At what age do you stop taking kids out of school?

[zaccaglin]

We stopped when me and my brother turned 18. No school to be taken out of then.

 

[tndisneyfan]

We never took DS out of school for a week in the middle of the year, but he would miss the last two or three days of school for us to go. In our elementary school they did nothing the last two or even three weeks of school. I did not feel bad about taking him out because all he was missing was sitting in class watching movies. We stopped when he started high school because of end of semester testing.

 

[Little E]

I have been wondering this question myself for awhile now. We have taken a Disney trip once a year for the last six years. Our little guy has some special needs, and we have always taken trips at lower crowd times (January/February mostly) to accommodate his anxiety. We have always tried to pair our trips with school calendar professional development days and/or weekends, to minimize the time our kids miss school, and we have never taken a full week's vacation. The longest trip we have taken has been six days, with 4 or 5 days in the parks, max. So, the most my kids have ever missed has been three days of school. This fall, my oldest will be heading to high school, and my youngest will be heading to middle school. Knowing things really "count" with the freshman, I just can't seem to talk myself in to pulling them out of school, so we are thinking our 2017 trip will be in June after the boys get out of school. It makes me really nervous to go at such a high crowd time, but it makes me more nervous to pull them out of school.

 

[michelepa]

Tying to planning out the next few trips, with various plans and desires, such as an EP trip at Beach Club during F&W, a Christmas trip, etc. but the next few trips all entail taking kids out of school for a week. At what age do you personally feel you shouldn't take kids out of school a week for a vacation? Ultimately what we decide will impact when we do the Dec trip and maybe change out plans for the next trip.

I never took my kids out of school for a vacation. Best way to teach them how important school and their education is - is to make it important. Nothing wrong with going to Disney when the kids are on break.

 

[wishtdream]

We have done it every year all the way through the 8th grade. The last time my DD (and I) spent many hours in the room doing schoolwork while the rest f the family enjoyed park/pool time. Vacation work must be completed and turned in in Google Classroom in the allotted time the class has for credit. Teachers are not required to give students time to make up work from unexcused absences (vacation). While it meant there was nothing to catch up on when we got home it definitely cut into our family time. We won't do it again. The HS Honors course load would not allow for much family time.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

My kids are still young...9 and 2, I have no problem pulling my older son out of school right now...Hes a bright kid and has no problems catching up. I figure they are only young once, lol. Plus he is on the spectrum, so going to our normal vacation spot (disney world) at the high season is just not a good thing for him. I think though once he enters high school we will more than likely stop pulling him out bc there is so much work involved in high school and not sure he would be up for that.

 

[dres40]

2 or 3 days is our limit. This year she is in 8th grade and she will miss 2 days for a Disney cruise and this is last year we will pull her out of school.
Just too much work to make up.

Our district goes back after Labor day so from now on last week of August will probably be our dates from now on.....

 

[North of Mouse]

Our three were taken out for trips (not necessarily for Disney) through their 12th grades. They were always honor students, schools were notified in advance, they gladly worked hard to make up any missed work, and we always made sure we, as parents, had good working relationships with their teachers and principals, and there was no discipline problems.

 

[Delirium]

My cousin took her son out of school for multiple weeks of vacation all three years he was in second grade.

 

[MonaMN]

DD is finishing up first grade. She missed four days in the fall (October/MNSSHP) and will miss four days of second grade (Dec/MVMCP). After that, we will probably try to do spring break trips since we will have seen the holiday events (assuming we don't have our own conflicts with work)... but she is a good student so I am not worried at this point.

We are purposely picking weeks where there is at least one day off from school so we can go for a week and she only misses four days.

 

[Dreamport]

Our parents stopped after I was in 7th grade. We attended a small town private school with one teacher per year (save art/music/gym/etc) which lasted through 8th grade so it was much easier to make up the homework - or the teachers found alternatives related to an educational side of our trip. Trying to balance all the make up work with multiple teachers upon entering high school would have been too much for us. We didn't even go down during school breaks, though I'm not sure why.

 

[Lisa R]

Completely depends on the school and their amount of homework. My daughter goes to a Catholic school which has a LOT of homework - and they require you to do all "in-class" work as well if you take them out. We took her out for a week in kindergarten and first grade. We took her out out 2 days in second grade for snowboarding vacation and it was manageable - barely. We're lucky though - we live in Louisiana and have the entire week of Mardi Gras off - so that is how we have gone the last 2 years. She will be in 5th Grade next year and is involved in too many sports in addition to schoolwork to pull her out any longer. Really - bottom line is talk to other parents at your school and your children's teachers and feel them out on the subject. If your children already get good grades and work hard - most teachers are fairly receptive. We just stopped doing it due to the volume of work.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

When my kid was in a real school i worked it out with his teachers. Now we homeschool and that makes it easier but even if he wasn't I think I would still take him out. Sorry to me our trips are family time we go when we ca afford and I don't do summers. Way to hot. I like oct nov dec times. We do DL because where we live. Next year is our big wdw trip more likely it will be the only one for about 5 years.

 

[merrick]

first time kids were in grade 9, 4 and 2. no issue because we went the week before christmas break so really not a lot being done anyway. last year we went to dominican republic in feb and it was grades 10, 5 and 3. again, not a big issue as dd is in grade 10 and a very diligent student.

i thought i shouldn't book during school time for our upcoming trip because she will be in grade 11... but i reconsidered and booked the week prior to christmas again.

i cannot handles the heat and i would rather stay home than stand in lines in that kind of heat and humidity. our trip two years ago was our first go-on-a-plane family vacation and i am running out of time before dd is unable to go. if it totally sucks for her with school this year... we won't do it again.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Never! My daughter is going to be a senior this coming year and will miss 6 days in Sept. It is early in the year and she has plenty of time to recover. Most of her work is posted online anyways so she can keep up some while we are gone. She has AP and honors classes and has done fine missing a week all these years. Plan to do the same with my younger kids. If the school district would fix the schedule to allow a decent non-holiday break I'd take advantage of it. Unfortunately they cont to ignore all the parents who suggest just that so I don't feel bad that mine miss school.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Our ODD pretty much brought it to a halt after 2nd grade, LOL. She is a straight A student and LOVES school and HATES missing school. It would bother her so badly that it just wasn't worth it anymore. She is finishing 6th grade this week. We schedule around school vacations now.

 

[GillianP1301]

So many factors here not just their age, but the type of student they are, how easily or not they can catch up, as well as just personal preference. For me personally, I don't really believe in pulling them out of school for anything so I plan vacations accordingly. My son is 8 and in the 2nd grade, he's a great student and loves school and also loves having a good attendance record. He was totally bummed when he missed his first and only day for the year in February due to illness, so I think pulling him out for several days would not go over well with him.

But that is me and my family. I think in general, it should not be that big of an issue to pull kids out of school up until maybe 5th or 6th grade, assuming they are a good student who can handle a bit of extra work for a few days to make it up. Beyond that and I think it's just too much that can be missed.

 

[richmo]

Honestly, our feeling was that they should be committed to school and we never pulled them, scheduling our trips in the summer.

But, I don't want to be preachy, so I'd say that its certainly easiest to pull them in elementary school. Of course, it depends on your kid and the teacher. Once they hit middle school, you don't just have the academics to worry about, but the activities ramp up a lot too. Where I live, pulling during high school would be extra difficult since they have block scheduling, so missing just 3 days of school would translate into missing the equivalent of 6 days of each class.

 

[Luvamouse]

I stopped when my son was in high school. There was SO much work, it would be hard for him to miss a week and catch up. When they were younger though, I never gave it a second thought.

We minimized it during middle school and stopped completely during high school. Strangly enough, it was the kids who refused to miss school. It was just too challenging to make up the work and miss content.

In elementary school it was nothing. Middle school it was difficult. No way in high school. Your mileage may vary.

Yes.
Yes.
and Yes.

I thoroughly agree with these 3 posts and also that YMMV. Good luck with your decision, it's never an easy one.

 

[mindeola]

We minimized it during middle school and stopped completely during high school. Strangly enough, it was the kids who refused to miss school. It was just too challenging to make up the work and miss content.

This exactly. My kids let me know when it just wasn't working anymore.