In the past, many children had different morning and afternoon designations, depending on child-care needs. Some, for example, were picked up at home but dropped off at a grandparent's home, or at a day-care program. But last week, Deputy Superintendent Elois Brooks told a trustees panel that advises the D.C. financial control board on education that such a policy was a costly, bus-routing nightmare. Under the new plan, if no parent or guardian is on hand when the children are dropped off after school, they will be taken to a newly created center. If this happens three times, she said, D.C. child welfare officials will be notified.
Many parents work.
Some attend school. Some even attend school and work. I want to know why they are doing this to us less than two weeks before the opening of school. Skepticism about D.C. schools abounds, activists say, in part because a succession of superintendents hasn't delivered on promised improvements. The special education program, which serves one in 10 children in the 72,000-student system, has long failed thousands of children with emotional, physical or learning disabilities.