School Checklist

The summer is down to its last weekend - Labor Day - and then it is time for children to return to their classrooms on Tuesday, September 4.
Those of us without children should remember to drive more carefully near our borough’s school buildings. Do not speed past school buses that are stopped with flashing lights and their stop signs displayed near the driver’s window.
Follow the directions of the school crossing guards whenever they are present.
Have patience and do not blow your horns in and around schools while they are in session. Look an extra time or two as you back out of your driveways.
Parents with children should make an extra effort to get involved with the PTAs at their kids’ schools. Attend all the parent-teacher conferences. Support all the school fund raising functions.
Remember to arrange for your children to be vaccinated before school begins. The required vaccinations for school entry are those protecting against life-threatening diseases including diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, hepatitis B, pertussis (whooping cough) and chicken pox. All children entering school must show proof of a complete medical evaluation. If you do not have insurance or need a provider, call 3-1-1 to find a vaccination clinic.
Send your children to school armed with a good breakfast, the most important meal of the day especially for usually sleepy-headed teenagers.
Parents should search their children’s backpacks or book bags or folders for letters, flyers, notes, announcements, surveys and the like from school officials.
Let us not have another repeat of the school bus routes debacle when a survey was sent home from the schools three times to allow parents to opt-in or opt-out of school buses for their kids. Of the 114 routes that were cut citywide in the dead of winter, only 16 were restored. While the City Council has passed legislation allowing children to bring cell phones to and from schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has threatened to veto it. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein have maintained that students may not bring them into the city schools.
We hope that the City Council’s resolve, including an override of the mayor’s veto in this issue, will change the minds of the mayor and the chancellor. Kids must be able to stay in touch with their parents before and after schools, and in cases of emergency.
Take away their cellphones if they are used in schools or become a distraction in classes. Require parents to turn off texting. Why penalize the children who can follow rules? Let them have the safety afforded by having a cellphone available.
One last reminder is that thanks again to the efforts of our City Council, Queens libraries are open on Saturdays too. Now students can use their resources over the weekend and get their homework and special projects done on time and on their own.