up a notice, I noticed... So after recess, as the kids got ready to go to PE (and then home from there), I asked all Red Dot Kids to raise their hand. Miss Red Dot Girl in Question raised her hand. I went to her directly, and said, "If you are a Red Dot Kid, why didn't you pick up that goldenrod notice?" She shrugged. I handed her a notice. Her mom is just mad at me because I didn't give her daughter 4s. Her daughter is not a 4. She is average. Get over it.