When your school offers an Orientation or an Open House, that is your opportunity to go in and meet your teacher or teachers for your student’s school year. Before you go, come up with a list of questions about the upcoming school year or more specific questions about your child. If the teacher doesn’t address the questions in his/her overall welcome speech then you might have the opportunity to ask questions.
If you do have a child with special education needs, I would reach out to the teacher, prior to school beginning, if you have a specific concern/question. You have every right to advocate for your child.
If you don’t have specific concerns/questions you can wait until school begins. I would connect through email or the way the school has requested teachers be contacted to introduce yourself and ask specific questions which may have surfaced.
Teachers in the younger grades will send home information about lunch, snack, recess and specials(p.e., music art, library).
As a self-contained teacher I spent hours talking to parents about their questions and concerns. That was my job. I sent home a lot of information daily, about their child, because I chose to keep parents very updated on their child’s daily behavior, food intake, bathroom trips and their learning for the day. This was when I taught in self-contained ASD classrooms and EBD classrooms.
You should also ask about arrival and dismissal procedures. How is your child getting to their bus? If they’re independent enough when do they go and how do they go? I had a middle school parent ask me about this exact concern last night.
Just remember, Open House and Orientation is a time for the teacher to talk to the entire group of parents and you do not want to break your child’s confidentiality. I have had to tell many parents throughout the years that we need to speak at a different time because I respected their privacy.