Advice on taking the kids out of school

[marinejjh]

I am wanting some advice on taking my kids out of school, January 2016. I am a new firefighter and can only get vacation. During non peak tomes of the year. It is based on seniority. We were originally just going to do a 5 day trip (wed-sun), but the prices a really great that time of year and crowds a low. We want to do 7 days which means they would miss a whole week shortly after xmas break. I am a big believer that family time is very important. What is the opinion and how to get the school on board? We would have them complete any miseed work while we were gone. Thanks

 

[thr33boys]

Our upcoming trip in November will be the 3rd time we'll be taking our kids out of school. They missed 6 days in 2012, 7 days in 2013, and will miss 8 days in the next school year. I always asked for the homework a few weeks ahead of time so that it was already done and handed in before we left. My kids do very well in school and are ahead of most of their classmates. The only thing I worry about is missing a test and having to do that upon return. It happened to my oldest in the first year but he still got almost 90%. We're in Canada and fortunately, we don't have to approach the board to take our kids out. We make arrangements with the teachers and let the office know of their absence ahead of time and off we go. It's a very common practice here.

 

[BLAZEY]

We are taking DD6 out for 2 maybe 3 days for an week long stay at disney in November. Our district calendar was released and Nov 12-13 are professional development days following the Remembrance Day statutory holiday on November 11, so she would only miss Monday and Tuesday the week and possible the following Monday for flight delays. We are also from Canada, and we just have to tell the teacher ahead of time and let the office know as well. My employer prefers that we take our vacation time in the slower season (not Summer). It is also Reading Break at the university where my DH works so he is able to book time off without issues. We find it the perfect time to travel

 

[HCinKC]

First, familiarize yourself with your school district's policy. Sometimes, that even varies by grade level. You don't mention ages, but you will want to speak with teachers and possibly a principal/vice principal/counselor. For us, we don't have to do anything special, just call the regular absence line. Other districts, it is an unexcused absence even with notice and arrangements. So...see what your district's policy is. Good luck!

 

[verleniahall]

you will have to check with your school to see what their policy is for vacations during school time. Here, that is counted as an unexcused absense, after a set amount of days (i think 3 or 4?) its considered truant, and they report it to the truancy officer.

 

[robinb]

I think it depends on what grades your kids are in. Elementary school kids have an easier time missing school than high school students. It also depends on the students themselves. My DD could never take a week off and not have her grades suffer.

 

[nalajms]

As PP said, double check the school handbook. Our school system is 10 unexcused absences. DS is in K. It turns out, if there's a note, it's an excused absence. Sadly, half the time DS forgets to turn in the note

My SIL's school system is similar, but they are lenient for good students. The most her daughter's missed is 35 days! That was in high school. It included sports activities and vacations.

 

[thr33boys]

We are taking DD6 out for 2 maybe 3 days for an week long stay at disney in November. Our district calendar was released and Nov 12-13 are professional development days following the Remembrance Day statutory holiday on November 11, so she would only miss Monday and Tuesday the week and possible the following Monday for flight delays. We are also from Canada, and we just have to tell the teacher ahead of time and let the office know as well. My employer prefers that we take our vacation time in the slower season (not Summer). It is also Reading Break at the university where my DH works so he is able to book time off without issues. We find it the perfect time to travel

Where in Canada are you? Just curious because while Remember Day is a stat holiday for gov't (employee, here), it is not for our kids, they go to school on Remembrance Day. We're in Ottawa.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

For us, we don't take our daughter out of school for vacations. Family time is important too, but we feel the instruction time with the teacher is more important. When my daughter is sick and misses a day or two of school, the amount of homework to be made up is crazy. It's especially difficult if she misses a Monday because new topics are introduced on Mondays. I believe it's also more difficult to take kids out of school the older they are. I think you'll get as many for taking kids out of school as not to. You know you kids best and know what type of students they are. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

DEFINITELY speak to someone in the front office at the school. Learn you district's policies & ask if there are weeks that are better than others.

While I do think it's nice to also contact the teacher as a courtesy (as well as to potentially line up makeup work), that is not who enforces policy. So, the conversation can't end there.

 

[BLAZEY]

Where in Canada are you? Just curious because while Remember Day is a stat holiday for gov't (employee, here), it is not for our kids, they go to school on Remembrance Day. We're in Ottawa.

We're in Victoria BC. Schools are closed on Rembrance Day here. All union employees are off, or paid stat pay. I work in a office for a company where our labourers are union so the office is closed and we get paid stats off. DH is union, get paid 2x if he works stats, or gets it off unpaid.

 

[Tod&CopperFan]

We took our kids out of school for our Disney trip last fall, 4th grader and 1st grader. I did research the school policy. Our trip was in Sept so I spoke with the teachers at the first "parent night" about a week after school started to explain that we would be going on vacation in a few weeks and to ask for make up work (both of my kids' teachers preferred to give the work after they came back). I also spoke to the office and filled out a form. It was fairly easily handled. However, I do agree that it probably becomes more difficult to pull them out the older they get. Good luck with your decision!

 

[englishteacha]

Check with the school, and be super polite with the teachers. Many schools in our area have pretty strict attendance policies due to a high number of truant students. Our school allows 7 absences in a term without penalty, though if it's for medical reasons with a doctor's note, the absences are forgiven.

Many kids/parents ask me for "all the work they're going to miss" while they're away, and that's just not possible. I teach skills, and rarely give worksheets or bookwork. It's a lot of reading/writing/projects/instructional time that students miss when they're out of my class. I'd rather get the student caught up after he/she returns; however, it's a lot of work for me. To truly get a child caught up, they'd need to stay with me for several hours after their return.

I teach middle/high schoolers, so it's different than in Elementary school. My nephew missed 5 days of Kindergarten. That wasn't a big deal. My niece once missed a week of 8th grade....she wasn't a stellar student to begin with and she barely passed that term. She found it really difficult to get caught up. My brother never took her out of school again.

 

[msmama]

We leave on Friday and I literally just sent an email to the teacher my son will not be there next week. I told her I would take any work she had available beforehand but didn't actually expect her to have any and my son knows he'll have to do extra when he gets back. I will email her next Monday for next weeks spelling words (she usually has a list that they narrow down in class) and expect him to keep up with his spelling each night while we're away. Most teachers (in my experience) don't really prepare their work (ie make copies of worksheets or whatever) before hand so it's difficult to get missed things in advance.

As for the school itself, tomorrow they'll get a note that says "Son will be out of school for dates" and that's it.

It would never occur to me to actually ASK someone if I can take MY kid out of school. It worked last year and I'm assuming it'll work again this year.

 

[rblucy]

When I was growing up my parents would take us out of school to go to Disney. I think you have to know your kids. Especially at elementary age, how much are they really missing? If they're a good student, a week might not really matter. By high school age it may be harder to miss more time. The memories you make as a family will last a lot longer for them than anything they'd learn in school for a few days...

 

[englishteacha]

When I was in high school my parents had to get permission for me to miss school, because it was a credit-based system. If you missed more than 5 days you didn't get credit for the course, unless the absence was "special excused" like for a doctor's appointment, funeral, or something else that could not happen outside the school day. There were exceptions made, of course, and since we were going to Florida to see my ailing uncle (one of the last times I got to see him before he passed away), the principal did grant me permission to go and "special excused" my absences.

In many middle/high schools the policy is the same.

 

[Alexle2007]

I took DS8 out of 3rd grade 3 times this year for vacation. One week in FL, a couple of days to go to AZ for Spring Break (we lost some of our Spring Break days thanks to the weather and having to make up days and 6 days 2 weeks ago to go our DCL. I just send in a note to the school being honest on what we are doing, typically a month or so before the trip, and I get a form letter that says have fun and we'll give you the make-up work when you return. DS' teacher did ask him to .do a journal on our cruise. Since DS wanted to incorporate pictures, we turned it into a PowerPoint presentation. We have NEVER had any problems and he has always missed 1 or 2 weeks for vacation every school year. His teachers all tell him to have a great vacation and say they wish they were joining us. This last time, he missed most of the math section on geometry and still managed to get a 100% on the test.

 

[Thing 1]

It really depends on the ages of your children. We took ours out though middle school. High School did not work for us. First, do be sure that you know the district rules and are ok with any consequences. Some schools are ok with it, others give you a bit of a hard time, but you can make it work most of the time. We almost always do winter trips. I always let the teacher know (I tell, not ask) during the first parent /teacher meeting. I remind them again following the Christmas vacation. I ask for any work they can provide as early as they have it available. Some years we got/get it well before time and others, not until the return. Most years it was a sampling of what they will cover during the trip. One year we got every,single.thing. they could perhaps cover while we were gone. Be sure you know the make up work policy so you know how much time you have to make it all up, if the teacher chooses to hold you to that. We never went through the administration in elementary school but did in middle school as we felt it was a bigger deal to have the time excused. It has never been a problem for us. One DS is 22 and just graduated collage, other one is in 2nd grade. LOVE January tips and never regretted taking one of them out.

 

[sprousehouse]

We are taking our kids out to go the first week of December. My son will be in K and my daughter in 3rd grade. My son's preschool actually covered most of the K curriculum this year so that isn't a big deal and my daughter is at the top of her class so we can make up anything she misses pretty quickly. I'll ask the teacher for skills covered rather than work (although if she wants to give us the work she will certainly do it) We did something similar when DD was in K (we started at a year-round school and then got accepted into a charter) and she missed 2 weeks of school. We did get a letter telling us she was in danger of not being promoted but that was it. We did offer to an educational project so it would count but the school was new and I think that was too much trouble for them. DD did keep a journal and collected stuff from the places we went (such as the tide pools) and we did give that to her teacher when we returned. I think family time is more important and given that my kids are good students I don't worry about it.

 

[5stljayhawks]

Get the feel of the school and talk with other parents. We have taken our kids out numerous times. Heck I even made a few of trips educational. My feeling if the kids are doing good and in elementary school there should be nor problem at all. High school is a different story.

Life is short, family time is even shorter, learning it all, takes a lifetime.