i feel like this is a good place to ask this and maybe get less flamed. at the beginning of the year, j's teacher required a $25 classroom fee. is that a thing?
DS had this in elementary school and it covered all the little special craft projects for the year. It was nice not having to send $2-5 through out the year.
We have a district wide policy were you cannot require a family to pay any fees for anything as we were sued by a family about 10 years ago for "free" education. So if you are in art class, and you get a form filled out in our district office, we are required to supply you with everything you need. This has basically caused all field trips to be eliminated because the school will have to pay to transport, for the activity, and provide a lunch for the majority of students (and we have a lot of lower income families). If a student does not have school supplies like pencil, pen, paper, etc. we have to provide it for them. We can request that they have things but cannot demand as public education is "free".
That is so weird, with the contribution to the shower seeming very out of place. Is a gift card tree where the students decorate with a gift card each? I'm guessing whether than piece meal asking for supplies for the project it is easier to ask for gift card contributions so the teacher can get the supplies herself. Whenever the teacher does a project the needs materials, our room mom sends an email with the items needed and people volunteer to bring in something.
For a teacher gift, the room mom is bringing in a basket and asked that each kid bring in one sweet/treat (one cookie, small chocolate, brownie square, etc). They also sent a letter home requesting a donation of no more than $5 a family to purchase gift cards for the 80+ school staff. I wanted to send in a gift card for the teacher, but now I wonder if it is allowed.
I hope you live in a wealthy district, because this is absurd otherwise.
My school doesn't ask for anything. Occasionally we are asked I we would like to contribute toward a project, and it's under $5. We can also send in extra to sponsor another child.
David's school had a $100 supply fee this year (private preschool). I was fucking annoyed. We have to always send shit into the school, plan and pay for all of the parties and bring in snacks for the whole class one week every two months. I do love his school but they are a huge fucking money suck.