I am having a go-round with several of my parents.  They claim they were not warned about their children failing until 2 weeks before the end of the year.  That of course, is when I sent the formal retention letter.  Of course, if you look at their report cards, the signs and warnings were all there.  Where were the parents?  They were never at the school checking up on their students, that's for sure.  They never responded to notes sent home by student and mail.  They never made appointments to come in and see me because they were concerned that their child made all "F's" on his report card.  Did they not care the rest of the year?  Why do they care all of a sudden?  Because I sent a letter home telling them that their precious JR is an idiot and will be in the same grade next year?  I wish!  I was polite and fair and let them know that their child had not done enough work to be ready to succeed in the next grade.  THEIR CHILD???!!! Impossible!  I ask my kid every night if he has homework and he always says he did it at school.  I don't know what your problem is Lady!  My problem is that your child is a LIAR!!!  Oops, I mean your child was probably not telling the truth or he lost it on the way to school.  It is possible that the dog ate it or even that he did it and 'forgot' to turn it in.  What ever the excuse, er,"reason" is, the child did not turn in the work and I could not grade it and put it in the gradebook.  Therefore, it doesn't count because I cannot justify giving a student a grade on what I think he might have gotten if he had done the assignment and turned it in in the first place. 

I desperately want to ask the question, "Where the heck were you all year long?  Why haven't you called and talked to me before?"  In fact, they have been calling the school to complain about what a mean teacher I am.  They call the principal!  They were setting me up for this.  So...I will pass their darlings into the next grade as long as the parent write me a note taking responsibility for it.  If they don't care that their child is getting farther and farther behind, why should I care?