Excused or Unexcused

[mum of two pirates]

I'm the mom who doesnt care what the school says. They would have a hudge fight on there hands trying to hold my kids back.
Anyway we were gone 21 days last year to disney, 10 at the world 7 on the cruise. Thas was our first and only time I had my kids out of school. This year we will be gone 16 nights. I told DS 8 princ. last thursday. Oh ya by the way we will be gone after thanksgiving again this year. Where are ya going. Back to diney. Well good for you. Very few kids from this area will ever get to go anywhere with thier parents on vacation let aloan there. Hope you have as much fun as last year. I havent had any contact with DS9's principle yet, but I will soon. In nov I think. As the boys still dont know. Our school has something like if you miss so many days in a row a tru. officer will visit the home. haha have fun we wont be here. Sorry I'm the no homework mom also. My kids do well in school but it makes me mad.

 

[Caitsmama]

Wow.. hearing some of your systems' requirements is crazy!

For the heck of it, i called my dd's school - as there is no mention of excused/unexcused absense in her handbook, and the secretary told me this:
They have NO set number of dates in our town that they can or can't be out. And that obviously, excused would be dr.notes, hospital, death.. and vacations are unexcused, but they don't care if you go. LOL
I told her my dd will be missing a couple days here and there for a couple trips.. She didn't sound in the least bit concerned. She said that our elementry schools don't have a set policy about number of days missed.. LOL
So, i guess we will continue with what we do for elementry school.. and deal with middle school in 4 years.
My dd will be missing 10 days this year, due to vacations. But, if she is doing well, and has no behavior problems, then i don't mind. And this year just happens to be an extraordinary vacation year..

 

[Caitsmama]

We live in IN. and our kids can miss only 10 days a year. Vacations are unexcused and are not allowed to make up work. If they miss more than 10 days they are sent to court to see a probation officer and put on probation for 6 months. When we got there they read me my rights and to my DD12. If she missed any time on probation they could put me in county jail for the remainder of her probation or take her to county juvie center till its done. She broke her arm and was in hospital for 3 days for surgery and to have pins put in and they said it was unexcused. So we dont even think about taking vacation during school time. Just went through this last year.

Are you kidding me?! This would be a serious reason for me to homeschool if i lived there, that is just plain crazy...
Who's kid is it anyways?!

 

[clareita]

How can anyone think that it is okay for a child to miss three weeks of school for a vacation? That some parents will do this is why we have truancy laws.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I wish we lived somewhere that the school trusted us to make our own decisions about how many days DS could miss. That would be great!

DH picked DS up for an orthodontist appt. a few weeks ago. The office made DH show his driver's license and fill out a paper before they would get DS. DS missed his last 2 classes that day. That night I got an automated phone call informing me that DS had missed his last class. Yeah, I know. You people released him to DH AFTER he showed proper ID. Silly.
DS had to go to the attendance office the next morning with the print-out from the ortho and get another paper. It really is a ridiculous system.

 

[Caitsmama]

I can't tell if this post is some sort of joke. Given the spelling, punctuation, and grammar I certainly hope it is a joke. How can anyone think that it is okay for a child to miss three weeks of school for a vacation? That some parents will do this is why we have truancy laws.

Really, why is it any of your (or anyone's) business as to how many days someone elses child is out of school?? Or if someones post is a "joke".
Without knowing the specifics of this posters life, why knock someone down?

 

[clareita]

Really, why is it any of your (or anyone's) business as to how many days someone elses child is out of school?? Or if someones post is a "joke".
Without knowing the specifics of this posters life, why knock someone down?

You are right. I could have made my point without commenting on anyone's writing skills. I edited my post. My typing was faster than my conscience.

As to why it is my or anyone's elses business how many days a child is out of school, as a society we have determined that it is not exclusively up to parents how many days children attend school (assuming that the child is not being home schooled.) My proof of this is the existence of truancy laws. When children are poorly educated we all pay the price, and in general, children who miss significant time in school do not receive a quality education. Of course, as with anything, there are extremes. Based on some of the posts here, some school districts are definitely a little crazy. I can't figure out how someone in the hospital has unexcused absences. That said, I sincerely hope that if a child in my town was absent for three weeks school officials would look into it.

 

[Dreamers92]

we moved out of that town since last year. I got into a big argument with probation officer over it. My DD12 is a straight A student and i said she was being treated like a kid that was in trouble all the time or someone who does'nt care and she sat crying because she could'nt believe this was happening to her. I told my wife if we did'nt move we would home school her

 

[Caitsmama]

As to why it is my or anyone's elses business how many days a child is out of school, as a society we have determined that it is not exclusively up to parents how many days children attend school (assuming that the child is not being home schooled.) My proof of this is the existence of truancy laws. When children are poorly educated we all pay the price, and in general, children who miss significant time in school do not receive a quality education. Of course, as with anything, there are extremes. Based on some of the posts here, some school districts are definitely a little crazy. I can't figure out how someone in the hospital has unexcused absences. That said, I sincerely hope that if a child in my town was absent for three weeks school officials would look into it.

I understand what you are saying, but each town / state is different -- and therefore as far as i know, there are no set rules about how many days of school are required before "truancy". KWIM?
So, to say that b/c someone took their child out for 3 weeks, doesn't give us the right to question the childs performance or quality of education unless we know personally how the child is doing. I agree, to take a below average student out for a fun trip is not a great idea, but for all we know, this student could be an A/B student, who handled the 3 week absense well.
And to say that you would hope that someone would look into it if a child in your town was not in school for 3 weeks, why?? Is it your child?? No. And if this child's mom told the teacher that they would be gone for the 3 weeks, then why beat a dead horse? If it is not against that particular schools absence policy to miss that amount of days, then there is nothing wrong with it.

 

[clareita]

Although we all live in different school districts with wildly different attendance policies, I would be surprised if many of us live in school districts where a child can be absent, even with an explanation from the parent, for 15 consecutive days and not run afoul of truancy laws. No Child Left Behind has put intense pressure on schools to pay attention to attendance figures.

Something else to keep in mind is that when a child is absent, it doesn't just affect that child. When the child returns, and I'm talking about a significant absence of a week or more, the teacher(s) inevitably needs to take class time to help the student catch up. That is time away from your child.

There is no way a child can makeup what was learned while they were absent with homework assignments. I think there is a general misunderstanding about the purpose of homework. It is designed to either prepare students for a lesson or to reinforce what was studied in class. Without being in class, the assignments are often meaningless. If any child, no matter how bright, can miss a week or more of school and not miss a beat, I would question what is going on in the classroom.

Given my strong feeling on this, I'm sure no one who is reading this thread will be surprised to read that I'm a former high school teacher. I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it was to have parents and students expect a packet of homework to take with them on vacation and then have the parents not understand why their child didn't do well on a test when they missed a third of a unit of study. I even had one parent tell me that it wasn't a big deal for his son to miss my class for a week because it was "only" history. We were "only" studying the Constitution, so no biggee.

What may surpise some people is that my 3rd and 1st grade children will be missing 2 days of school at the end of the month. My grandmother is celebrating her 85th birthday and the entire family is flying in from all over the country to celebrate. We need to travel 2000 miles for this, so there was no way to do it without missing a Friday and Monday. I'm even tenatively planning a Christmas trip to WDW in December 2009 where we will take the kids out of school for a Friday and Monday. My point is everything in moderation. Almost any student, even a high school student, can miss 2 or even 3 days once in a while without falling behind.

 

[Texasmomof3]

I agree with you Clareita. Everything in moderation. The older the kids are the harder it is for them to catch up if not impossible. I do believe they gain important experiences by traveling etc. however they need to be in the classroom to learn what the teachers are teaching. I will pull my kids out 1 or 2 days for a trip if nothing else works. I was really upset with our state this year because they mandated a start date which took away our school districts right to come up with a schedule - which meant we lost our October Fall break which was always our DW trip. Now we are going the week of Thanksgiving - not my favorite time as it will be crowded - but I couldn't see taking them out for a week in October and fighting with the district. I know some of it has to do with money since it is based on attendance however common sense needs to come into play. The stringent rules should be for the parents that don't really care if their kids go to class and pass the tests to go to the next grade.

 

[noahdove]

I agree with aliceacc..however, in our district WIC appt. are allowed also.. Not that there are many of those anymore...sometimes, counseling appt. are excused...Parents try so many reasons for taking their children out of school, I should write a book. I did attendance in our district for 17 years and wow the excuses I received...Our district figures that they have enough days built into the calendar the student shouldn't miss any extra time with vacation. It's not the written work that is missed, it's the instruction time that can't be made up and also, any hands on stuff...NY abides by the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND act and I hope that all other states will too soon....I have seen in my years what happens when children miss any days, but vacation days are worse as they think as do their parents that the classroom waited for them to return.....thank you for allowing me to air my concern for unexcused days

 

[noahdove]

Sorry Clareita, I didn't read your answer before I jumped on my soapbox Once a teacher or someone that works for a school district, knows how difficult it is to miss....

 

[mickeymouse1017]

I'm the mom who doesnt care what the school says. They would have a hudge fight on there hands trying to hold my kids back.
Anyway we were gone 21 days last year to disney, 10 at the world 7 on the cruise. Thas was our first and only time I had my kids out of school. This year we will be gone 16 nights. I told DS 8 princ. last thursday. Oh ya by the way we will be gone after thanksgiving again this year. Where are ya going. Back to diney. Well good for you. Very few kids from this area will ever get to go anywhere with thier parents on vacation let aloan there. Hope you have as much fun as last year. I havent had any contact with DS9's principle yet, but I will soon. In nov I think. As the boys still dont know. Our school has something like if you miss so many days in a row a tru. officer will visit the home. haha have fun we wont be here. Sorry I'm the no homework mom also. My kids do well in school but it makes me mad.

I hope that I am not causing any problems on this board by saying this and I really don't want to get flamed but I would not want to be your child's teacher. That is asking a lot of any teacher to expect them to help your child make up three weeks or more of work and tests because of vacation. If I have students who are going to be out for a week, I really do try to help but more than that it is up to the parents to make up the work. Also, I can't believe that anyone would get away with not doing their homework. Failure to turn in homework results in lower grades at my school. I am really perplexed by this post and by the attitude.

 

[leighe]

Something else to keep in mind is that when a child is absent, it doesn't just affect that child. When the child returns, and I'm talking about a significant absence of a week or more, the teacher(s) inevitably needs to take class time to help the student catch up. That is time away from your child.

There is no way a child can makeup what was learned while they were absent with homework assignments. I think there is a general misunderstanding about the purpose of homework. It is designed to either prepare students for a lesson or to reinforce what was studied in class. Without being in class, the assignments are often meaningless. If any child, no matter how bright, can miss a week or more of school and not miss a beat, I would question what is going on in the classroom.

As a current high school world history teacher I completely agree.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I agree that there have to be limits. When we got the truancy notice DS had missed 4 days for vacation. I wouldn't take him out for 4 days now that he is in middle school because he would miss too much and it would be too hard for him to make up what he missed. He has a fair amount of homework every night, so to add 4 days of missed work on top of that would make it really tough for him to catch up.

We have 6, 6 week marking periods, so missing 15 days would be HALF of one marking period! No way would I do that! And with the way the truancy laws are written I don't think we could even win a case like that!

He'll miss 2 days in December and I am already worried about how I will "spin" those absences to get them excused.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

I started reading this thread because I was curious -- we took ds out in pre-K for a week long trip to Disney, and we had no trouble making up the work. He was all set on L, M, N, O and P when we got back.

Earlier this year (ds is now a 4th Grader), he missed one day for a funeral. Both of these absences were excused, and ok with his (same) school. We spent so many hours making up the work he missed in that one day (and it was a Friday, so he didn't have homework). We had the work ahead of time, and he spent no less than six hours doing it. I can't believe what is expected in 4th Grade! DS just got his progress report, and his lowest grade was an A-. It's not that the work was too hard for him to understand -- but the volume was incredible! I now can't imagine taking him out for a vacation. I think it would take us so long to catch up, we would be miserable.

I wouldn't take ds out now for a vacation because of my desire to retain my sanity! Excused or not, the after effects are just not worth it.

 

[ntengwall]

Wow--this thread makes me very glad that we homeschool our kids! LOL Seriously though (even as a former public school teacher), it makes me angry that schools would treat a FAMILY vacation this way. As a homeschooler, I know that a LARGE amount of what my kids know was learned by just "living" and experiencing life. I would think that with all the talk about how screwed up so many kids are these days and how we need to have more family time, the schools would be able to see what a huge plus it is to go on a family trip. I just find it a sad statement on our priorities here in the USA!

 

[Caitsmama]

ntengwall - i agree. I don't homeschool, but i could see myself being "pushed" that way very easily. I think honestly kids learn alot about everyday life and cultures, and so much more on vacations.. How many of us can recall what we learned in grade school-- i sure as heck know i can't. And don't get me going on high school algebra!! LOL Would i know how to find the value of XY now?? Heck no! But, do i remember the wonderful expirences and things i saw on my family vacations growing up? Sure do!

 

[SilverMickey]

My boys are in 5th and 7th grade. I will be taking them out of school for 5days for a family wedding and Disney Vacation.

My 5th grader is Autistic and makes great gains everytime we visit Florida. His principal said "GO" and wrote notes to his teachers. His teachers are thrilled for him/us.

I then moved on to the Jr High Principal. I was very nervous. She said "GO" Life experience is a wonderful thing and it is great he has a mom and dad together to vacation with.

We met last week with his team of teachers to figure out the work load. The only teacher worried is is High school French teacher. the class is very verbal and you just can't make up a conversation in French out of a book. Problem solved. We will have a tape recorder in class that will be used for him to "hear" the class when we get back.

All the teachers were surprised that I told them early and asked permission. They said most parents call the 1st day they will be out.

We can follow the class room work on-line for most of both kids classes. The teachers do a wonderful job of writing what the class is doing and what homework there is a week in advance.

So I guess we are in the excused part of the group.

(our vacation isn't until April/May of 2008, But I needed it in writing to feel I could go forward with my vacation planning)