Does the amount sick time influence your choice to pull from school for vacation?

[Ember]

I have to admit, I've always been one of those teachers fully on board with pulling a child for a vacation. Except this year I'm finding it SO disruptive and hard, as most of the kids have already missed a huge amount of time due to illness. The H1N1 tore through the school before Christmas, we're now onto another wave of something or other and kids are dropping like flies. And I have notes from almost 1/2 my class informing me of upcoming vacations - some for one week and some for two!

When you look at the attendance rates for some of my kids, they're already up to over a month of missed school. The class itself is falling so far behind previous years in terms of reading and math... And I simply don't have the support to continually pull the children who have missed material to work one on one with them to catch them up.

It it were just the week or two, that would be fine. But when added on top of all the sick days, these kids are missing a lot of instruction. I know there's nothing I can do or say about it, but I can see how harmful this is for them.

So, when you think about pulling for a vacation, do you as a parent take into account how much school has already been missed because the kids were sick??

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

Yes it would influence my decision, but mine was a bit backwards.. First, my kids hardly ever take sick days. Yesterday was DS14s first sick day and he actully wanted to go, but his fever was not gone for 24hours.

The ONE and ONLY time I took my kids out for vacation was 2008. Both kids ended up sicker than ever and both hit almost 15 days total off for the year. It was very hard on them and I felt awful for pulling them for vacation. They both suffered...

But on that note DD's school is shutting down this year for a week so the band can perform at WDW. Since she is a senior, the whole family is going. DS's teachers are transmitting all his homework via the internet and he will be doing work at night and on the bus ride. Plus I will have teachers on the trip if we need any assistance. He was very leary about going (thought he would be doomed to be sick) but just couldn't miss his sister's last performance.

So after writing a novel, yes prior and unknown illnesses are taken into account prior to vacation in my family.

 

[NikitaZee]

Yes, I think of it. My kids are among those who have missed a lot of school this year - I think it's 16 days now. We took them out for 5 days in November to go to Disney, and came back with H1N1. They missed an extra week due to that. Now, like you indicated, there's another bug going around and my kindergartener missed 4 more days. We have doctor's notes for the illnesses, and they've caught up with their work, but I'm really hoping they stay well for the rest of the school year. If we had a trip planned now - that involved time off from school - we would be re-scheduling.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I think I take into account the childs grades more than sick time. If my kids were not good students, or if I felt I couldn't help them catch up, then I wouldn't take them.

My kids missed 7 days for Disney in November/December. My oldest has missed 1 sick day since then (none before.) My youngest has missed 2 sick days (1 before disney and 1 after.) We then took my youngest out 1/2 day to go skiing, and I felt really bad about that. I didn't want to take him out anymore time, but in the end I decided since my boys are all A students that we would do it.

I can't predict how many more days they will miss this year, but I hope it isn't many.

 

[HeatherC]

We always take them out for 3 days before Feb. vacation week. I definitely take getting sick into consideration when planning. Luckily, out district now allows up to 12 absences and we have ...knock on wood...never come close to that.

But this year we do have a couple more days than normal.

I've just been emailing back and forth with all their teachers this morning since we are leaving next week. Luckily, they are all doing fine and it doesn't seem like it is going to be a problem. They will be doing most of their work this weekend and handing it in before we leave. We're very lucky...our teachers have been great.

 

[mrsmom]

Yes, i look at sick days and grades , my kids haven't missed alot of school except one of them she just had another surgery and missed a week of school.so there will be no vacation time durning school this year. i will pay extra and take them in the summer..

 

[dfarner]

I have to admit, I've always been one of those teachers fully on board with pulling a child for a vacation. Except this year I'm finding it SO disruptive and hard, as most of the kids have already missed a huge amount of time due to illness. The H1N1 tore through the school before Christmas, we're now onto another wave of something or other and kids are dropping like flies. And I have notes from almost 1/2 my class informing me of upcoming vacations - some for one week and some for two!

When you look at the attendance rates for some of my kids, they're already up to over a month of missed school. The class itself is falling so far behind previous years in terms of reading and math... And I simply don't have the support to continually pull the children who have missed material to work one on one with them to catch them up.

It it were just the week or two, that would be fine. But when added on top of all the sick days, these kids are missing a lot of instruction. I know there's nothing I can do or say about it, but I can see how harmful this is for them.

So, when you think about pulling for a vacation, do you as a parent take into account how much school has already been missed because the kids were sick??

I keep track of all my students' absences as well (for whatever reason) and my findings are submitted to the attendance secretary/principal. Excessive absences (more than 10 days) are dealt with in court (parent will be sent a truancy letter and must go to court). Excessive absences are also grounds for retention. A child can have his/her absences excused if a doctor's note is on file for each absence. My feeling is that (as a parent and a teacher), unless a child is sick, he/she should be in school.

 

[jrmasm]

My kids have very few sick days and grade are not an issue so I have planned vacations during the school year. If for some reason they had an unusual number of sick days, I would probably cancel if I wasn't going to lose money and if no one else was travelling with us,

 

[pilesoflaundry]

Yes. We only get 5 unexcused days a year and they turn you over to the county. All sick days can be excused, even with just a note from home but I try really carefully not to take more than a day here or there on the end of a holiday weekend for trips.

I would not take a week out. There grades are fine but my middle child gets sick often so I try and save up days.

 

[RadioNate]

If DS had missed a lot of school due to illness, then I would reschedule the trip. I however, don't really pull my DS out often. He missed 2 days in December when his great-grandmother dies. Last school year he missed 3 days to go to a cousin's wedding which was scheduled quickly while the groom was home from Iraq.

I am considering keeping him home friday so I can go to a SuperBowl party in Miami on Thursday night. HORRIBLE I know! However, it is a once in a lifetime invite to a celebrity filled event. I'm actually leaning towards no but everyone is urging me to do it! DH is going alone if I don't go.

I'd have to look, I think he's only missed 1-2 days due to illness this school year. I'm sure it is less than 5 total.

My friend pulled her DS out for a week in early December (the week before school let out) after he had missed nearly 3 weeks with illnesses. I thought that was too much. I think he over 20 days missed this school year and there are 4+ months to go.

 

[KramBerries]

Our school was shut down for 9 days last year. We had planned to pull the kids out for 4 days for a vacation. Because of the 9 day closure, we rescheduled our trip to the summer. Now, they've reached the age where we aren't comfortable pulling them out for vacations.

 

[ckay87]

Oh definitely. We haven't even been able to take single ski days lately like we used to. The kids are picking up every bug that goes around the past few years.

We never took them out for full vacations, but one or two mid-week ski days were fantastic. I miss those.

Oldest is a senior next year. I might just get parental "senioritis" and pull him for a daytrip or 2 since family vacation time is coming to an end w/him.

 

[CF'er]

No. I don't pull my kids out for vacations. If they are sick enough they stay home. I schedule vacations around school.

 

[JVL1018]

Yes, I pull my kids out a week in June-and sometimes a week in the fall-but usually it's just the one..anyway, my children are absent maybe once a year due to sickness. One year my daughter was absent twice.

If they had a year where they were sick a lot, I'd judge how they were doing, but the week that we take off is the last full week before school ends and there is pretty much nothing to miss by then, so in the case of that week, I'd probably still take them.

Middle of the year, struggling to catch up already, too many days missed- I'd cancel. I don't see that happening though.
They are very lenient with absences in the school here, there are quite a few children from India and the Phillipines and throughout the year kids go and visit relatives in those countries and are gone 2 and 3 weeks at a time. My 1 week is nothing to them.

 

[PatsMom]

I think if my daughter hadn't been so healthy I wouldn't have taken her out so often for vacation! She missed one day sick in the second grade, and she was sick one day in the 7th grade. That is about it. And it wasn't that I wasn't willing to keep her home, she was just never sick! Although there were a few days in first and second grade that were spent de-lousing!

 

[Shmily1]

My DS and DD are out of "regular" school now and in college, but they were never pulled from school for any vacations. School is suppose to be more important than vacation and I always thought it was good for them to learn that point as well as being responsible and having priorities in order. After the work is done, then we could go on vacation. I always thought it was disrespectful to the teacher to take them out for vacation ("your class isn't that important so we are going on vacation") and schools get funding by the attendance of the school. It seems the schools are cut to the bone as it is and I never wanted my fun to interfere with what little they were getting.

 

[camreesmom]

We will be taking our kids out of school for vacation this year for the very first time. They'll miss one day before Spring Break and one day after. DD13 & DD 10 each have one absence for the entire year and those were both excused. DD7 has only missed 1/2 day and she wasn't even counted absent because it was in the afternoon. DSS15 is an entirely different story. He is already at the maximum number of absences but his mom says that they start over each semester and not to worry about it. I wouldn't but he is barely passing most of his classes. What is really sad is that we've had several teachers tell us that he is one of the smartest students that they've ever had. I was really torn about it because I didn't want him thinking that school was not a priority but on the other hand, we couldn't not take him on vacation with us, especially when his mom was saying not to worry about missing school.

 

[kristilew]

I look at grades more than anything. In 6th grade, DD has over a 100 average in most of her classes. Not sure how that is even possible but it sure makes me not worry about her missing any days. We've taken a week at Disney, so far, and she has been sick for a couple of 2-day stretches. DH travels a lot for business and if he's going somewhere that has good museums or cultural stuff, I pull her out and go with him. So that's added a couple more days so far this school year, with more to come.

I try not to inconvenience the teachers at all - all the assignments are posted online anyway, so it's pretty easy to keep up. She always comes back ahead of where the class has gotten to in the same time.

I'm a firm believer that real-world experience should inform as much book-learning as possible. The more connections a kid can make to the subject matter being taught in school, the more they will get out of it and the deeper they can go.

DD added to the whole class's learning when they did the unit on South America. Since she'd been there two years ago, she was able to answer questions the teacher couldn't. And that was a trip we pulled her out of school for. Same with the unit on impressionist artists. It's one thing to be inroduced to them in a book, it's another when your kid can raise her hand and explain that Monet's garden paintings are actually on huge canvases, displayed in an oval room that he designed, and which she stood in when we pulled her out of school last year to take her to Paris.

Math is the only subject I haven't been able to justify missing for a trip, and we have her in Kumon enrichment for that and never miss a day's work.

OP, if she was getting behind at all, trips would come to a grinding halt until she caught up. We have made it very clear that anything less than perfect grades mean she stays home even if DH and I go on a scheduled trip.

 

[Chelley00]

Our DD had H1N1 in October. Thankfully? they had a 4 day weekend scheduled for fall break anyhow, and she only missed 3 days of school.

Our trip was scheduled in November where she would miss 7 days of school. I went to her teacher and asked her opinion. She said that since DD had all of her work made up from her illness and was doing well, she was okay with us pulling her for our trip. DD did homework on the plane and on our downtime from the parks, and was pretty much caught up when we arrived.

Granted, this is second grade. We don't take our older middle schoolers/high schoolers out of school for vacations unless we have to.