1120 - School Visitations
Community Relations
1120 – School Visitations
Parents and interested members of the community are encouraged to visit the schools. A notice will be conspicuously posted inside the main entrance to each school instructing visitors to report to the school’s main office prior to visiting. In order to promote a safe and productive educational environment for all students and staff, all visitors and observers must comply with any and all applicable building security procedures, including, but not limited to utilizing security buzzers for access, complying with requests for photo identification, reporting directly to the main office and signing in and out of the school, prominently displaying visitors' badges or other identification required for visitors to the school buildings, limiting access to those areas of the buildings and grounds for which the visitors/observers have authorized access, and complying with directives of school officials at all times.
Any persons, except students officially enrolled in a particular school and employees assigned to a particular school, are considered visitors to that school.
The Principal or his/her designee shall have complete authority to exclude from the school premises any persons whom he/she has reason to believe are disrupting the educational programs in the classroom or in the school, are disturbing the teachers or students on the premises, are deemed to pose a safety risk to students, staff or employees or whom the Principal believes are on the premises for the purposes of committing an illegal act.
Procedures should be established by each building principal whereby visitations made to the school during class time for purposes of transmitting items or messages to students are processed through the school office.
The building principal in consultation with the classroom teacher shall determine the scheduling, frequency and duration of classroom visitations. When making these determinations, consideration shall be given to the need to carry on the educational process with regard to student and staff assignments and school and classroom routines.
The duration of classroom visitations is established as the length of an average teaching period at each grade level, i.e., one-half hour to one hour at the elementary schools and the length of a regular class period and the middle and high schools.
Request for visitation should be submitted in writing to the building principal who will review the request with the teacher. Upon the principal’s approval, the teacher will contact the parent or interested resident, to establish a mutually convenient date and time for visitation. This information will be reported to the building principal by that teacher.
A building administrator shall be present during a classroom visitation if the visitor or teacher makes such a request or if the principal deems it necessary for any reason.
If time permits, it is recommended that visitations conclude with the teacher having a brief consultation with the visitor.
Since continuity in classrooms is often difficult to achieve and maintain, while visiting in a classroom, a visitor must not interrupt the class in any way, nor speak to (unless invited to do so) or disturb the students or teacher.
The Board desires to work collaboratively with parents with an educational nexus with the District, its educational programs or the student being observed, to observe their students in their current classrooms or observe proposed educational placements in the Board's schools. The Board, through the administration, reserves the right to limit observations of current and proposed educational placements in accordance with administrative regulations and the Board's Guidelines for Independent Educational Evaluations.
Although Board of Education (Board) members are encouraged to visit schools independently, they have authority only in regularly called meetings of the Board, or when delegated specific tasks by specific Board action.
Legal References:
Connecticut General Statutes
53a-185 Loitering on or about school grounds
"Guidelines Regarding Independent Educational Evaluations at Public Expense and In-School Observations," Connecticut State Department of Education (Mar. 28, 2018).
Policy Adopted: June 1982
Revised: June 2019