Excuse Letters for School

[TKERBELL]

This DIS board is amazing - you have a problem post it and help arrives in all sorts of ways - What I am getting at is very simply - Thank you Thank you Thank you !!!!!!

 

[HappyLawyer]

I think this is an issue that is blown way out of hand sometimes when it is discussed, i was a teacher for a few years and our policy was vacations are unexcused, i feel like if the kids get the work and do the work while they are on vacation so be it, i go during december and i had to lie basically but i know there is not much that will be missed, and parents are not stupid, they can give their kids the work and have them do it while on vacation, i made sure every school day we were gone my daughter did something, 30 minutes of homework time is plenty to me, these are my thoughts

 

[DisneyFreq]

I think schools that allow absenses based on their educational merits are great. My son missed a week at a free state funded preschool where they actually had a waiting list. I told the teacher about our trip (to DL) and was worried that he might loose his spot but she was very encouraging and said she loves it when families take vacations together because its important to promote bonding and create memories.

I think the only thing here that qualifies as excused is death and dismemberment. Okay..so its not that bad...sick absences are excused as long as there is a doctors note but there is some rule about no more than five sick days in a row...so I guess you'd better get well for at least one day!

I'm afraid I can't use the excuse that "we can only go now" b/c I think we may go back on spring break...wouldn't that look bad?

I have to hand it to the schools in Santa Rosa County...even though they have VERY strict attendance rules, they aproved a fall break this year during the first week of October and moved Spring Break up to about a MONTH before Easter. I think they realized that if we're going to be forced to vacation on school holidays, that we needed more "off season" options. What did we give in return for Fall Break? well the kids had to start school a week early...oh boo hoo! Take them two weeks early and let em have the whole month of December off...lets barter!

 

[bigmac5]

I'm glad I live in Ontaio. Family vacations are embraced. They do prefer that they are not during school time but we don't have to ask permission. I was actually surprised to read in my son's high school handbook that they ask that you not book vaccation during exam time. I would never think about taking my kid out of high school for an extended period of time-they really would miss too much(and I wouldn't even be able to help him) Family time is so valuable especially now when everyone seems so busy.

 

[pamouselover]

Just write that you will not leave your child behind at disney world.
LOL NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just put on my letter please excuse so and so due to we will be on a family vacation at Disney World.

 

[lisaviolet]

I don't know quite how to say this...

I find these threads perplexing. I just think....well I know... that these children are your children. I don't know. I just don't understand asking for permission to do something that you think is important for your children and your family.

I know you are not technically asking permission. So forgive me if I've used the wrong words. And I would do whatever I needed to make sure that my child does not fall behind. And I would not take a child out of school during crucial times (maybe high school, exams, if my child is struggling in school). It just seems to me that some states have schools that seem to have a lot of control over your children.

And in the scheme of things does it really matter that Oscar or Sasha had an UA or or an EA on their report cards ten years from now? (but I don't want anyone to fall behind).

I was really surprised that some of your schools take % off for UA. Very surprising to me. But then again if they are doing well enough in school, and are not in the years close to college/university I think a family trip/family memories are more important. Escpecially, since some families have stated in past threads that they can only vacation certain times of the year for financial and other reasons.

Forgive me if I have offended any of you. I am just so surprised when I read what some of you put yourself through to simply make decisions for your family and your children. I mean dealing with the "rules". I feel for you.


Have fun on your trip!!!

 

[Tiki Room Fan]

I kinda agree with that. Just as adults don't live to work, kids don't live to go to school. They won't fail life miserably because they miss a few days here and there to take a vacation. At least they ARE a family and ARE doing things together like a vacation. Schools should understand people having to go in the "off season" - some folks could swing an off season vacation, but peak season prices just break some folks' budgets.

I never had to ask permission to take my son from school for a vacation, I just called and said he wouldn't be in and gave them the dates. No reason. They didn't even know we were going on vacation. For all they knew, he was having surgery!

Any teachers/principals who don't give permission are just jealous!

In about 10 hours I'll be flying to WDW!!!! I can't sleep!!!!!!

:

 

[graygables]

When my now 17yo DD was in our local public school, she fell and broke her arm. Due to problems with the cast and being jostled too much (on purpose) in the hallways, she missed quite a bit of school. We had won a trip to WDW from Kellogg's and already had it all scheduled (couldn't change it...deadlines and blackout dates), so she went over the "limit" of "unexcused absences" (even though we had a note from the doctor for the broken arm). At semester, she was given failing grades in several courses that she had actually had As and Bs in. I re-delivered a declaration of parental rights to the school, they had their attorneys look it over, and within a few weeks, her grades were reinstated.

It boils down to parental rights. You have the right to excuse your child for whatever reason you as the parent sees fit. The school rules, when they attempt to usurp that right, become moot.

That said, I provided my DDs charter e-school with 7 pages of the educational benefits we were reaping on our trip and they reimbursed our admission. I wouldn't expect that from your school by any stretch, but they cannot argue with the educational experience at WDW.

 

[marcyinPA]

I don't know quite how to say this...

I find these threads perplexing. I just think....well I know... that these children are your children. I don't know. I just don't understand asking for permission to do something that you think is important for your children and your family.

I know you are not technically asking permission. So forgive me if I've used the wrong words. And I would do whatever I needed to make sure that my child does not fall behind. And I would not take a child out of school during crucial times (maybe high school, exams, if my child is struggling in school). It just seems to me that some states have schools that seem to have a lot of control over your children.

And in the scheme of things does it really matter that Oscar or Sasha had an UA or or an EA on their report cards ten years from now? (but I don't want anyone to fall behind).

I was really surprised that some of your schools take % off for UA. Very surprising to me. But then again if they are doing well enough in school, and are not in the years close to college/university I think a family trip/family memories are more important. Escpecially, since some families have stated in past threads that they can only vacation certain times of the year for financial and other reasons.

Forgive me if I have offended any of you. I am just so surprised when I read what some of you put yourself through to simply make decisions for your family and your children. I mean dealing with the "rules". I feel for you.


Have fun on your trip!!!

I agree with you on so many levels. I fill out the required paperwork, but I don't "ask" permission to parent my kids. After all, they are MINE and I know what's best for them.

Unfortunately, here in the states, it comes down to the almighty dollar. If your district or school shows an attendance issue, then they receive less funding. So, of course, they try to make it difficult to take the kids out of school so that the attendance isn't comprimised. What really makes me mad is that there are kids (in our district for sure!) who miss MOST of school year because they have a lack of parenting...nobody to make them go to school,so they don't go! And they don't care!) But I get the "glare" of the principal when I turn in the "excuse" papers and my kids had PERFECT attendance last year!!

I'd like to think that I'm educated enough to know WHEN NOT to take my kids out of school. If they were behind, or not good students, or whatever, I'd think twice about taking them out of school for a vacation. But my oldest is a capable student (his teacher even said so!) and my youngest is in first grade. He won't be missing much, and what he does miss, I can teach at home (I have my ElEd degree).

Anyway, I try not to let the negative attitudes of the principal bother me (she really has more of an issue with it than the teachers do...because she's the one worried about the funding!!)

Marcy

 

[2nd childhood]

I had to write a letter for our last trip in December. It had to state the educational value of the trip. We had our girls take their homework with them and since we drive (14 hours) they do it on the way down and on the return home. Luckily they were excused and it turned out to be our best trip yet.
Good luck to you and your family.

 

[bigmac5]

I had to write a letter for our last trip in December. It had to state the educational value of the trip. We had our girls take their homework with them and since we drive (14 hours) they do it on the way down and on the return home. Luckily they were excused and it turned out to be our best trip yet.
Good luck to you and your family.

What would have happened if they weren't excused? If you went anyway would there have been a penalty?

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

lisaviolet ~ I agree with you completely. These are my kids and I do feel that I know what is best for them. I feel a week of uninterupted family time is more beneficial to them that the five days of school that they will be missing. My kids are great students and almost never miss school so I don't think 5 days of planned vacation time is unreasonable.

And in the scheme of things does it really matter that Oscar or Sasha had an UA or or an EA on their report cards ten years from now? (but I don't want anyone to fall behind).

Years from now I wouldn't care if it was just an UA or an EA on their report card under attendance. However, our school system does not allow work that is missed to be made up if it was missed due to an unexcused absence. For my younger two boys it still might not make a difference on their grades. But our oldest son, who is in high school, has some semester-long classes instead of year long classes. So missing five days is more like ten. Ten days of not being able to make up work = ten zeros and that could possibly give him a failing grade! (Even five days of zeros would be harmful to his grades!) He is on the A-B honor roll and we just couldn't do that to him!

BTW - We have a trip planned for Oct. The younger boys have already been excused with no great effort but we're waiting for the answer from the high school.

 

[lisaviolet]

Wow. Thanks for educating me guys. I had no idea that funding for some schools is based on attendance. No clue. I don't know what to say. Speechless on that issue. It's not like that here....re:funding.

And I now have a better understanding of how a UA can affect someone's grades in some schools. Thank you for explaining that to me. I totally understand your choices. Like I hope I said earlier I would never want to negatively impact my child's grades. Especially in high school. So I hear ya.

Oh boy. I guess I have little understanding, on a philosophical level....I know it is reality, of how a parent can make an educated decision for their child, give notification of their decision before you leave and it be deemed unexplained. To me it's clearly "explained". It is not like these parents are taking a vacation every couple of months or anything! Unexplained in my head is the child missed school and no explanation is provided by the parent or guardian especially before the child is absent. Don't get me wrong I heard clearly how it works in some of your school districts. I am just talking outloud going, "my Lord" and sighing.

It's not like I can't relate to some of these concerns. I was hospitalized once during an exam period (at 16....many centuries ago) and a math teacher gave me the average mark that my class received on their exam despite the fact that I was producing 80s/90s at the time. Wouldn't let me write it or waive the exam percentage. And unfortunately it was a very low class average!!! He also gave me 4/10 for participation simply because I was away/sick for an extended period (two weeks) before the exam. I personally fought both decisions straight to the VP. She had the participation raised to represent my abilities in class but he refused to budge on the other.

But this story is not about having any restrictive educational policies up here......it is about a control freak teacher.

I am still mouthing, "wow". I am speechless.

Thanks for the added information. This is interesting to me.

 

[disneynewbee]

I am sitting here trying to figure out my 2006 trip and new school policies is making it difficult. I took my oldest dd out of school for 2 wks in 2004 for vacation. We have no choice but to go during winter months because of my youngest dd's (2yo) medical issues. Well I explained the reason for a school season trip and gave an educational trip report and it was approved no problem. Now I just got the school rules for this year and it has been changed from 10 days excused to 5 days. This makes it hard since we drive and it takes 2 days (major fear of flying on dh's part). I like to plan ahead so I'm already trying to figure out 2006. I don't know what to do because based on the school schedule this year I could go Thanksgiving for 2 wks and only go over the 5 days by 2 days because of teacher days but I don't know if these teachers days will fall at the same time next year. GRRRRR! I just think if they expect you to meet there requirements or be fined then they should give you the school year schedules far enough in advanced to make a good plan. I can't wait till the end of this school year to plan since I have extended family going also. This is so frustrating.

 

[eeyoresmountainpals]

disneynewbee ~ I understand where you're coming from! Last year we went to WDW in October and the kids missed 5 days of school. We took advantage of two teacher workdays so that they were actually out of school the Thursday and Friday of the week prior, so we had 11 days vacation with them only missing five days. We planned our trip for this October last spring and we made all of our arrangements around those same two teacher workdays. Now this year the school system has made both of those days half-days at school. So, we'll lose those two off our trip. We're still waiting to see if we're going to have any problems with the other five days. Five days is the limit for our school system.

 

[alwayspooh]

I am such a new parent as far as a child in school. I have a DD5 who is in kindergarden and a 2 1/2 month old DD and we are planning a trip in Oct 06. I just never thought of the impact it would have as far as the school district is concerned. I will have to keep all this in mind when writing my excuse letter. I don't even know how many UA she can have now. I have a lot to learn. Thanks for all the insight.

 

[solferino]

family vacations at our school are embraced and encouraged. A couple of years ago one of our teacher's daughters was getting married in AUSTRALIA. He and his 2 kids (also at the school) were gone for 3 weeks.

All I have to do is let DD's teacher know we're going to be out for XX amount of days (tail end of Christmas break so 3 days) and see if there's any homework she'll need to make up. More than likely there will be about a half-hours worth, which we can easily do on the plane. I like how they do homework there- for each grade level it's about 10 min of work a night- 1st 10; 2nd 20; 3rd 30= and so on.

Mind you we're also independent/private and certainly don't follow the same rules as the public school system.

 

[ButterflyJen]

It's funny how your view changes on this when you have kids. Before my DD came along, I thought taking your kids out of school to go to WDW was indulgent, at best. Why not go in the summer, or over spring break or Christmas, when the kids are off? No chance of them missing school then.

Now, we have our DD. And you know what, we'll be taking her (and future kids) out of school, most likely, to visit WDW. Why? Because we just can't afford to go in the summer (not to mention it's blazing hot and BUSY then!). Not to mention that that may be the only time our family would all be available to go on a trip (if we can swing grandparents too!).

At any rate, thanks for posting this topic. I'm currently reviewing the absence policies of our school district (and DD's barely one year old!).

(BTW, that first paragraph is not meant to flame anyone....as you can see, I've done a 180 since DD was born!)

 

[corie161]

Our school basically says that they don't mind the family vacations but would like you to plan around the standardize testing dates for certain grades. By the next time we go to WDW my DD will be in 4th grade, a grade where they take one of these tests. The tests are in the spring and that's when we plan our trip, so I will need to plan around these dates. He stated that a certain percentage of students are required to take these or they look some funding.

I will gladly work around their schedule as long as they don't hassle you about yours.

 

[heatherfeather24]

I find these threads interesting because, as a child of two teachers, we never took vacations when it wasn't a school break. Not because of some major philosophical "you can never take your kids out of school" social more, but rather because my parents couldn't take the time -- simply, if I was required to be in school, so were they. In fact, they would be docked pay if they missed school (for any reason -- short, maybe, of a death in the family) the day before or the day after a scheduled school break longer than one day. (i.e. -- OK to miss the day after Columbus Day Monday, but not OK to miss the day before or after Christmas break).

That said, we had many wonderful trips (to Disney and many other places). They all occurred during "high season" and were always crowded. Never bothered any of us -- it's just the way it went.

I'm curious (not judging, just curious), why pull your kids out of school? Is it just a matter of convenience (don't want to go when it's crowded), or are there usually other factors at play?