How many school days does your child miss?

[discraz]

We are planning a trip and just can't decide how many school days should I let my kids miss. For some reason I don't seem to mind them missing 3 but 4-5 seem like so much school to miss.

How does your teacher react when they miss a whole week for a vacation?

 

[kelscross]

My kids are in preschool so it doesn't make that much of a difference, but they miss 5 days. In December they will only miss 4 days. I wouldn't be opposed to letting them miss that much toward the beginning of the school year or toward the end, but I would not want them to miss that much right in the swing of things. Also if you are going on their break or right before those last few days before break they usually don't do too much at school.

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

Never.

But when we go in April 05, they'll be missing 2 days right before the Spring Break. I'm not really concerned with just 2 days, but I think anything other than that would be too hard to catch up for my kids (highschool & middleschool)

 

[MamaLema]

My kids will miss 2 weeks of school (10 days total). I just sent the letter to school today so I really don't know what their teachers will say.

I know it's a lot but you only live once and ever since I saw this documentary about a woman with cancer, I think life is too short, the kids grow up too fast and I want to enjoy them every minute I can.

 

[DisLUV]

DD is in preschool and will be missing 5 days and I am a High School Teacher and I will be missing 5 days also. Why would I want to miss school and go to Disney????? I think that question answers itself

 

[MamaKate]

My kids will be missing 8 days this October & only 2 days before there Spring Break in April.

I've always taken them out of school once a year from 6-8 days and haven't had a problem yet.

I always make sure I take them out for at least 5-days, because the school lets them do Independent Study packages for 5 or more days. This way the school still gets partial credit for the child and my kids don't fall too far behind.

My kids are still in elementary, but as soon as they are in upper grades, I won't be planning anymore trips during the school year.

,
Katie

 

[gigi1313]

None!

schools here give enough breaks that there's really no reason for us to miss school... next year might be a different story if we do an extended-family trip as i won't be in charge of dates (mom/sis/sil/sil will all have input for their families)... hopefully it will only be a day or two though... ds is in second grade and has never missed a day of school and doesn't want to (he loves those perfect attendance certificates! LOL!)

 

[Kae]

My DS is in 1st grade this year. Last he missed one day poor thing got sick at the end of the year. Was going to be the 1st kid in K not miss any for 3 years. This year he going skiing in CO so he will miss 2 days. Next year we are going to WDW in Dec so I think he will miss a few maybe a whole week. Family time is iimportant also. I look at it this way some kids miss school when they sneeze or are too tried. At least they might learn something.

Kae

 

[Alice Sr.]

We always took the girls out for a week when they were in elementary school. They are now in middle school and high school. Between academics and sports it's pretty difficult to find time to get away during the school year. So if you have babies under 5th grade go for it, just make sure you work with the teacher and the kids to keep them up to speed. It's not fair to the teacher or the student if they come back and are behind.

Hope you have a great time!

Alice

 

[Katy Belle]

You really need to check your school systems policy. Last year we took our kids out for 4 day, Kind. and 3rd grade. It was no big deal. The teachers were completely fine. I think they got "unexcused absenses" but it wasn't noted on report cards or anything. This year the policy changed. If your child gets more than 3 unexcused absenses in a 4 week period they go after the parents for "truency" issues. Can be a $500 fine and even jail time. Yikes. I don't know if they would actually do that, but I'd hate to find out. I talked to a lady at WDW that had lied to the school that her mother had died, so that her High School age son wouldn't get kicked out of sports. I would just reccomend knowing the policy before you do it.

Katy

 

[TallyLassie]

My daugter will miss 1/2 of one day (it is an early release day anyway). She has two teacher planning days in a row, so we will be spending 4 nights, and five days there.

My son will miss 3 days of preschool.

 

[goobergoofyswife]

In Feb 2003 we took our girls (at the time 13 and 6) to WDW and pulled youngest out for a week in a half. She did fine. Our oldest is home schooled, so it really didn't matter with her. We picked up where we left off.That was our first trip. We love going in Feb. because it is cheaper and the crowds are not as bad. My DH and I believe you don't learn everything in school. WDW is a learning experience!They learned so much in Epcot alone(We didn't even see it all). The kids learned how to wait in lines and about taking turns and they got to notice and see all the things it takes to run the parks and resorts. They also got special time with just the 4 of us.That is just the begining. We had a wonderful trip and hope to go again in Feb. of "05" and if my DH and I have anything to say about it we will be staying longer than 5 days( maybe 7or 8 days). My DH says that he would pay the fine and take the jail time if the school gave us a hard time about going during the school year. We love it there and would do it again,and again, again.

 

[jennz]

Great question and one we're struggling with! We've always gone during the school year for a week, in either September or February. Now dd is in 1st grade and our school district policy is they lose 1% of their grade for each day of unexcused absence, in middle school or high school it goes up to 2%. Now there are loop holes, but do I want to teach dd to lie to get what you want? No problems with her grades at all, she's in 3rd grade level reading books and gets 100% on her tests (granted she is only in 1st grade!) so I don't predict any problems with her academics if she misses; education is very important to us so we would make sure she stays current. But I also agree with the other poster that education is so much more than school...last trip at EPCOT she had a BLAST in the countries! I was surprised at how much she loved it. Plus she tends to be a worrier and Figment has always helped her since we "discovered" his song..."the mind sees more...than what they eye sees" etc. How can we possibly say that wasn't worth the trip? That alone has helped us more than I can say!

To sum up my rambling...what do we do? DH HATES crowds, makes him crazy with then makes me crazy. I'm at a loss...suggestions? Oh - one of the loop holes is that the absences will be excused if the parent(s) who work can only take vaction during school year...DH works at a med office, which is busier during the school breaks, so I could possibly stretch that one...

Thanks!

 

[jeancbpugh]

I haven't taken them out yet. Our school district has a zero tolerance policy for family vacations. The teachers are not allowed to give any of the work in advance of the vacation...so you come back to a lot of work to make up.

I may take him out next June. I've noticed the kids get loaded for work for months, but very little gets done in the last three weeks of school and no new material is introduced. Might be a good time to pull them out.

 

[SWVA BGSU Fan]

This is a difficult situation for us as well. We took our son out of school for 4 days as a second grader and he did fine. Our teacher was very supportive and provided the lessons and homework prior to the trip. The support of the teacher made the decision MUCH easier.


We don't like the idea of doing this but family time is important. Yes, we could go during the summer months (and often do) but the off season is more relaxing.

The clincher for me is our local school policy concerning teacher personal days. Our teachers are allocated 3 personal days that can be taken during the year. Many of them will use this time as vacation time. If it's ok for the teachers to vacate during this time, then it should apply to students as well. I still feel that my children need to complete all assignments during the trip.

 

[JoiseyMom]

My DD8 is in third grade and will be missing 5 days of school. When we initially booked the trip, she was only supposed to miss 4 1/2 days of school. My district changed our school calendar this year. I wasn't happy, but our plans couldn't be changed. My mil booked a timeshare. Her teacher was not happy about it when we told her last week, but she said she would get some work together for us. Our district frowns upon it, but I honestly don't care. They are my kids, and I will decide their vacation and doctors appointments, not the school district. The week my DD is back she has 4 1/2 days, so we will catch up with anything her teacher didn't give us. We went last year over xmas, and it was horrible. Way to crowded, couldn't do much, and then everyone got sick. We were in Disney from Xmas Eve until the day after New Years, and only spent 4 days in the parks. Well, five if you count NYE in Epcot, when we left after 2 hours because you couldn't walk it was so crowded. They gave us that day back. I also wouldn't go during the summer, because it is WAY too HOT! My DH took me for a suprise long weekend this August, and I will not subject myself to that heat again!!!

When my older boys were in HS, we took them out for a week in January, and they were fine, didn't miss a thing.

 

[goobergoofyswife]

JoiseyMom, I read your post about your trip. I wish my DH would surprise me with a weekend away at WDW.Now back to the issue at hand, the whole taking YOUR kids out of school for vacation thing, They are my kids and if during the school year is the only time my DH has for vacation time, we are taking it. It's the only time we have together without work getting in the way.Besides, my DH dislikes the crowds. When we went the last time DD was 6 and in first grade, her teacher gave us school work to do in the van,She had them all done before we arrived at WDW, and she was happy to do it. I liked it because it kept her busy and up to speed in what was happening in class. It's still up in the air if we are going in Feb.2005 or not. If we do go we are staying in the same place FW cabins. ( I like the maid service, they do the dishes!) I'm glad there are other parents like us who see the bigger picture!My kids still talk about our Feb. 2002 trip. There for awhile it was nearly everyday.

 

[CARRIE0604]

in 1999, my aunt( and best friend) asked if my family could go down to florida with her and her husband in february. i was going to school also. because of MY schooling i told her it probably wasn't a good idea. the following year in july, she found out she had terminal cancer and died 3 months later. Take your kids out of school IF you feel your kids can handle the workload when they return. we've been to wdw every year since but i'll always regret the trip that "could have been"

 

[quartz7]

Sorry for your Loss Carrie.

But thank you for the post!! I will be taking my DD9 and DS5 out from Dec, 1 to Dec. 13. She will miss 7 instructional school days. The school will go on vacation on Dec. 17. Our teacher said no problem, she can make up the work over christmas vacation. But I am still worried. Our principle is not very nice. She looks for ways to make parents look bad. And Truancy is definitely one of them. I feel they are our Kids, not theirs. But the school districts across america see it differently. We are taking them out no matter what. I agree, live now. I don't want my children to ever say, I should of went when I had the chance. Who is to say what will happen tomorrow? Sorry I will step down now. LOl

Just wanted to thank Carrie, it made me remember why we are going and it is worth every worry wrinkle.

Janelle

 

[stevec999]

Our DD7 will miss 4 days (next week) for our trip. With her being in a private school it is not an issue.

We usually vacation when she is not in school but we are going to Disney to take my father(79). He has been wanting to go for years and we figured we should get it done while he is still healthy enough to go.