Has anyone ever taken their kids out of school for vacation?

[xinfamousxi]

We usually go in the summer for vacation but next year we are thinking the first week of May. This would require us to take my JH student from school for a week. Shes a A/B student and have no worry about her catching up. My question is how do the schools usually take something like this? What are other parents thoughts on the subject?

 

[LilyWDW]

Find out about your school's attendance policy and decide from there. Can she make up the homework and tests? How long does she have? How many days are you allowed? Are they excused or not? Stuff like that is what YOU need to know to make the best decision for your child. Once you find that out, decide if you are willing to accept any negative consequences and there you go.

 

[disney world dreamer]

my parents took us 3 girls out of school every year.

the school district did not and still does not mind as long as you gave them a note ahead of time and asked your teachers for work which we would do before or during the trip. (my mom read me "the celery stalks at midnight" while i was swimming at the hotel)

each year we missed 8 days of school for vacation.

 

[StirlingSilver83]

I usually take my son out of school for vacation, but he's only in the 3rd grade. He's also way ahead of his class in the academic category so the teachers usually have no problem with it. Before we go though I usually make sure I get homework and stuff for him to do so he doesn't fall too far behind, but he's been quick to catch up after we come back from vacation. I also make sure he doesn't miss too much of school on the other days of the year so he doesn't have too many absences. My son also is on the spectrum and most of our vacations are to Disney so we try to plan to go to Disney on less busy times of year so summer and breaks are usually not a good time. He usually misses about 5 days of school for vacation, next year he will be missing about 8 because we are staying a little bit longer in Disney. Anyways I guess it really depends on your school districts policy and also your child's academic skills

 

[Vijoge]

Yes, we take our grandchildren out of school for vacations. Funny thing, the high school is more accommodating than the grade school. Some teachers will let them make up work and some won't but it hasn't affected their overall grades. We do not do schoolwork while on vacation.

ETA we do not take them out of school for vacations every year. Most of our vacations with them occur during the summer. The 17 y/o is going on our January trip and will miss 4 days of school. She'll be a junior in high school. This will only be her third time missing school for a trip. The first was WDW when she was in first grade. The second was a cruise when she was ten. I don't think I would take them out annually.

 

[maranara]

It depends a lot on your school & teachers. I'm a former 6th grade teacher, and for a good student, there's nothing wrong with a well planned family trip. (ie, not during midterms or state testing) Some schools won't excuse the absences (and for middle/high school students, unexcused absences could be very problematic - around here, 3 in a quarter is an automatic F in that class). I asked at my daughter's school & was told to just let them know in advance and to enjoy the time as a family. We're now planning a January trip.

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

Could you plan for the last week of school? All the important stuff is done by then. It's a filler week.

 

[disney world dreamer]

Could you plan for the last week of school? All the important stuff is done by then. It's a filler week.

it may be a filler week for elementary school but generally once you get to at least 7th/8th grade there are final tests and required exams at the end.

 

[monorailsilver]

I have been taking my kids out but usually just a day or two.

We go away in 2 weeks and the Friday that we leave is a 1/2 day. My 4th grader will miss a play, my son Might have spirt week so if he does then classes are super short and my oldest, not sure what they will do. We also come back the Mondya following break which is a snowflake day, aka of they missed lots of school then that is a make up day, as is that Tuesday. I could of flown home on Tuesday but I didn't want to risk my kids missing that much, especially my oldest since they have a block schedule in HS, 4 classes per semester and shed miss a ton.

So I try to avoid it if I can.

 

[ariane37]

Before I started coming on the Dis I would have said don't even give it a 2nd thought, because I naively assumed all schools/districts/states were like ours here in NY. However I have since learned - and been shocked - that districts and states vary GREATLY, so unfortunately you have to find out first about their policy, unless you don't care. For us it was always a no-brainer and we took our now 14 yo out for a week or two from kindergarten through 6th grade. Once he got to Jr. High and was in honors classes we were a bit concerned about how much work he'd miss, but more importantly HE was concerned, so we went when he wouldn't miss a week. Last year we did Thanksgiving so he only missed 2 days in 8th grade. Younger DS has missed a week K-4th. Doing Thanksgiving again this year so older DS will miss 2 days of HS.

Our schools do not require us to ask their permission first nor do we get 3, or 6, or any low number of "unexcused" absences that I have to deal with. At the elementary school level I simply tell the teachers ahead of time that we'll be away and write a note to the main office. Once their in Jr. High/HS we don't even have to call them out sick until day 3 so for our Thanksgiving trips all I had to do/will have to do is write a note for older DS saying he was sick for the 2 days.

Friends of ours just had their 7th and 10th grade daughters out of school for 4 days in Feb. for a cruise. Girls were fine before the went, but upon returning their older daughter had a hard time catching up. Their 8th grader had a little bit of a hard time but handled it. They booked another cruise already for the same time next year but after doing the make up work both girls requested they NOT miss 4 days of school again, so maybe you should go by how your daughter feels about missing a week? Just a suggestion You'll get tons of opinions both ways here but my personal opinion is that, unless it'll upset the kids, life is too short to worry about what school districts think. They're our kids!

 

[Nettester]

Check your school's policy. If your DD is a strong student, and she isn't worried about it, I would go for it. You may also want to research what all is happening in school that week, band concerts, etc. to be sure there isn't anything significant and important to her that she would miss. May is a terrific time to go if you can swing it.

 

[henry72]

I too am trying to decide whether to take the kids out. We are considering an early December trip. I have always been hesitant to have the kids miss school but the lure of going once again with the Christmas decorations is tempting. DS will be in 5th grade and DD in 3rd. These would be unexcused absences but they rarely miss any days and both are good students. Both kids said they would be fine leaving for a week and doing make up work if that is an option. I know several other families who have gone to Disney or a cruise and I plan to talk to those parents to see how the school handled them being gone.

 

[Hikergirl]

We just took our 1 JH student and our 2 HS students out for a week.

 

[pa. dad]

Depends on the school.
We did that once when the kids were maybe 10 or so. The school had problems with it. It required more work on the part of the teachers to assign make up work etc.
We never did it again as the complaints weren't worth it. The November crowd levels were nice though.

 

[mkla2015]

As others have said, check with the school and the district. This is our first year dealing with school schedules- we went to Disney during spring break but because plane tickets were so expensive, we ended up extending our trip a few days before and after which resulted in our DD in Kinder to miss 3 days.

We talked to the teacher and office ahead of time- they were totally cool with it but when we got back we received a letter from the district that had to be signed and told us how much money the school lost by our DD missing those 3 days and if she misses more than a certain number of days in a certain time frame, there are repercussions- counseling, court, fines, etc.

It was a little ridiculous but the school attendance lady told us not to worry about it and that we are fine with the school.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Definitely check with your school district on specifics. Every district has different policies.

That being said, we have previously taken a few days prior to our actual vacation week in order to get better airfare, and even though we would work it out with the teachers and have our girls do the work ahead of time, it was always still annoying to get the letter advising us that the kids were truant.

It never lead to anything more than calling the principal (who always knew we were taking those days too) and her telling us we were all set. Still not cool.

We haven't done it in a few years though. Our older girls are in 6th and 3rd grade and although our oldest is a straight A student, she absolutely HATES missing school. So, I'd say to check with your child too and see if that's something they'd be ok with. You assume that all kids would love to miss school for Disney, and that's just not the case.

 

[msdroz]

Our school has a horrible policy... any absence without a dr's note is unexcused, and you HAVE to make up the work but receive a zero. We pulled our son out for 3 days for my 40th birthday for a once in a lifetime trip to Turks & Caicos and I felt horrible because my son got F's on all of the makeup work. We knew that ahead of time though and still made the choice since A) he is a strong student academically and B) the memories made on that trip outweighed a bad grade or two. We made sure it wasn't during any major state testing.

 

[gorkt]

Our district allows 5 unexcused abscences per year. We used to be very relaxed about it, but then we have a lot of Indian students who would take 2 week trips back to visit family and expect to make up the work without a problem.

My kids will be in 9th and 7th and we will be missing 3 days of school on our next trip. My dd is nervous about it, but she will be okay. It is veterans week so they don't schedule much that week anyway. In all honesty, my ds will probably not be affected too much. He is special needs and the break will likely do him good.

Also we only do this every 3-4 years so I don't abuse it. I know parents who pull their kids a week every year.

 

[ForeverAlice]

Yes we always do.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

depending on district policy if allowed only problem I see could be state testing at that time of year. that might not be able to make up