how far in advance do you notify the teacher?

[imgoingtodisney]

I was hoping to say something at meet the teacher night however I dont think DS 5th grade is having meet the teacher night now that he is in middle school. We are leaving for our cruise on Thanksgiving. When should I send a note to school?

 

[BeanoC]

I handed out letters to all of DS's teachers on get acquainted night, and most of them asked to be reminded again closer to vacation time! We leave in 3 weeks so I am going to send another copy of the letter to his teacher's in about 2 weeks.


'Beano'

 

[TootyJane]

I'd call your school first to see if there is a meet the teacher night. I would also notify the school telling them you will be taking your child out of school for vacation. You may have to sign an Independent Study Contract for your child's absence. Every school district is different. If the school is not having a meet the teacher night, I would send a note to the teacher -- the sooner, the better and then follow up about 2 weeks before your vacation to remind him/her.

 

[tgj]

I gave my son's First grade teacher about 3 weeks notice, as we're going at the end of September. She was very nice about it. In fact, she asked if I could stay and teach the kids while she took my son!!!! He's going to do a journal each day (at least that's the plan) and a report to the class. First Grade is a lot different than others, but hopefully there won't be a problem....!

 

[halloween1031]

You may want to proceed with caution—I tried to take my nephew in Alabama to attend the John Glenn launch in October, 1998 and for his district, there were NO EXCEPTIONS for missing school other than illness with a medical excuse. (His school indicated it was a statewide policy, but I never verified that contention.) We did take him out of school and called it an illness (he did get sick from ingesting far too much candy at the MNSSHP) but it took some doing. Sadly, where my attempting to take him out of school for a once-in-a-lifetime educational experience was rebuffed, I can only imagine the suggestion for a Disney cruise.

You might consider checking the attendance guidelines before asking permission. Not that I would ever go so far as to suggest you break arguably stupid rules (if your thinking of developing an educational curriculum for the trip, it doesn’t sound like your child is at risk of academic difficulties stemming from persistent truancy) sometimes it’s easier to develop an alternate course of action. . . .

Have a great trip and enjoy!

 

[cindy_k]

I told my son's 5th grade teacher on meet the teacher night and I will remind her in 2 weeks that he is going.

She was thankfully fine with the idea. I was rather worried about it too.

Good Luck,
Cindy

 

[prymsu]

I always try to let the teacher know when we meet at open house at the beginning of the school year, and that seems to work for me. I also then remind them at parent teacher, and then send a note to school about two weeks before we leave.

 

[mog]

My strategy is to wait a little while into the school year. That way the teachers have time to get to know my children and me and know that they are good students and I take their school work very seriously. My kids also almost always have perfect attendance (other than the cruise! ), so by the time I tell them, they are not concerned that we take this lightly or that they will fall behind by missing a week.
At the end of the grading period before the cruise, I request a parent/teacher conference and talk to them in person about it. I usually volunteer in their classrooms anyway, so I have plenty of opportunties to remind them in the weeks leading up to the cruise.