Considering a B2B...How do you pull kids out of school that long

[jlwhitney]

Oh how I dislike the public school system. Its the parents responabality to raise a child, not the gov't. Only a parent knows what their children can handle. I am all for kids missing school if the parents know they can handle the work and the parents can help them with it if needed.

Kids can learn so much on a vacation if the parents want them to.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Oh how I dislike the public school system. Its the parents responabality to raise a child, not the gov't. Only a parent knows what their children can handle. I am all for kids missing school if the parents know they can handle the work and the parents can help them with it if needed.

Kids can learn so much on a vacation if the parents want them to.

I too am a believer in that only the parent knows what works for their child. We used to pull our kids out for vacations to save money and avoid crowds. We stopped doing it when our kids could no longer handle being pulled.

The one excuse I hate is that the kids learn more being away from school than they do in school. Can't the kids learn those same things when school is out of session? Is learning while on a vacation only a priority when a kid misses school? Just pull the kid and admit that you're doing it to save money in the off-season, avoid crowds or doing it because of job-related reasons. As long as your school district allows it, why bother asking here? We don't know your situation or your child's aptitude.

 

[jlwhitney]

I too am a believer in that only the parent knows what works for their child. We used to pull our kids out for vacations to save money and avoid crowds. We stopped doing it when our kids could no longer handle being pulled.

The one excuse I hate is that the kids learn more being away from school than they do in school. Can't the kids learn those same things when school is out of session? Is learning while on a vacation only a priority when a kid misses school? Just pull the kid and admit that you're doing it to save money in the off-season, avoid crowds or doing it because of job-related reasons. As long as your school district allows it, why bother asking here? We don't know your situation or your child's aptitude.

Learning on vacation to me is not an excuse to take them out but more of added value to the vacation. As in they can learn alot on it no matter when if the parents want them too.

People pull kids out of school for so many reasons. Look how many pull kids out for a surgery or medical treatment that could easily wait till summer when the kid won't miss school. Either way they are missing school.

 

[Nola Girl]

I don' t take my kids out of school because they don't like to miss that much school. It is too stressful. One day maybe, my son will do two. Sometimes DD will not even agree to one. Her father received a huge award this year and and she would have needed to miss one of her college lab classes to come to ceremony, she refused to come. Our family photo is in the newspaper without her........

 

[srhodes]

It always surprises me when these threads come up that there is very little thought for the teachers and their time. Who is expected to catch a child up after that long of an absence? Homework packets are a huge time suck as teachers do not always have all their worksheets printed and ready weeks ahead of time. When will the child make-up all the missed tests/exams?

I am really not trying to be judgmental, but I do not understand how 2 weeks of day long instruction is supposed to be made up. Do parents feel their child should not be responsible for all the missed work- because wow- 2 weeks out of middle school is a lot of work!

I don't think I could talk my DS to take that trip if it meant all that work had to be done when he returned.

i dont think its a situation where we are not taking the thoughts of the teachers into consideration. nor do i expect to have my childs work given to me WEEKS in advance. however, if i speak with the school and there is an understanding in october, that we are vacationing in january, i dont feel there should be any problem getting my children their work 3-4 days before we leave.

as a PARENT it is MY responsibility to make sure that my child is on track before we leave. and is caught up shortly after we return. i am not leaving any of that on the teachers shoulders! as for making up any tests or exams, i have no problem with taking my child to school early, staying in for recess, or staying after school to take these.

 

[jlwhitney]

I don' t take my kids out of school because they don't like to miss that much school. It is too stressful. One day maybe, my son will do two. Sometimes DD will not even agree to one. Her father received a huge award this year and and she would have needed to miss one of her college lab classes to come to ceremony, she refused to come. Our family photo is in the newspaper without her........

College is a whole different issue though......lot harder to miss since most have strict attendance policy (which is dumb since you are paying) and the work load is harder and profs are less likely to let people make up work and tests and such.

 

[michigan829]

We are cruising in Sept. and will be pulling our girls (ages 16 and 12) out of school for six days. We called the school and they said the limit is 7 days, so looks like we're good...barring any unforeseen illnesses!

We're in Michigan, if that makes a difference!

 

[kaseyC]

It always surprises me when these threads come up that there is very little thought for the teachers and their time. Who is expected to catch a child up after that long of an absence? Homework packets are a huge time suck as teachers do not always have all their worksheets printed and ready weeks ahead of time. When will the child make-up all the missed tests/exams?

Well, in our High School district 5 of the 6 optional school trips were during school time. The French classes went to France for 10 days, Spanish classes spent 10 days in Peru, Latin classes toured Italy and Greece, AP European History went to Prague and U.S. History went to DC... all while school was in session. These trips are planned by the teachers and approved by the District. Those students were expected to make up work for the 7 other classes they missed and their teachers were expected to provide that work.

How is that any different than me taking my own kids out for vacation?

 

[shburks]

Yep. At my job only 20% are allowed to be off at one time. That means that most of us are denied summer and winter holiday vacation requests.

We're a military family and only 10% from our squadron can be on leave (vacation) at one time so the vast majority of folks do not get holiday vacation/spring break time and we are often moving during the summers and/or husband is retraining of some sort, so we take our vacations when we can. So far schools have been pretty understanding.

 

[jlwhitney]

Well, in our High School district 5 of the 6 optional school trips were during school time. The French classes went to France for 10 days, Spanish classes spent 10 days in Peru, Latin classes toured Italy and Greece, AP European History went to Prague and U.S. History went to DC... all while school was in session. These trips are planned by the teachers and approved by the District. Those students were expected to make up work for the 7 other classes they missed and their teachers were expected to provide that work.

How is that any different than me taking my own kids out for vacation?

Good point. My junior year of high school I missed 10 days of schools due to various school trips and other. They were not all at once, some 1 days some 2 days and one was 3 days...either way I missed the day and had to make things up.

What I also don't get is that schools have no problem with kids missing for optional elective surgeries that could wait will breaks. In the end, its the same they aren't in school. They may be excused but result is the same.

In the end schools are a pain and most of it comes down to funding not the best interest of the teacher, student and class. Which is just plain sad.

 

[tinkeringbells]

We have taken DD and DS out of school several times for Dis vactions. We always talk to their teachers first and let the office know in advance. Some schools require authorization from the principal as well. Teachers have either given out homework to take along or have asked kids to keep a journal or write a report. We have one honors student and one in special ed, and schools have been equally accommodating for each.

Good luck!

 

[UmmGooD]

Wow I live in Texas and just read the Texas one. It is way more strict than I had thought. I knew that if a kid missed more than 10 days it was bad but it actually states that if a child misses more than 3 days in a 4 week period or 10 days in a 6 month period then they can prosecute the parent. CRAZY.

I never missed school but then again my parents very seldom took me anywhere like a cruise. They would take me to a friend or family member's house out of state but that was about the extent of our vacations and those were always done in the summer.

I totally feel for the people who cannot take off during the summer because of their jobs. I would hope the school would work with you and I think in Texas they can choose to 'excuse' an absence for any reason but you are at the discretion of the principle or teacher. Hopefully they would see the reason and make an allowance for you.

As for cost I know I like Disney cruises and it is so tempting to try to save that extra 2 grand on the cruise but I figure I wouldn't want to put the additional stress on my kids or myself knowing that my state could really go after me if I took my daughter out of school. I guess if I can't afford to cruise either Spring, Winter, or Summer breaks then I would have to choose a more affordable vacation that we would still enjoy but took place during those break periods.

 

[UmmGooD]

In the state of TX, the only excused absences are for doctor's notes. That's it.

I actually just read the law and that isn't true. The law is a teacher or administrator can excuse the absence for ANY reason. Your school or district might have another policy but it isn't for the entire state. For unexcused it is pretty strict. I did go to a coffee talk with the principle of my daughter's school and one of discussions a parent brought up was about vacations during school.

Currently my daughter's school (an exemplary rated elementary school in Austin) is pretty lenient. But she did say that there are goals for attendance for the school. Say 95% total average attendance over the year. They recommend that the parents don't take vacations from school but there is nothing they can do to prevent it. Up to the point I did the coffee talk the principle said that they have never chosen to prosecute any parent for this reason but she did say that if the school does start to not meet their average attendance policies they would have to start refusing vacations or other extra curricular things that can effect attendance.

So I think it depends on your school. If the average student there doesn't miss a lot of school the school probably is a bit more lenient on letting kids miss for vacations. But if a school is having trouble meeting the guidelines set either by the district or state I think it wouldn't be hard to imagine the school having a pretty hard knox approach to absences. For us specifically my daughter's teacher excused her 2 days she missed when we drove to California for her spring break cruise. We couldn't get plane tickets and so we chose to drive and we pulled her out 2 days. I did everything I could to have her not miss but we just couldn't get back home in time.

 

[havaneselover]

When my daughter was in kindergarten and 1st grade I took her out for about a week to go to WDW. I was going to take her out in 3rd for a week to celebrate my 35th birthday on the Magic but started stressing out about it. I rescheduled for this year at Thanksgiving (she would only miss 3 days) but she gets so much homework as it is and I' a single mom who works full time. I just didn't think I had the time to help her catch up when I got home and still be a nice person. So I got fairly lucky and were able to rebook for Easter for a very small price increase. At most, she may miss a half day (Good Friday) to drive down. Personally, I don't have any issues with kids who do well missing school. I practically taught myself calculus my senior year in high school because my parents were retired and I spent a lot of time in FL and I still passed my AP test.

 

[traceyw]

We have taken our daughter(s) out of school for vacation every year. When my first DD was in kindergarten we took her out for a week. When she was in 2nd grade we took her out for a week in the fall, plus a few extra days around February vacation, when they went to visit their grandparents in FL, (airfare was obscene traveling on the weekends of February vacation). Last year when I had a kindergartner and 2nd grader we took them out for 6 days in the fall, plus 3 days in February. Both girls are A students (my 2nd grader tests ahead in pretty much every area, including 4th grade level in reading & math) and we spent a fair amount of time during vacation working on homework. They are in private school, which did not bat an eye at our taking them out, and the teachers were excited for the girls. They have a lot of diversity in their classrooms, so some absences are extreme. My oldest has a few girls in her class that every year go to India for 3-4 weeks at once. I'm not sure what would happen if they went to public school.

This year we are going on our cruise the week before school starts. However, I am still thinking we'll likely take them out for at least a few days during the winter to go get warm. We pretty much assume this is something that can only be done easily while they're in elementary school. However, growing up my parents took me absolutely nowhere and I graduated from high school 2 years early at 16. I would rather have had some experiences and not rushed through school. All that happened is I've entered the workforce 2 years earlier!

 

[Texas lady]

Hi all, we are considering doing a B2B in January....how do you pull kids out of school for that long? Help!! TIA

Penel3,

Schedule an appointment with the principal, and tell him/her your plans, and see what they say. A lot of schools will work with parents.
Good Luck!

 

[csidisney]

We thought long and hard about our vacation. Our son will be entering high school this year (9th grade). Before finalizing our plans on Disney's Fantasy, we contacted our son's principal. Now mind you my husband gets
vacation when his company says he can take vacation (seniority based), and my husband was awarded vacation in September. The principal told us to go have a great time and just to remind him two weeks before the cruise. He also added it sounds like it was going to be a very good learning opportunity for our son. Now mind you, our son is a pretty smart kid he's enrolled in AP classes and generally is an "A" student so that might have a little to do with it. I also asked his AP geography teacher if he thought it would be okay before we made these plans and he said just as long as he knows ahead of time he did not have a problem with it and he actually thought it would be a good learning tool for our son. TBH, I am concerned with his Spanish class.... I know how hard Spanish 2 is I am hoping he listens in Cozumel and Costa Maya;-). Good luck as to whatever you decided to do.... Please realize some people can't just take a summer vacation..... Some people can take vacation when their company allows it:-(

Exactly! DH and I both work at "year round" jobs, which do not allow for typical summer vacations. Peak times at work for us are when others are on summer or winter breaks...so we have to travel when allowed. It amazes me that there are people who just assume that everyone can travel during the summer, and if we pulling our kids out during school, then we must be selfish or cheap. Thankfully, we have had no issues so far, and our school has been very understanding that family and life come first.

 

[scrapbookmomma74]

I used to teach in an area where lots of people took their children for month-long (or longer) trips to India. While everyone knew the kid was coming back at SOME point, I think the parents unenrolled them and then reenrolled them once they were back. Then, none of the work needs to be made up. I'm not saying to do it, but if you're in a state where that might be the only choice, it could be an option.

 

[kaseyC]

I used to teach in an area where lots of people took their children for month-long (or longer) trips to India. While everyone knew the kid was coming back at SOME point, I think the parents unenrolled them and then reenrolled them once they were back. Then, none of the work needs to be made up. I'm not saying to do it, but if you're in a state where that might be the only choice, it could be an option.

Our district is known to do that if students are out either the beginning of the school year or near the end. They did it for my oldest DD in 2007 when I took her on the WBTA. I expect that is what will be done for my youngest two DDs when I take them out for last 9 days of school for the EBTA in 2013.

 

[jahber]

Wow! I've read 4 pages of these posts and some of what I'm reading makes me sad! Why would anyone allow the government to threaten to prosecute them for truancy for going on vacation? I hope those of us who live in states with such ridiculously overzealous laws are attempting to have them overturned or at least modified!

We homeschool for many reasons, but this is a big one. I set our calendar myself--and we end up completing at least as many school days as government-schooled kids, if not more when you count field days, testing days, test prep days, wasted days [ie before winter break], etc. I was a teacher, so I know the reality.

All that is not to say everyone should homeschool, but please don't allow a school or school board to bully you out of precious family time! They don't always have YOUR kids' best interests in mind, sadly.

Kudos to those who take the initiative to talk to the principal and teachers. As a teacher, those were my favorite parents--the ones who insisted they knew what was best their kids...and then backed up their words by doing the work!

To the OP, I hope you are able to make the best decision for YOUR family!