My kids told their teachers today they were going to disney

[Mousemommy1]

We have taken our kids out of school on a few occasions.
2009: our oldest was in Kindergarten, no biggie, no problems
2011: we took oldest DD out of 1st grade for a day and a half prior to Feb vacation. The teacher gave her the course materials ahead of time and allowed her to take her tests early. Our school policy says you can't miss school because of vacation though...but, no real recourse though I felt guilty and said I wouldn't do it again...
2012: it was a summer trip, no issues!

Well, so much for that...oldest DD will be pulled again (from 3rd grade) for our 2013 trip for a day and a half prior to spring break Flying out before vacation starts saves us hundreds of dollars, so if the school district wants to pay for my airfare, I'll make sure shes sitting in that classroom.
youngest DD will miss those days of Kindergarten...but hey, they are my kids, and my oldest has had perfect report cards since Kindergarten.

 

[kandb]

Can you imagine a prosecutor introducing the "7 year old defendent" to the judge and saying "your honor, little Samantha went on a family vacation to see Mickey Mouse and missed 5 days of school". I think the judge would break down laughing.

I don't think it's right for any school district to tell a parent their child cannot miss school to go on a family vacation, if it's once a year.

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

Can you imagine a prosecutor introducing the "7 year old defendent" to the judge and saying "your honor, little Samantha went on a family vacation to see Mickey Mouse and missed 5 days of school". I think the judge would break down laughing.

I don't think it's right for any school district to tell a parent their child cannot miss school to go on a family vacation, if it's once a year.

That would be comical. But it wouldn't really happen that way, all correspondence from the school administration is addressed "To The Parents of (student's name)", it's not addressed to the student.

But, honestly, I think it would be an extreme case (such as a child missing one or two days per week) in which the parents would actually be turned over the the prosecutor.

Oh well....it's just one of those things. I keep telling my husband I'm going to divorce him and leave full custody to him, that way if the schools do ever try to prosecute us, it will be all on him!

 

[AckermanPartyof6]

This is interesting ti say the least----we are leaving in 1 week and my sons who are in kinder and 4th grade will be missing 5 days of school. I let the teachers know about a 1 1/2 weeks ago. Shortly after I received an email fro the vice principle asking me to come in for a visit. During the visit, I was told that I could take the boys under unexcused absences or pull the out of school and re-enroll upon our return. If we took the unexcused route, we could face truancy issues if the boys missed more a school. Taking the re-enrollment would leave the boys slate clean, guarantee that the boys spots would be there and would not count against the school budget.

Happy to hear that other schools do not have as much red tape!

 

[mickeysmith]

One of my 5th grade students went to Disney last spring during our physical science unit. Wow! The connections he made on his trip were fabulous! I sent no work for him, just asked him to try and tie our studies to his experiences! We had so much fun when he returned. All of the kids were excited to work through the connections from text to the "world"! What a wonderful learning opportunity, as well as a magical trip for his family! I must say, I had fun teaching science through Disney!

 

[Belleofthehouse]

This is interesting ti say the least----we are leaving in 1 week and my sons who are in kinder and 4th grade will be missing 5 days of school. I let the teachers know about a 1 1/2 weeks ago. Shortly after I received an email fro the vice principle asking me to come in for a visit. During the visit, I was told that I could take the boys under unexcused absences or pull the out of school and re-enroll upon our return. If we took the unexcused route, we could face truancy issues if the boys missed more a school. Taking the re-enrollment would leave the boys slate clean, guarantee that the boys spots would be there and would not count against the school budget.

Happy to hear that other schools do not have as much red tape!

Sounds like our school system...esp the truancy issue. State policy is 13 unexcused absences per year. My kids missed 2.5 days in 2010. Two of my children were not allowed to make up some assignments (got zeros for them). I had informed them 3 weeks ahead of time and made sure all make up work they did get was done.

I will not pull my kids out of school again.

 

[caseyd66]

Oh boy! After reading about such strict truancy policies in some states, I feel very lucky that I don't have to cope with anything like that. I honestly believe that the experience of going on a family trip ... Anywhere ... more than makes up for a week of missed school, especially for elementary students.

Good luck to all those dealing with difficult school situations

 

[allerobed]

My kids get almost two and a half months off in the summer, and several weeks off throughout the school year,as well as quite a few long weekends. I dont think its necessary to take them out of school during school time for a vacation. To me that's not responsible parenting. I agree that traveling is a great way to learn about different cultures, but I can definitely do that during school breaks.

It's definitely frowned upon in our school district. I'd feel pretty guilty if I took them on vacation and they missed that time, and then later on had to miss school again due to illness.

 

[andyman8]

My kids get almost two and a half months off in the summer, and several weeks off throughout the school year,as well as quite a few long weekends. I dont think its necessary to take them out of school during school time fir a vacation. To me that's not responsible parenting. I agree that traveling is a great way to learn about different cultures, but I can definitely do that during school breaks.

Exactly! I always feel like people here assure someone that they will have no fun if they travel during peak seasons. It's not that bad at all. We went for Fourth of July and never did rope drop and still didn't wait longer than 25 minutes for a ride.

I, honestly, don't have a problem with parents taking their kids out of Lower and Middle school but once you get to high school, I don't think it's a good idea particularly when they hit the Honors and AP classes.

 

[kandb]

There is one reason I don't take my kids during schools breaks and in the summer: CROWDS. I am not interested in waiting in line for 2 hours or waiting at a counter service for an hour for lunch. I would rather not go then have big crowds.

 

[believinthemagic]

I can't believe some only have 10 days! Ours was 18 or 20. I don't understand the whole excuses or unexcused bc In our district even dr notes days still added up on your days so it seems there was no real difference. Also, they used to say if you got there before lunch time for your grade or came for the morning and left after lunch that half day didn't count against you- know they do. It's only half but obviously those can add up also.

I get that kids need to be in school- and oftentimes high school can be a whole new beast with greater academic requirements that not all parents are suited to help with as well as sports and extra curricular activity commitments but I do still think its over reaching- especially when people give you a hard time about taking your own kid somewhere. It really is an Intrusion.

I homeschool now. I really couldn't take my toes Being stepped on Anymore by administrators who seemed to deem themselves the most important people in my child's life. Don't judge my capability to teach on my dis posts lol they're all on my iPhone and messed up. Also I went to college to be a teacher so feel qualified.

Obviously not everyone can do that but I still say don't let the schools, board, teacher or principal push you around. You are the parent and it's your family. Education is important but family more so. Some families can't take vacations in the summer or over holiday breaks and the fall or spring may be the only time to do so. Should they never get a family vacation because their kid is enrolled in public school? Absurd.

On the flip side you can't expect the teacher to go out of their way to accommodate your kid either. I know some parents expect way too much from a teacher when it's the parent and student who have to make up the difference if pulling the kid for a week from school.

I agree with every word! We too had probably double the days allowed growing up versus what my kids have. And like you said if we were there a majority of the day it counted. Now if I pick my child up an hour early it is an abscence!! Crazy!!

And the dumbest thing I've ever run into was the the Christmas, valentine, etc parties at the end of the day. If we finished up the party, were completely done and had just 10 or 15 mins left until dismissal I had to sign a form that I was taking my child out early and it counted against him. So ridiculous!! I would just sign him out and go!

But I also strongly agree that we can't expect the teachers to have to shoulder the extra burden because my kids are absent. We have always taken our kids out anywhere from
3 days to a week at a time. I always let the teachers know way in advance. Make sure they know I will oversee things getting caught up. And let them know however they want to do it, make them do work ahead, send work with us, or make it up when they return is fine with us. Our teachers have always been very good about it.

 

[vicky33006]

I'm so nervous about this! I'm pulling DS out of school for a week in March to go. I have good reasons! First, I'm in school full time and our breaks don't correspond. I really, really could never miss a week of school without failing my courses, so I have to take DS out. He's in first grade, so I'm hoping he won't miss much, but I plan to notify the teacher ASAP. I told his teacher last year about it and she said it shouldn't be a problem since there is no testing in 1st grade. I hope she's right. Everything is booked and the flights are non-refundable. I didn't do this to get out of big crowds; in fact the week we go is predicted to be very busy. I did it because I had to, but I'm nervous the school is going to give me a hard time. Last year, DS missed two days of school for illness...so his attendance is usually very good.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Last year we paid over $9,000 in school property taxes. The elementary school our 2nd grader attends has no problem shutting down for an entire week at Thanksgiving, more than two weeks at Christmas/New Years, and a full week at Spring Break - not to mention all of the "In-Service" days and non-working holidays the rest of the workforce don't get to enjoy while the kids are out of school.

So I have no problem telling our teachers that we will be taking our son out of school for a week so that he can go to WDW, and give them ample opportunity to provide any assignments if they'd like to.

This year will be the third one for him.

1350 8760

That's a lot! If you pay that much in school property tax, how much do you pay in fire, police, municipal, etc, property tax?

Anyway, did you stop to think that maybe your schools shut down for a full week at Thanksgiving and two weeks at Christmas because so many parents take their kids out of school to travel? Since it appears many parents can arrange their schedules to take vacations during the school year, the school is giving your kids four-plus scheduled weeks off. Nobody's really explained why families can't travel then.

And In Service days are exactly that - the teachers are working. Individual holidays that aren't Federal holidays? Okay, that depends on the employer and the field. Most employers provide some type of time off.

Are you aware how much extra work can be involved in a teacher preparing assignments in advance for vacationing students? It's kind of you to provide what you consider ample notice, but most teachers already work over 40 hours, including preparing and grading lessons and tests. Putting together vacation assignments is a courtesy. Read some of the other posts - where teachers prepare assignments that get ignored or 'lost'; or where vacationing students are responsible for keeping up with the work themselves.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

We are taking our kids out of school 2 days before they would normally be getting out for Christmas vacation. They dont do much of anything those last few days before Christmas break anyways, so we arent too worried about them missing. We will be discussing it with their teachers though, just in case there is work they will need to make up. My kids are in 4th & 5th.

Next year we are pulling them out a few days before Fall break in Oct.

 

[Redheaded Sunshine]

Both of my kids are good students, so while it has been good that their teachers were glad to give them a few assignments, but mostly just said "have fun," I don't know that I'd have cared regardless. DD's teacher last year actually asked her to just write a few sentences about each day, which was a really good exercise in writing, spelling and creativity for her and only took about 10 mins.

I've always looked at it this way...they will scarcely remember what they did in that week of school 10 years from now, but they'll definitely remember our family vacation at Disney!

 

[jimjenkids]

Love this thread! We have gone to disney for xmas every other year for the last 6 yrs and will again be going this year. I try to not have the kids miss that much school, but they do tend to miss a day or two. at my DD open house she told her teacher that she is going to Disney and wont be in class for the xmas party....her teacher said that was fine, we then find out that her other teacher(5th grade rotates teachers for subjects) will be there and is flying out on the 21st. I dont see a problem with them missing, they are good students and always get there advance m ake ups and usually have most of it done before we leave!

 

[avasdad]

We are taking our 6 year old out of first grade for a week to go to Disney. Due to work schedules we can not take a vacation during the summer. We feel it is just as important to take a family vacation as it is to go to school. One of the teachers told us our daughter will remeber more from one week in Disney than she would remember from a week in school. We asked for any work she is missing to do while we are away. i am curious to see how much they give her. There is a lot in Disney to do so you can make sure your child is still "learning" while you are away.

 

[100%Disney]

My daughter missed 4 days last December for our Disney trip. Her teachers were notified about 2 months in advance and none had problems with giving her make-up work. My daughter is a very hard worker at everything she does and makes straight A's. We did all her work before we left as she had 3 projects that would be due over the days she would be absent. It was a tremendous amout of extra work, but was worth it.

Our district allows for educational opportunities and I was told by a member of the school board to fill out a form as Disney was allowed. Well, her principal told me that the final decision was hers and she wouldn't allow it to be excused. Do you think I let it put a damper on our plans? Heck no, we went, had a blast and my daughter kept her straight A's.

We are going again this December and she will miss 5 days this time.

 

[alexxussss]

I think spending quality time with your family and taking advantage of the learning experiences that Disney offers is far more important than a few days of school. The only exception would be if a student is struggling in school; in that case, time out of school will only add more stress and cause them to fall further behind.

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

My daughter missed 4 days last December for our Disney trip. Her teachers were notified about 2 months in advance and none had problems with giving her make-up work. My daughter is a very hard worker at everything she does and makes straight A's. We did all her work before we left as she had 3 projects that would be due over the days she would be absent. It was a tremendous amout of extra work, but was worth it.

Our district allows for educational opportunities and I was told by a member of the school board to fill out a form as Disney was allowed. Well, her principal told me that the final decision was hers and she wouldn't allow it to be excused. Do you think I let it put a damper on our plans? Heck no, we went, had a blast and my daughter kept her straight A's.

We are going again this December and she will miss 5 days this time.

Sounds like the principal needs a slight attitude adjustment