Help with school note/advice

[sam_gordon]

Some of these schools sound scary!!!

I mentioned in passing last week to my son's teacher that we've booked 2 weeks in February and she said 'if you go to Universal can you bring back some HP things for me?' !!!!
I love our school

Your kids are in what, second grade? Yea, I don't think missing two weeks at that point in their educational careers is going to have a lasting impact. Missing a week (to say nothing of two) in high school (and possibly middle school) CAN have a negative impact. Will parents expect teachers to take time out of class to teach what the kids couldn't learn on their own? Let's be honest, sometimes the books/worksheets/websites don't explain things as well as a human being. A teacher can see where a student is hitting a road block and can help them work through it.

 

[Flight]

Second, I think you are way late in notifying teachers if you want to get the work in advance. Here's what I'd write:

To whom it may concern,

Johnny will be out of school on Tuesday (insert date), Thursday and Friday (insert dates). If possible, please send work home with them on Friday (insert date) or earlier. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
Your name

And let the chips fall where they may.

For a planned vacation, a note a month out allows the teacher to think about preparing some work for the student to bring on vacation.

A week prior to the vacation, Sam's note would be great to send in (with some alterations): Indicate that this is a reminder from the note sent several weeks earlier. There is no need to apologize to the school or teacher.

There are times when the teacher will simply respond with, "Have a great vacation! Work can be made up on your return." Depends on the teacher.

Parents, please to not wait until the last minute when there is a planned absence far out.

 

[DisBud]

I would draft a nice note apologizing for the inconvenience and short notice. I think if you are upfront in acknowledging that it is not ideal to miss school, but this is what worked for your family, the note may be received better. We just returned from a trip and my daughter missed school. Her teacher emailed us her assignments daily. I made sure we completed everything by the time she returned to school so that he did not feel we didn't appreciate his extra work. Our school excused the absence and did not have a problem with missing class. Perhaps daily emails with the teachers would help your situation and then the teachers don't have to do any advance planning in a short time. As long as you know your attendance policy, I guess I wouldn't stress too much over it, enjoy your vacation!

 

[Love_the_Mouse]

I really would not worry about it too much. School is important, yes. But in 25 years from now when your children are all grown, you'll have wonderful memories of your trip and I'm sure you will not give a second thought to all of the stress of taking your kids out of school or what was said in a note. Enjoy your trip and the time with your family

 

[Hikergirl]

I pulled my kids (2 in HS and 1 in MS) out earlier this year for a trip (not to WDW) and I never wrote a note. I told my kids to inform their teachers they would be out. When they returned I had to send a note explaining why they were absent, even with it being unexcused. I did not have them ask for work ahead of time, I think by MS and HS students should have to learn about the consequences of missing work and having to make it up. Personally I think asking for work is asking for special treatment. Our teacher sometimes post weekly assignments online anyway.

Go and enjoy your trip, your kids will not suffer for missing 3 days and nobody at the school is going to remember you pulled them out and use it against you. Don't stress.

 

[Magpie]

At first I thought the OP's panic was over the top. But then I remembered some of the draconian threats that appear to be routinely leveled at parents who've enrolled their children in American school systems.

Truancy court?

CPS called if your child is out for three days in a row without a doctor's note? Which costs the parent money out of pocket? There are SO many illnesses your kid can get that will keep them out for three days, but which don't require a doctor's visit. Also, do they really want people sending their sick, contagious kids to school?

Zeros on all their assignments, regardless of whether they know the material or not?

I do realize the way the funding is set up in some districts, every student not physically present is costing the school money. And I also realize that many parents have no other choice, financially. But it must be very uncomfortable to be forced to surrender that much parental authority.

It's also sad when an attendance policy has less to do with education, and more to do with money.

I'm SO glad Ontario schools are funded differently. They get money for each student regardless of whether or not the child's butt is in a seat. My dyslexic son was encouraged by the SERT to take a "mental health break" for a few days in Grade 9, because he was finding class stressful. When my daughter was in 10th grade, and trying to decide whether to take a week for Disney, her teachers encouraged her to do it. To quote her Chemistry teacher: "Go! Go! Next year you'll be focussed on getting your grades up for early admissions. This is your last opportunity to do this with no consequences!"

To the OP - in our schools, it's just courteous to let the teachers know ahead of time that your child will be absent for a few days. I'd usually mention it at the first parent-teacher meeting in September, then send in a reminder note about a week before the vacation. I also let the office know the dates we'd be gone at that time, so that they didn't end up calling the house while we were out of town. I didn't ask teachers to make up any special work packages, and they never offered to send anything with us. What they did sometimes do, though, was allow my kids to take tests either the week before or the week after during their lunch hour.

 

[brockash]

here you are required to have a drs note for 3 sick days in a row to return to school otherwise they are unexcused and you'll have CPS called on you for 3 or more unexcused sick days in a month... you need to find out about about YOUR policy. NOW.. like yesterday.. there is good reason to be considering cancelling this trip.. you should have looked into this before booking.

Lol...wow are your CPS workers in your state just sitting around twiddling their thumbs? I can almost GUARANTEE that no one has ever been reported to CPS for 3 unexcused absences, will 100% guarantee that CPS has NEVER opened a case on a parent for having their student miss 3, 4, 5, 10 days of school. I certainly hope no school personnel is so insanely ignorant. They would literally be laughed off the call by CPS if they called to report a student had 3,4,5, heck probably even 20 "unexcused" absences in a school year. For goodness sakes, I, like most, can't get CPS to open a case on actual in your face neglect and/or emotional distress/abuse.

ETA: Do you actually live in PA? If so, then I know your CPS workers aren't sitting around twiddling their thumbs, nor are they opening cases due to 3, 4, 5, 10 days of unexcused absences, as my mom works in a supervisory position in the state of PA.

There is no reason to scare the OP.

 

[CarolAnn856]

Go and enjoy your trip, your kids will not suffer for missing 3 days and nobody at the school is going to remember you pulled them out and use it against you. Don't stress.

Again, it really depends on the school's policy, especially for someone in high school. If it's considered unexcused and the work is not allowed to be made up, that could drastically affect their grade for the quarter, which could then affect the grade for the year. That might not be a big deal for every student, but for some it might, such as a student hoping to make it into honors or AP the following year.

The OP really needs to check with the school on this. Nobody here can truly tell her what the outcome will be because we don't know their policy.

FTR, I do believe that, even if it won't count for a grade, the student should make up the work for the learning experience. I also want to say that, when our kids were in elementary school, we did pull twice for vacation. Once they hit middle school, though, we didn't, as the material covered in class was too significant to miss.

 

[mjkacmom]

At first I thought the OP's panic was over the top. But then I remembered some of the draconian threats that appear to be routinely leveled at parents who've enrolled their children in American school systems.

Truancy court?

CPS called if your child is out for three days in a row without a doctor's note? Which costs the parent money out of pocket? There are SO many illnesses your kid can get that will keep them out for three days, but which don't require a doctor's visit. Also, do they really want people sending their sick, contagious kids to school?

Zeros on all their assignments, regardless of whether they know the material or not?

I do realize the way the funding is set up in some districts, every student not physically present is costing the school money. And I also realize that many parents have no other choice, financially. But it must be very uncomfortable to be forced to surrender that much parental authority.

It's also sad when an attendance policy has less to do with education, and more to do with money.

I'm SO glad Ontario schools are funded differently. They get money for each student regardless of whether or not the child's butt is in a seat. My dyslexic son was encouraged by the SERT to take a "mental health break" for a few days in Grade 9, because he was finding class stressful. When my daughter was in 10th grade, and trying to decide whether to take a week for Disney, her teachers encouraged her to do it. To quote her Chemistry teacher: "Go! Go! Next year you'll be focussed on getting your grades up for early admissions. This is your last opportunity to do this with no consequences!"

To the OP - in our schools, it's just courteous to let the teachers know ahead of time that your child will be absent for a few days. I'd usually mention it at the first parent-teacher meeting in September, then send in a reminder note about a week before the vacation. I also let the office know the dates we'd be gone at that time, so that they didn't end up calling the house while we were out of town. I didn't ask teachers to make up any special work packages, and they never offered to send anything with us. What they did sometimes do, though, was allow my kids to take tests either the week before or the week after during their lunch hour.

Here in the US, freshman year counts just as much as sophomore and junior - once you are in high school, it all counts.

 

[DopeyDame]

At first I thought the OP's panic was over the top. But then I remembered some of the draconian threats that appear to be routinely leveled at parents who've enrolled their children in American school systems.

Truancy court?

CPS called if your child is out for three days in a row without a doctor's note? Which costs the parent money out of pocket? There are SO many illnesses your kid can get that will keep them out for three days, but which don't require a doctor's visit. Also, do they really want people sending their sick, contagious kids to school?

Zeros on all their assignments, regardless of whether they know the material or not?

I do realize the way the funding is set up in some districts, every student not physically present is costing the school money. And I also realize that many parents have no other choice, financially. But it must be very uncomfortable to be forced to surrender that much parental authority.

It's also sad when an attendance policy has less to do with education, and more to do with money.

I'm SO glad Ontario schools are funded differently. They get money for each student regardless of whether or not the child's butt is in a seat. My dyslexic son was encouraged by the SERT to take a "mental health break" for a few days in Grade 9, because he was finding class stressful. When my daughter was in 10th grade, and trying to decide whether to take a week for Disney, her teachers encouraged her to do it. To quote her Chemistry teacher: "Go! Go! Next year you'll be focussed on getting your grades up for early admissions. This is your last opportunity to do this with no consequences!"

To the OP - in our schools, it's just courteous to let the teachers know ahead of time that your child will be absent for a few days. I'd usually mention it at the first parent-teacher meeting in September, then send in a reminder note about a week before the vacation. I also let the office know the dates we'd be gone at that time, so that they didn't end up calling the house while we were out of town. I didn't ask teachers to make up any special work packages, and they never offered to send anything with us. What they did sometimes do, though, was allow my kids to take tests either the week before or the week after during their lunch hour.

Honestly, when you actually get to hearing the details of the stories, they are almost never "CPS opened an investigation because we went to WDW". It's either "a friend of an aunt's cousin" or something (which means we don't actually know the real facts) had to go to court or it's people who got letters in the mail and absolutely nothing came of it. I've seen one of the letters a friend got. It's a form letter that says they "may" involve the school pupil personnel workers if unexcused absences continue. It's a CYA letter that they send out to all kids once they reach a certain number of days absent. For those that have real issues, it's the first of many warnings that they get, and also a chance for the family to talk to the school and ask for help if needed. For reasonably responsible families, it goes right into the circular file never to be thought of again.
The people who are actually involved with truancy court or CPS are doing far more than missing some days for vacation.

On the flip side, I do think parents have to respect a school's grading policy. If my kid didn't do the work when assigned (because they weren't there when it was assigned) than I respect that it's the schools prerogative to not grade the work. Then it's totally up to the individual parent and child to determine if the 0 is worth missing school.

 

[Hikergirl]

Again, it really depends on the school's policy, especially for someone in high school. If it's considered unexcused and the work is not allowed to be made up, that could drastically affect their grade for the quarter, which could then affect the grade for the year. That might not be a big deal for every student, but for some it might, such as a student hoping to make it into honors or AP the following year.

The OP really needs to check with the school on this. Nobody here can truly tell her what the outcome will be because we don't know their policy.

FTR, I do believe that, even if it won't count for a grade, the student should make up the work for the learning experience. I also want to say that, when our kids were in elementary school, we did pull twice for vacation. Once they hit middle school, though, we didn't, as the material covered in class was too significant to miss.

All of that should be considered before the trip, if your child's education is that important then don't take them out of school in the first place. Once a student is in HS, then these are the things that have to be considered before planning a trip during the school year. Since the OP was willing to take them out I assumed that the AP/honors thing isn't an issue. Not sure if she later mentioned it, but I don't remember seeing it in the OP either. My response was to her, but obviously it depends on other factors of individual students and their families.
If the OP said my kids are in all AP classes, taking them out may effect their chances, I didn't notify the teacher....... my answer would be different

 

[PrincesCJM]

I teach high school. Parents call or write a note for vacations, sometimes with little notice. When my students/parents ask for work, I can sometimes compile one assignment for them but certainly not a week's worth of worth. Most of the time, kids have told me ahead of time that they were leaving.

To me, it's 3 days. Not a huge deal. I've had students miss 2 weeks for vacations. Heck, I currently have one student on a month vacation back to her home country (she left 5 days into the school year). That's a rarity though. She was suppose to email me for work but I haven't heard from her.

 

[CarolAnn856]

All of that should be considered before the trip, if your child's education is that important then don't take them out of school in the first place. Once a student is in HS, then these are the things that have to be considered before planning a trip during the school year. Since the OP was willing to take them out I assumed that the AP/honors thing isn't an issue. Not sure if she later mentioned it, but I don't remember seeing it in the OP either. My response was to her, but obviously it depends on other factors of individual students.

You're right, she didn't mention that. But maybe she just never considered that it could have long-term affects or never realized that some schools don't allow work from unexcused days to be made up.

 

[Nancyg56]

Here in the US, freshman year counts just as much as sophomore and junior - once you are in high school, it all counts.

That is what my granddaughter told me...Nana, it counts!!!!! Now that she is in HS, she would rather chew glass and die than miss school for a vacation. Frankly, I admire her dedication and sense of responsibility. With that said, I am glad that when she was younger we were able to take her out of school because at that time, her dad could never have been granted vacation during conventional school vacations.

 

[kmb584]

Please don't fret over it. My daughter is in 2nd grade and we'll be going to WDW in December. Although her teacher already knows (we've been friends for 25+ years), two weeks prior to our trip I'll write her a note informing her that we have a vacation scheduled and that she'll be out of school December 5-9; I'll also ask nicely if she can prepare any and all schoolwork and homework that my daughter will miss so she'll be able to complete it while we're away. I'll also call the school that day to inform the administration that we'll be going on vacation. The day prior (December 2, in our case) I'll send a thank you note to her for compiling the work as well place a reminder call to the district. My daughter's school district allows 7 days of excused vacation time per school year, which works well for us as she'll also miss the last 2 (1/2 days) of school when we go in June.

 

[sam_gordon]

Please don't fret over it. My daughter is in 2nd grade and we'll be going to WDW in December. Although her teacher already knows (we've been friends for 25+ years), two weeks prior to our trip I'll write her a note informing her that we have a vacation scheduled and that she'll be out of school December 5-9; I'll also ask nicely if she can prepare any and all schoolwork and homework that my daughter will miss so she'll be able to complete it while we're away. I'll also call the school that day to inform the administration that we'll be going on vacation. The day prior (December 2, in our case) I'll send a thank you note to her for compiling the work as well place a reminder call to the district. My daughter's school district allows 7 days of excused vacation time per school year, which works well for us as she'll also miss the last 2 (1/2 days) of school when we go in June.

2nd grade < high school

 

[Magpie]

Here in the US, freshman year counts just as much as sophomore and junior - once you are in high school, it all counts.

That's definitely not the case here, thankfully!

Kids are under enough pressure in Grades 11 and 12 - it's good to have a couple years to find their feet before things get intense. Then again... our universities are somewhat more affordable, too (especially if you're not planning to leave the province), so that probably makes things less scary for many families.

My daughter was in Gifted. She was not at any risk of losing out on AP courses, just because she took time off in Grade 10. Even my son, dyslexic, (though also in Gifted), chronically low grades, was allowed to enroll in whichever of the AP courses he wanted.

Heck, he was even recommended for Basic level French (due to his LD) and when he insisted he wanted Advanced French... he got Advanced French. Horrible French grades that year, but it was Grade 9 so it didn't count for anything. And he passed! Which means the credit went onto his transcript (hooray).

 

[princesspiglet]

Wow, some of these comments are freaking me out! i can't imagine being in a school district like some of you have stated. Our school allows 10 days a year for "Educational Field Trips"- which everyone uses as vacation. All we have to do is fill out a form 3 days ahead of time and the principal signs off on it. My DD is a freshman and I have taken her out of school every year for a vacation since she was in Kindergarten and have never had an issue. Our principal actually wrote on her excuse form- "Have a Magical Trip- say hi to Mickey for me!! oh wait, say hi to Jasmine too...she's my favorite ;-)"

So thankful I live where I do.

 

[princesspiglet]

Here in the US, freshman year counts just as much as sophomore and junior - once you are in high school, it all counts.

Not in my school district. Freshman and sophomore year are considered more"starter years" than anything else. Whats counts here is your grades your Jr/Sr. year. I personally know lots of kids that have done really bad in 9th/10th grade but managed to turn it around by 11th and have gone on to wonderful colleges. I have lots of friends who are also HS teachers and they all think what matters if what you do in Jr./Sr. year.

 

[mjkacmom]

Not in my school district. Freshman and sophomore year are considered more"starter years" than anything else. Whats counts here is your grades your Jr/Sr. year. I personally know lots of kids that have done really bad in 9th/10th grade but managed to turn it around by 11th and have gone on to wonderful colleges. I have lots of friends who are also HS teachers and they all think what matters if what you do in Jr./Sr. year.

But the student's 4 year GPA is submitted to colleges. If you tank in freshman and sophomore years, your GPA will be lower.