Kids missing school

[etmom]

I would like to hear people's opinions about taking the kikds out of school. I know our elementary school frowns on it. I took my DS out June1-6. I felt o.k. about it and incorporated a weekend also but next visit might be in November or December (not planned yet) He is in 3rd grade and a very good student but like I said the school does not approve of vacations during school. Opinions, comments ideas appreciated
Thanks in advance

 

[bicker]

I seem to remember a lot of very heated discussions about this, in the past. You may want to consult the Search feature.

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

You will recieve many different opinions on this. (just a warning).

I have taken my girls out of school 2 different times for WDW. We have a very flexible school district, and it is actually in the handbook, that you can take up to 5 family vacation days per year. I have never been discouraged from taking them out by the teachers, although some were more flexible than others. My 3rd grader recieved a lot of homework this past April, but hardly any last year in 2nd grade. But I expect that to continue as she gets older. We prob. will not take her out of school, once she is in the 5th grade, switching classes etc. I think it will be much more difficult then.

Just speak w/ your child's teacher, and give plenty of notice. Ensure her/him that you will see to it that the work gets done. From previous posts if read, this seems to be an issue w/ some students, and is very frustrating for the teacher.

Just a little side note: My youngest daughter's Kindergarten teacher had a WDW notepad on her desk, when we went to conferences. I knew we would be fine w/ her. All she asked was to bring back pictures.

Good luck

 

[marksor]

The rule of thumb we used was below high school- take them out of school for a big vacation like WDW. In high school- don't do it!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

There have been some very lively discussions about this over on the "Disney for Families" forum.

We will be taking DS out of 4th grade for four days in October. If the district feels like it they can prosecute me for truancy because it is strictly forbidden to take kids out of school for vacations.

BUT the handbook says if they prosecute me I will have to pay a $500 fine or do community service. As long as there is no jail time involved I will still take my child out of school. The news recently did a story on the truancy courts and they said the youngest student in there was 12 (so maybe we will be safe!) and the two specific cases they spotlighted were kids who missed 45 and 60 days!! Hopefully they have bigger fish to fry than a kid who goes on vacation for four days.

 

[Miandrea]

As an elementary school teacher (K to Grade 8), I think it is a great experience for students to travel with their parents (for a short period of time). My boards' policy is that we do not provide homework during extended absences; however, I ensure that all of the work or assignments are caught up or the students are provided with assignments prior to the trip so they are not really behind (but they do miss the lessons).

If your children are struggling in school, I would not encourage it because these children need consistency and routines. As well, I think when parents take their children out for months at a time (a three month trip back home), the children really suffer academically when they return as they miss the basic skills that are built on in the next year.

I think a week at Disney is a great way to help a family bond and create great memories.

 

[Ready to go in Ok]

I am taking my DD's out of school for 2 days to go to the world. We had originally planned our trip for this month, but due to DH having an injury, we had to reschedule. Now we are going in Oct. We did plan it around fall break, but they are only out of school for 3 days that week, so they will miss the other 2. Two of them are in HS!! Oh well, I don't think there will be much going on that week anyway, and DD's are really good about making up work when it is missed.

 

[JESW]

Our personal experience - we have been taking our two kids (now 6 & 10) out of school for a week (3 full days and 2 half days missed) in November for the past couple of years. Our oldest will be going into 5th grade in the fall and *we* can no longer take him out. The work has been getting tougher over the years and it has been harder for him to get back on track after he gets home. The teachers had been good about giving the work, but our son was NOT good about getting it done - and who likes to nag a kid to do homework over vacation?

You will get A LOT of different opinios on this subject and some can get downright nasty. In the end it will come down to what YOU feel will be best for your family.

Jill

 

[Ready to go in Ok]

You will get A LOT of different opinios on this subject and some can get downright nasty. In the end it will come down to what YOU feel will be best for your family.

Jill

 

[cobbler]

I will take my kids out of school without giving it a second thought. In our state we have that good ol proposal A which kind of hurts public schools. Around here there are soooo many charter schools and a ton of parents that home school, the district knows they could lose a student and they don't give me much hassle about it.

We took the kids out of school (youngest in preschool, oldest in 2nd grade) for 8 days last year for a vacation. Never a problem. We did tell the teacher in advance and request homework that way he could work on it while we were down there and believe me he did. He turned ALL his homework in the very day he went back to school

So I am sure there are some that will think I am a horrible mom and I don't care. We will do it again this year too. We will continue to do so unless it is very obvious that the kids will struggle and get put farther behind in school. This will probably happen in late Jr High and on. By then they will be sick of Disney and me and hubby can go by ourselves.

Besides, hubbys work does not allow any vacation time from the months of June - August and may include May and Sept in that mix too.

 

[disneyholic family]

We're americans living overseas. We come home every summer for a home visit, and visit WDW at the same time.
Six years ago, I wanted to get us home for Thanksgiving (one of the times during the year I most miss being back in America). So we arrived home 2 days before Thanksgiving, and stayed until New Years. During that time, we headed down for 2 weeks in WDW (first 2 weeks of December).

Of course this meant missing 3 weeks of school. My son was in 6th grade and my daughter in 9th at the time. Unlike all the other families living around us (all of us foreigners of one kind or another, diplomats, corporate types and the like), we'd never taken our kids out of school for a trip.
But I really wanted us to be home for Thanksgiving at least this once.

So I went to meet with my son's elementary school principal and told her that my son would be missing 3 weeks of school. She said that she was not authorized to give us permission. I told her I wasn't asking for permission, but simply informing her that he would be gone for 3 weeks.

And off we went. And it was the most wonderful trip home ever, with absolutely no negative impact whatsoever on either of their academic acheivements.

 

[NCombs]

For my family-no, we wouldn't do it. I just couldn't justify having them miss that much school for a vacation. We emphasize to them that school is always the #1 priority and takes precedence over any other activities. I can't imagine my 12-year-old trying to catch up on all the homework he would miss in addition to all the daily in-school work he would be behind on. It wouldn't be worth it to us.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

Do what you feel is best for your family. It really isnt anyone else's concern if you choose to take your kids out of school for a vacation. Have a great trip!

 

[ClarabelleCow]

I have always taken my daughter out of school for 2 weeks every April for a Carribean Vacation. I started doing this with my parents when I was a freshman in highschool, and hope to continue with it. We go with my parents, sometimes my inlaws and my sis and her family. This was the first year my daughter had a negative impact on her grades. She is in 7th grade, I spoke with all her teachers in the fall regarding this, and that if she was sick or missed alot of school, we wouldn't be going. They said no problem, shes a good student, go and enjoy!! So two weeks prior to going, I sent letters to all her teachers reminding them that she will be out. The appreciated that and all but one provided her with work, though I knew ahead of time they didn't have to do that. She returned to school, turned in all her work, interm report came out and all her grades were the same except one, her math grade. She received extra help, thought there weren't any problems, even spoke to the teacher and she said she just haden't logged in her work that she missed, thats why her grade dropped 2 grades!!! Okay fine, no problem. Well she just found out she went from an A+ in math to a C+!!! Nothing she can do, all her other grades are fine, Math teacher doesn't know what happened? And also doesn't remember anything about logging in the missing grades, and she can't find the work!

Needless to say, I know the teacher dropped the ball,(what was funny was this was one that really encouraged it said family bonding like this is great for a kid!!!) I am not sure I will do it again next year, I am desperately trying to change our timeshare to go during Easter Week, as is my parents and inlaws so that she doesn't miss 10 days, maybe only 2-4!

There are kids that miss school all the time, she missed school 10 days the entire year and was never late or left early, though grades are important, I am not upset because I know she did the work, did what was expected, received extra help and actually did an extra credit project.

 

[Evil Queen 2]

You know what works for your family. I work for a public school and spent 10 years in the office of an elementary. When I had parents ask me about it I told them the "official" stand was not to take children out for vacations. However "my" personal opinion was that the family time was as important if not more than what the district/state mandated. My building administrator did not have a problem with me telling them that. In our building we had quite a few families where the father worked in the construction business and so there was no way he could take off during the summer months for vacation. So going in January / February was their time to vacation. Most of the teachers in this building worked with the parents and I always gave the kids an "Disney assignment" to come back and report to me. I had lots of fun discussions with "my kids".

Just do what works best for your family.

 

[disneyfreakjackie]

We do it!!! I have children in 2nd, 4th, 8th and 10th grade. The girls made up their work (also had some to do before the trip). You do what's right for YOUR family.

 

[seashoreCM]

(copied from another post)

Generally I think it is a bad idea to pull kids from school, except I would pull kids from makeup school days if I had the vacation already scheduled.

I read about a school, I think it was in Minnesota, where there was a week off due to schoolwide bereavement. Considering problems of making up the class days, I thought that cancelling school that long was an outrage.

Meanwhile I would have the kids get a head start on later studies on days cancelled due to snow or whatever.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[DVC-Don]

We did it every year when the kids were in elementary school. We stopped when they hit middle school as it would have so much harder to catch up with 5 or 6 different teachers.

 

[opal]

We look dd out every year from grade 3-6. Then we switched to the last week of August. Sometimes the teachers were ok, sometimes not. We always let them know well in advance. We also asked for assignments a week or two in advance of the trip so dd could get as much done as possible before the trip and on the plane trip. Sometimes it was a struggle to get it all done before she went back to class. But that's the real world. When adults go on vacation they must get certain things done before they go and catch up others when they get back.

DD is now 23, graduated h.s. and college with honors and has just completed her first year of law school....so for her, no long-term negative impact. She still talks about those first trips

 

[*Fantasia*]

I did it 3x in 3 years. When my son was in Kinder, 1st grade and 2nd grade. I only took him out for 3 days max out each year. Now that he will be in 3rd grade and daughter in 1st grade, I don't think I would want to do it again. Even my son told me not to take him out of school. He doesn't like the make up work and he gets lost in what the class is doing. I told him I would not take him out again, even if it's only for 3 days. He is a straight A student, I think we wants to keep it that way. I want to keep it that way too!!

The school do not have any problem with parents taking the kids out. It is a private school. The teachers even encourage me to go on a trip so we can have a "family quality" time together. It is a Catholic school and they are very nice about it and they are very understanding.