It may seem petty to use an emergency contact form for school as means of control in a power struggle, but unfortunately it happens. This tactic is often used to undermine your efforts and paint you as the difficult or absent parent who doesn’t communicate. 28% of children under the age of 14 have separated parents. That is a significant percentage of the school community and unless there is a court order that says otherwise, both parents are entitled to access information about their child at school, regardless of who the child is living with.
Although its increasingly common for Australian children to live in multiple house holds and both parents have the rights to access school information, schools just don’t have systems in place, nor training of staff to make sure both parents are informed of things like newsletters, permission notes and homework information, as well as medical updates, access to report cards and parent–teacher interviews. The school processes are designed for “traditional families” and the school administration tools often can’t handle two separate emails and only has option for one main emergency contact.
So what’s the solution? There is no doubt that school administration systems need to be updated to accommodate the complexities of co-parents and school staff should be involved in targeted training to improve their understanding of the needs and challenges of separated parents. But realistically the school system isn’t going to change in time for the start of school this year. So you will need to make sure the teacher / school communicates with you by keeping on top of things. Go in and introduce yourself, join the schools social media pages, query the teacher on the terms upcoming events so you can add them to your calendar, email the teacher on a regular basis to check in and remind them to keep you loop as your an active parent.
