Transplanting Your Teen Into A California High School, Part One

I have the pleasure to work and live among many folk who, like us, moved to California from out of state/country/planet. (Seriously, some of the people I work with are scary smart with social skills that could only have been developed within a social construct entirely different from anything yet observed on Earth.) As a new school year is rapidly approaching, I thought it might be helpful to share a few observations with these folk about what to expect in the process of getting your teen-ager happily tucked in to a typical Silicon Valley high school.

The first clue for us that things were going to work out well came when the paperwork we were told by the Fremont Union High School District we would need—if memory serves, this included a passport, appropriate visa, proof of residency, transfer record, recent TB test, and inoculation records--were, in fact, all we actually needed. This was a refreshing change from “Adventures at the DMV” and my personal favorite of all moving games, “The Social Security Administration Shuffle.” The staff at our local high school was alert, friendly, and helpful. Of course, like any other organization, they won’t think to tell you what they can’t conceive you wouldn’t know.

For example, we were given the choice of three different Phys. Ed. programs for our son: “PE Teams,” “PE Marching Band,” and “PE.” I took the choices back to the huddle around our kitchen table that night, and since Third Child had really enjoyed his music program in Gr. 9 in Ottawa, we all agreed that whatever PE Marching Band might be, it sounded like the most fun and from my perspective, looked like it was least likely to end up in broken bones. Besides, we were assured that even though TC had missed a week-long pre-term “band camp” since we had arrived only 3 days before school began, they would overlook the transgression and let him in.

And this brings me to Lesson #1:

California public high schools often run extra-curricular programs throughout the summer that will affect whether students are eligible to participate in regular courses. This is serious business. Third Child, a trombone player, got stuck with the cymbals his first year. They were the only instruments “left” after band camp.