I've always viewed parents who request specific grade-school teachers for their children as kind of a helicopter parent — especially if their children, like mine, are lucky enough to attend an excellent school that's full of teachers that make it that way. My second grader has had three teachers with three different styles and personalities (some strict, some sweet), and I was thrilled about that fact because such is life. To me, learning to work with and learn from different types of people is just as an important as learning how to add double digits.
However, my son, who will enter kindergarten this Fall, has made me realize that my previous no-requesting policy was a privileged one. My first child is an excellent student, so I never worried about what teacher she'd get because I knew she'd do well regardless of whom she was assigned to. My second is a whole different story. My son needs a special kind of teacher, one who is patient, experienced, and compassionate, and because my daughter's kindergarten teacher was all of those things, I'm not just hoping he'll also be assigned to her classroom — I'm specifically requesting that it happens.
Since I've never requested a teacher before, I did my due diligence about how to best go about it, asking friends who've had kids in the school system longer than I have about their experiences in asking for a teacher. I also went directly to our school's principal to ask about when and how to ask for a specific teacher for my child. Here are the five tips I gathered about the best path to teacher-requesting success.