Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Always Late Jorge is a new student to school. He has recently moved from Mexico with his family. When he arrived, he knew no English. He is slowly improving, but he is far behind his classmates. He receives ESOL services, and help from a bilingual assistant. However, the bilingual assistant cannot spend time doing her ESOL curriculum because she must help him catch up on his classroom. He misses at least 30 minutes of classroom time every morning, because his parents always drop him off late. His parents speak no English and are not accustomed to the concepts of early and late in the United States, since they recently moved from Mexico. What should the classroom teacher do? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I would not be so quick to judge the parents for not being accustomed to the concepts of early and late in the United States. The concept is held all around the world, especially if the parents had a job in Mexico. You might ask the student is there a particular reason he is consistently late to school. Perhaps the parents have to get other children ready and dropped off at a daycare or another school. Perhaps they work a night shift and often don't wake up in time to get the child to school. Perhaps it's a struggle to get the student to come to school if he does not enjoy schooling. There are many factors to consider that can play into the tardiness of the student. However, you would still want to find out that cause to help in any way you can. You can ask for help from the bilingual assistant to be there when you approach the parents about the issue or you can ask for her assistance in translating a note home about the issue. Either way, you want to be respectful as you do not want the parents to feel they are not welcome in the school community.