Why My Husband is Rad

Did anyone know that registering for Kindergarten was such a pain the ass?  You should have told me.  Really, that was rude of you.

Maybe it's just in our area.  Apparently, the elementary school that we live .5 miles away from is the most coveted of public elementary schools around so people will drive their kids in from other districts, lie, cheat and steal in order to get their kid a spot here.

You would think that living .5 miles it would be no big deal for us to get Emma registered.  You would be wrong.  First, I have to navigate the packet of paperwork I have to fill out and have ready and waiting on registration day.  Then on Tuesday night I have to camp out at the school to be at least one of 80 people ready at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning to get a date and time stamp for registration.  Yes, I will be spending the night in front of the school.  To register.  For Kindergarten. 

Our first and hopefully only hiccup was proof of a negative TB test.  When Emma had her 4 year check up the doctor told us that we could do the TB test then and it would be good for her kindergarten registration.  We got it done in June and they require a TB test 18 months before entering school.  June 2010 to August 2011 = 14 months < 18 months, right?  I thought so.

Thanks to JeNae's suggestion I went in to the school office today with all my paperwork to make sure everything was in order.  I was informed everything was great except the TB test.  The TB test needed to be done within 6 months.  The secretary then paraphrased the paperwork for me in a way that completely got me thinking I was an idiot and couldn't read because I swore I had read over that form 8 times to make sure I had all my stuff ready.

For those of you in the know, for about the entire month of February Emma was fighting an infection and it sucked.  She was on antibiotics for 20 out of the 28 days of February and halfway through that she had to get a booster shot of antibiotics to try to get rid of the infection.  The shot is very painful and is mixed with kind of a numbing agent because it is so painful.  Emma HATED it and ever since then has been super afraid of needles.  We had to get a flu shot this last week and that sucked big time.  The idea of taking Emma in to get another TB test just about had me in tears.

But that's not really the worst part.  This is the worst:  Emma is standing by the counter with me, not really paying attention.  The school nurse checks over the immunizations and asks about the TB shot.  The secretary says 'she's going to get another one.'  The nurse says, okay and leans down to Emma and says 'You're going to have a long needle do a long poke and make a little bubble in your arm.  It's not so bad!'  Instantly, Emma is hysterical with tears.  I said to the nurse, 'Could you please not do that?!  She's really afraid of needles!'

I swear, I wanted to do physical harm to this woman.  Why would you say that to a 4 year old child?!  There are adults who don't want to hear they have to get a long needle poked into their arm!  I was in disbelief.  But I knew Emma was going to go to this school and I didn't want her forever remembered as the kid whose mom killed the school nurse.  I think that would probably go on her permanent record.

So I took 15 minutes to console her and get her off to preschool where she finally stopped crying, but I could see she was completely stressed about the shot.  When I got home I checked the paperwork again and this is what it says:

• 'Also, Santa Clara County requires that all new Kindergarten students have documentation of a TB test given no more than 18 months before entering school. (All other students coming from out of Santa Clara County) must show proof of a TB test no more than 6 months before entering the district.

That is exactly how it is typed out, boldface and all.  Emma has never lived anywhere outside of Santa Clara County.  So she should qualify as an 18 monther.  I gathered the paperwork again and asked Ray to go over to the school and please try to fix this.

Basically what they tell him is that the test must be taken within 18 months of entering a mandatory grade level and since Kindergarten is considered optional it doesn't count so it must be within 18 months of her entering 1st grade.  What????  That doesn't even make sense!  And that is NOT what it says on the paperwork.  They say that the paperwork comes from the district so they themselves don't have any say in how things should be worded.  Ray tells them that he wants confirmation from the district that Emma has to get another TB shot.  If she does, not problem we'll go get it, but if she doesn't then we're not going to get her poked unnecessarily.  About an hour later the school calls and leaves a message on his voicemail telling him that Emma's TB shot is fine and we don't need to get another one.  He saved the voicemail.

And that, my friends, is why my husband is rad.