Excuse Letters for School

[TKERBELL]

Does anyone have any ideas on an excuse letter - we will be taking our kids out of school for 4 days and I want to make sure that the schools know that while this is a family vacation they won't be missing out on any education while we are there - I am fully aware that most teachers do not appreciate taking students out of school for a vacation but my 3 school aged children are all on the honor roll and have been for most if not all of the school lives, it is the only way DH & I can justify to ourselves and to the kids that it is ok to take them out of school - they have always in the past provided a "project" to present to one or two of their classes - I have not in the past had to write a letter to the schools so this is a new thing for me - the school system is now requiring written excuse letters(I am sure we are farther behind in school polocies than most)....Any help would be appreciated....Thanks.

28 days and a wake up til I am back at the House that the Mouse built

 

[ktulu]

Simple!

"We're going to Disney World, when we get back, churros for everyone!"

 

[TKERBELL]

OH VERY NICE!!!! I LIKE IT!!!!!! the question is - will it work?????

 

[DisneyFreq]

The schools in this area break it down into excused and unexused abscences. Although it is recommended that we inform the school when our children will be absent so that they may bring homework home, vacations are unexused and there is no point in me trying to convince them otherwise. (used to be, any absence that was prearranged by the parent was excused!) So, when my kids are absent for the last two school days prior to Christmas vacation, I will send a note to each of their teachers informing them of the absense and asking that work for those two days be sent home by Wed. so that it will be ready to turn in on the first day of school after New Years. I'm not even going to explain what the absence is for. If they want to ask my children and they tell them, then thats fine. I did this last year for US and the teacher had no problem with it (probably b/c my dd generally never misses a day). BUT unexused absences are monitered by the school b/c they get payed a per diem based on how many days your kids come to school and they want that money! Around here, the parents can even be charged (with negligence, I believe) if there are too many UE absences and the children will be held back........so I make sure my kids never have a absense in the event that they will miss a few days for vacation.


I know this provides absolutely no help to you but you brought up a sore subject. I think schools should be more leinient with good students that have a fairly solid attendance record!

 

[tnhillbilly]

http://www.themouseforless.com/downloads/kids/SE.shtml
This a link to one. Look around this site(mfl) you will find downloads you can print for your kids to helpp with the trip.

 

[jennz]

I'm getting ready to write our letter in the next week or so, will probably turn it in 2 weeks before...I don't know what to say yet though! Our school deducts a % of their grade for each unexcused absence...

 

[cinderelly76]

Well I would just tell them that you would like the kids to bring homework with them... My mom always does that but I never do it... I do it the day I get back when I am resting so that way when you take them out the teachers won't incredibly hate you...If you don't wanty them to take homework with them then just simply say that your going on a family vacation that has been planned for a while and that your children will make up the work when they get back... If they are all Honor Roll students, it should be a peice of cake for them tto make up the homework that they missed... Hope this helps

Jessie aw:

 

[TKERBELL]

Thank you all for your great advice -

The School Policy here is that if a child can produce an "educational" project from their trip they will change the UE absence to an Excused - so from October 11 - 14 they will go on record as be UE once the kids return with the "project" they will change it to Excused...Also anytime a child misses school and work they have that many days to complete the work and return it - 4 days absent=4 days time to make up the work - make sense???

I was just curious as to what to write in a letter to the school - Thanks for the link

J

 

[Unregistered]

I teach second grade in the Northeast. I'm also a mother and a new Nana.
Your children will remember a trip to Disney with their family with a fondness that has no measure. Tell the school that you are taking the kids away to crate family bonding and loving memories. Take work with you, or, as I prefer, help the children make it up when you get home by doing a little extra every day.
Have fun!

 

[Unregistered]

Do they allow as an excuse a parent who says they have to take their children out of school to go on vacation because that's the only time they (parents) can book vac at work?

But then again, wait a minute...I'm going to Disney tomorrow (WOO HOO!) with hopes that since all the kids are in school, that'll mean less lines for me! So "technically" I don't really want kids to be excused from school. LOL JUST KIDDING!!!!

WDW is much more fun when there's kids around.

 

[Tiki Room Fan]

Do they allow as an excuse a parent who says they have to take their children out of school to go on vacation because that's the only time they (parents) can book vac at work?

But then again, wait a minute...I'm going to Disney tomorrow (WOO HOO!) with hopes that since all the kids are in school, that'll mean less lines for me! So "technically" I don't really want kids to be excused from school. LOL JUST KIDDING!!!!

WDW is much more fun when there's kids around.

Ooops! Sorry that was my post but I didn't realize I wasn't signed in!

 

[nliedel]

We called out school last spring and talked to the principle before we booked this thing. Then we VERY NICELY called the teachers individually and apologised profusly about the absence (Gene only gets a very few weeks to choose from. He has been at his employer for 5 years now but he is still low man on the totem pole). We talked about why we have to go now and we also told them that we did not expect the teachers to make packets or anything. That we did not want to add to their workload.

Both teachers offered to use a trip jounral for reading and writing and budget tracking, individual and family, for math. I was thrilled and thanked them. We will also be bringing them back a small gift. I have never ever had teachers so willing to let kids go on vacation before. With my oldest I can see why she might want him to be gone for a few days (the kid yammers constantly) but the 1st graders teacher also was supportive.

 

[4fireworks]

http://www.themouseforless.com/downloads/kids/SE.shtml
This a link to one. Look around this site(mfl) you will find downloads you can print for your kids to helpp with the trip.

This letter is great- a little overboard but it works! If you don't want to use this particular letter, you can use bits and pieces of it to get a general idea of a good letter. When I turned mine in ( we go to a private catholic school ) the principal acted like she was impressed ( like I had put a lot of effort in it) , and said that she wouldn't have counted the abscences as " unexcused" anyway.

10 days to go and we'll be at CBR!!!!!!!!! Starting my packing this weekend!

 

[mark&sue]

I like the letter and I have used the one about not being able to get time off from work for both myself and DH.

What about saying that you are getting married or renewing your vows.

I did think of saying we have a Disney timeshare for only those two weeks of the year but thought the school would say sell it!!!!

If our school does not agree to time off we will get fined. But apparently is currently £50 so would be worth it. As we are from UK we need to go for at least two weeks or jet lag and price of the flight not worth it and we always combine our trip with a week of school holiday. We are DVC members so in the scheme of things we only have another 5 years to do this and 40 odd years to go anytime we like!!!

Good luck and thank for the tips.


Susan

 

[Unregistered]

This will be our third trip in a row during school. What i send in is that we will be going on an educational trip. That way there are no problems. Disney is a world of education.

 

[tnhillbilly]

http://www.themouseforless.com/downloads/kidsdownloads.shtml
This is a link to some stuff for your kids school project.

 

[Ladybugsy]

AHHHHH!!!! I love homeschooling.

 

[AdventurerKat]

I had to write a note for my KINDERGARTEN student explaining the "educational value" of our trip. I just told them we would have a chance to learn about animals at Animal Kingdom and Sea World and the different countries at Epcot. Worked fine...he's in KINDERGARTEN for heaven's sake!

 

[marcyinPA]

Does anyone have any ideas on an excuse letter - we will be taking our kids out of school for 4 days and I want to make sure that the schools know that while this is a family vacation they won't be missing out on any education while we are there - I am fully aware that most teachers do not appreciate taking students out of school for a vacation but my 3 school aged children are all on the honor roll and have been for most if not all of the school lives, it is the only way DH & I can justify to ourselves and to the kids that it is ok to take them out of school - they have always in the past provided a "project" to present to one or two of their classes - I have not in the past had to write a letter to the schools so this is a new thing for me - the school system is now requiring written excuse letters(I am sure we are farther behind in school polocies than most)....Any help would be appreciated....Thanks.

28 days and a wake up til I am back at the House that the Mouse built

Our school district requires us to fill out a Vacation Request Form for vacations. We have a very strict policy that states that you can only take your child out of school a total of 15 days over the first through 5th grades for vacations. Anyway, on the request form, it asks for the educational benefit of the trip. I simply put "We are going on vacation for uninterrupted family time". I did not state WHERE we were going. I don't think it's any of their business!

I wrote to both of my ds's teachers as well, telling them when we'd be gone and for how long, and asked them for their policy on making up homework. They both emailed me back and were very easy to work with. They said the boys were capable students and could make it up when they returned. No problems! The vacation is a surprise, so I also asked the teachers to keep it hush, which they both agreed to do.

Personally, I wouldn't get into a lot of detail in your excuse. A good friend of mine works for the school district and has seen excuses that are PAGES long, describing in detail the educational benefits of a trip to Disney World. They make fun of those excuses in the office. The one they liked the best, though, was the one that said "Educational benefit: None. Absolutely none. We are going to enjoy ourselves as a family, and we'll see you when we get back."

 

[mark&sue]

macy in PA

I thought this was so funny. You are probably right the more excuse you make the worse it is.

DD bought home a leaflet from school today saying that children must not take holiday (vacation) during school time. As I have just booked next year's flight to Orlando from London I felt really paranoid like they knew and they had these leaflet printed just because of me.

I have now read the leaflet carefully and it says if I ask for permision and it is not granted I will be fined £50. I hope we get permission but if not £50 is a small price to pay not to have to argue with my boss about time off work during the main summer holidays, Christmas or Easter.

Hope you all have a great time.



Susan