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

[Disney4Us&D]

OK, so I'm going to up the ante. We plan to take our DS, who will be in the early part of second grade, out for three weeks in Oct/Nov. Some related circumstances are that he's on the spectrum (so needs a less crowded venue), and we could be in the middle of moving out of state and switching schools. This is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us celebrating a lot of big milestones.

 

[TikiMan0228]

We are leaving in 19 days. Only missing 4 days on 2nd week of school. 10th, 7th and 5th grades. DW is High School teacher in the district so we will have a good idea of what will be covered. If there is work to be done they understand they will be doing it during mid day breaks. First time doing this. Hoping it works out good because Labor Day week works out great for us.

 

[Gillyrose779]

It depends on the kids. When I was in high school I took a week off to see my uncle in CA. I had all my school work done before leaving. I was the type of student who finished their homework in study hall. If my kids are the same then I will have no problem taking them out.

If they tend to fall behind and their grades could improve I would not take them out... and would leave without them.

 

[prprincess]

We stopped when my oldest was in the 2nd grade, so four years ago. It was too much on all of us to deal with all the make-up work and tests. And my son already has anxiety, so it made it worse.

 

[babesboo99]

My kids are going to be in 4th grade this year age 10 and we are taking them out for 2 weeks to go to Disney in Ocotber we are driving down. My son is not on the spectrum but he has ADHD and severe anxiety so what we do is tell the teacher and all she says is have them write an essay on what they saw, what they did etc and that will be good. We have lucked out so far with teachers.

 

[anneboleyn]

As long as my daughter is doing well in school, I have no problem pulling her out of school for vacations, no matter what grade she is in. She is only 9 so maybe my tune will change once she is in high school. She goes to Catholic school and as long as she is passing and I am paying tuition, they don't mind lol

 

[EPCOT is a verb]

It really depends on the kids and the school. We took them out of school each year through high school graduation. Not until college years did we work around their school schedules.

ETA - They went to private schools, which may make a big difference.

 

[HopperFan]

By middle school we stopped. Aside from all the work missed, it was unexcused absences so no credit for work at school which are zeros. These days we have fewer teachers willing to work with the "educational opportunity" since it now requires higher up signatures and they are being watched by the top. Each time a child is absent from school they lose some funding to the district so everyone is being pressured to do what they need to keep kids attending for the funding. It got to where we couldn't even get approval for a Friday off to go do college visits. So we had to "be sick". Doc appointments, unless ill, you better show up for at least half the day or unexcused. Have too many unexcused you will be reported to DMV, no driver permit. AND at 5 un-excused absences (which is a week at Disney) = a contact from the school or them just referring you to social worker for truancy. Fun huh? Money talks. So sometimes it has nothing to do with the child or their ability to keep up or catch up.

 

[SillySallySews]

My oldest is about to start 8th grade and I have no problem with him missing a few days (as in 2-3) for a long weekend trip anywhere. He is a straight A student, always completes school work on the trip, and has never fallen behind. He's also got the immune system of a super human and hasn't missed a day of school for an illness since pre-k. I also have three other kids going into 4th grade, kindergarten, and pre-k this year, and have no problems with any of them missing 2-3 days either. Our school administrators and teachers also have no problem with kids missing school for vacations, within reason. But we also live on a military base and kids missing school to vacation around Mom or Dad's training or deployment schedule is fairly common. On the flip side, I have a friend who would prefer to go to Disney in September but doesn't want her son missing ANY school and he's just starting pre-k. I have another friend whose kids aren't allowed to miss more than five days of school for ANY reason without having to attend summer school. So obviously what is acceptable for one person and one school district is not acceptable for another, so do whatever you feel is best for your kids and your family.

 

[Magpie]

It definitely depends on many different variables.

For us (Canadian)...

Our schools were very free and easy, no truancy officers or courts. Parents have almost complete authority over their children's attendance - a lawyer friend of mine said the only time she sees the truancy laws applied is when there are other issues bringing the family into court (abuse, neglect, etc).

One of our children was an excellent student. The other was dyslexic, and struggled in school. Both were in the district's congregated gifted program.

We always asked our children whether they wanted to take time off school for a family vacation, and let them decide. We trusted them to know best whether or not they could manage it. But, a large part of that has to do with the fact that our children were voluntarily choosing to attend public school, after having homeschooled for several years in elementary. They took their schooling very seriously.

Teachers were always supportive, even encouraging. In grade nine, my son's Special Education Resource teacher tracked me down to ask when he'd be taking some time off. The teacher said he'd noticed my son was under a lot of stress and felt he would benefit from a vacation. That same year, in grade 10, my daughter was waffling over whether or not to visit Disney World with us. She discussed it with her Chemistry teacher, whose response was, "Are you crazy? You'll be way too busy to go next year, so you should grab the chance and go now. Go! Go!!"

As it happened, that year was the last year we pulled the kids out of school to visit Disney World. The next year (when they were in 10 and 11), they both decided they were too busy to take any more time off.

Finally, I don't happen to feel that attendance is in any way a moral or character-building issue. Learning happens everywhere, not just in school.

Personally, if the school and/or legal system allows it, I think most kids can benefit from family vacations during the school year. Your kid doesn't have to be a straight A student. In some ways, I always felt as if my son, having to work twice as hard as anyone else just to keep up, deserved a break more than anyone.

 

[3boys4me]

I will take them out for 2 days, 3 max. Depending on what they have going on that week in school. If we take them out for 3 days we have the comfort of driving during the day, if we do 2 days, we still leave on the same day but after school and drive until about 1 a.m.

 

[anniemae]

It is very common in our middle school. So many parents pull their kids out right up to 6th grade. One week, dd had 5 kids out of her class on the same week due to vacations.

 

[Amelia :)]

We get fined in the UK, they are crazy strict. My daughter wasn't even given an authorised absence for 1 day at a family wedding! The fact that they are so unreasonable actually makes us rebel more, we are going for two weeks in November, we will be fined (it's not much, more the principle) but it still works out cheaper for us to pay the fine rather than go in school holidays. I think there is no right age to stop taking them out, it's down to the individual child and your better judgement

 

[mstephen87]

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.

This is another reason while I am super thankful we are homeschoolers! We only vacation during the school year. Lower crowds, better prices and cooler temps.

 

[kelmcg]

I have taken my kids out of school every year, they are currently going into 8th and 10th. In elementary school they would miss a week, by middle school we tried to combine it with a long break and only miss 3 days of school. This November they will miss Thursday and Friday before Thanksgiving and then their school district gives them the whole week of Thanksgiving off. So our schedule is to fly in on Wednesday night........Park hop and make sure to hit HS twice, EP twice and MVMCP all in the first 3 days. Then Sun, Mon and Tues will be more crowded due to Thanksgiving but we can take it slow. Tue - Fri we will head over to Universal and stay at one of their resorts so we can use the Express Pass. My high schooler is on an A/B schedule so he will only miss each class one time and he will talk to his teachers ahead of time and offer to take any tests before he leaves. We usually ask the teachers for the assignments ahead of time and sometimes they'll just email it to us the day of class and then he can get it done when we get home.

 

[scrapquitler]

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.

Middle school

 

[alliecat523]

We did some long weekends last year (middle school) and quickly realized that was the end of that. Not sure if it was her teachers/classes in particular but we had a hard time righting the ship after those trips. She still came out with a 3.75 GPA which is awesome but we fought hard for it. For us, at this point, it's not worth it.

 

[Lothlórien]

Never, but we homeschooled 6th - 12th.

If we did public school, or even private school, 5th grade would have been the last year.

 

[Kona65]

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.

Let me think. It's school. I never take them out for any vacation. It's time to start learning. Vacations are for the summer or scheduled school breaks. Time to start learning about responsibility in life.

 

[bear_mom]

Only until high school and then older dd said no more. In high school it became too much for her, not only the homework, but missing the class time was just as hard.

Now she is in 12th grade, she is okay with missing one day (the day before Thanksgiving) for us to go on a longer weekend trip.