Kids missing school...how long is too long?

[Capang]

My state has high stakes testing beginning in 3rd. As in, if your kid fails the state reading test then they fail 3rd grade. A week is a lot but kids can get caught up, if they are not behind to begin with. More than a week may get you in some trouble with the school. Keep in mind many districts only allow so many unexcused absences before they can fail your child or must legally contact children's services. Each state/district varies in policy so check. My district will only excuse absences with a doctors note or an excuse from a funeral home for the death of an immediate relative (parent or sibling only). Colds and minor illnesses are not always excused and travel never is unless it is travel for school purposes. In my district 18 days missed a year will fail a child. More than a week or 10 days and they will contact children's services per policy.

 

[Arielfan98]

Do what is best for your family and school. I should add my parents never asked teachers for packets, but they put them together to enrich my learning so I thought it might be the same. You could also create your own packet and have your children write about what they learn at Disney. I've seen it done before

 

[AdamEfimoff]

delete

 

[DJ_Big_Daddy]

My daughter (in 5th grade) is missing six days for our trip this year. We informed her teacher ahead of time, and she had some worksheets for my daughter to take with her (which we had her do when we returned home).
I believe the school "allows" five days, but last time we went, she took six days too, and the principal nor her teacher seemed to have issue with it.

 

[Princess Minnie321]

My son missed 3 days for our trip last year when he was in kindergarten. I got a letter from the school saying missing school for vacations is frowned upon. We are going over April vacation next year so he will only miss one day.

 

[Donna3271]

Where we live my kiddos can only have 5 unexcused absences in the school year and then the parents will have to report to court for truancy. Vacation is always unexcused here. We get 3 days in a school year for a parent excuses meaning sick. After that all excuses must be a doctor's excuse. So here that's not an option. The most my kids would miss is 2 to 3 days max.... But it is very strict here. Many schools are not like this! So I would find out what the policy is.

I cosign.... Find out your school policy.

My girlfriend took her daughter out of school in kindergarten for 2 weeks to go to Hawaii. When she came back, she had a mandatory meeting with a truant officer. Schools are more and more stringent than they used to be.

 

[holden]

Two days is the max for us. Our kids missed 4 days for vacation last year. DD was in 8th grade then. The amount of work she had to make up was insane. It stressed her out so much that we vowed we'd never do that again. I'm even nervous about the two days now that she's in 9th.

 

[piccolopat]

We always limited it to 5 days otherwise it's a bit harder for the kids to catch up on schoolwork. Can you leave Thanksgiving night or first thing Friday morning and then leave so you're back home on Sunday afternoon? Flying would make things easier.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

5 days is about the max I will allow my kids to miss. When they were in elementary I didn't really bat an eye about them missing the 5 days. Now that I have a middle schooler, I'm a little more nervous about it. I think this is the last year I'll do 5 days, probably will limit it to 2-3 for future trips. I think a lot depends on your child. Both mine are really good students and are able to pretty easily make up the work. If they were struggling, I'd be more concerned about them missing.