As the school year winds down to the last few weeks for many children, what I hear from many school people is that various suggestions can not be done NOW because the year is almost over. Curiously, throughout the year the time never seems right.
In the first weeks of the year, anything that is brought up is quickly dismissed since "this is a still a getting acquainted period" and academics are still being reviewed; "give us a chance to get to know the child puh-leeze !"
As the year wears on into November, the time is not right because it is almost Thanksgiving break. The thoughts of school people are more on vacation planning and feasting than on problem solving. Of course, immediately after Thanksgiving, end of semester work, finishing up, and Christmas are preeminent so the time is not right.
After Christmas break, children are still "getting the cob webs out after break" so you can not expect a normative environment to prevail, so again the time is not right. Late January and February bring high stakes testing for many districts so there is no time and attention to solve problems or to take up issues. Once this period has passed, you guessed it Spring Break is imminent, and of course annual reviews, so schedules are jammed; the time is again not right.
In April and May, the year is almost over "lets not be so focused on last year’s errors and lets look forward" to next year. I call this last period the Brooklyn Dodgers/Chicago Cubs period–we’ll get yuh next year, and better luck then. This recitation while only partially facetious has an awful lot of truth.
What I do to avoid this syndrome [as best as possible] is to get meeting dates on the calendar with committed agendas as soon into the year as possible. For me, October and February are the months that are the least prone to this argument from the school. Schedule annual reviews in January or sooner for the Spring. Keep up a steady stream of emails, so when you finally get to the meeting, they can not say with a straight face "we never knew about these issues until now"; and of course, since we are just learning of this problem now, we can not solve that issue because the "time is not right." Oy, like nailing jello to the wall.