Missing School.... How did your school react?

[princess22]

I would certainly be homeschooling if I lived in that state, no way would I be sending my child to a school and have those rules thrown at me.

Like a few other people said, I think this law is intended for parents who don't care if their students come to school or not. I had one student in my class who missed 2 weeks straight, for no reason! He just didn't want to come. Trust me, it hurt his grades, after giving him all the make up work, he still didn't bring his grade up to a passing grade. I had another girl who would never come to school if it was raining, because her mother didn't want her to get wet. And trust me, in Florida, it rains a lot!

 

[J/T Gramdma]

I am taking my Grandsons 9/11 out of school for 2 weeks. We are going on the 29thOct Wonder cruise and 4 days at the theme parks. I booked this cruise last year when the cruise opened the 2006 schedule. My DGS were on a year-round schedule and those 2 weeks were the break time. Unknown to me they changed the school year to the 9-month schedule. I am not changing my plans and the school will have to accept my grandkids will be out of school. Of course we will help them complete any schoolwork they are given.The extra time involved is travel time as they live in Phoenix AZ. THeir mother is okay with it and will talk to the teachers as soon as school is in session. one is an 'A' student and one is a 'C' student. The 'C' student is ADD and cannot take any meds so he has to do learning by willpower. Personally I think the 'C' student will learn more from the cruise than he ever could from sitting in a classroom.

 

[NJBILL]

I would like to add to this post. I am a second term Board Of Education member in NJ. I too am allowing my kids to miss (3 days of) school this year for our cruise. Most schools will not penalize you or classify you as truant as long as they know where your children are. If you write a letter to the school saying you are keeping your child home for a week, you may get a lecture and even not have them "excused", but it is unlikely for the school to call state/local officials on you. As many posters have stated, truancy is there to protect children from neglectful parents who do not care for them and or themselves (don't show up). Most schools have plenty enough to do than to report Johhny Smith for 7 days in the Caribbean. It is also unlikely that your childs grade can be lowered as long as his grades and performance do not suffer. At least in NJ, to my knowledge, there are no points deducted from grades based on pure absence. It may translate to poor performance, but that is another issue.
The school has a legal obligation to educate your child, and want to do the best they can. If you characterize your trip as a partial learning experience,which it really is.. in part,the school will be more likely to entertain your request vs the I can do what I want with my kids approach which rarely works. A letter to the school outlining the educational benefits ie visting other countries,cultures,structured kids club's onboard etc... will go a long way.

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

Thanks Bill for your post. I dont want people to panic because of what some are posting. I live in California and they do not hall you off to jail or court for taking a vacation. My DD missed time last year because of a death in the family and we have taken vacation before. Unless you are being a poor parent and your child is missing consistently nothing is going to be done. The laws are for bad parents not ones that are spending tons of money to have quality family time with a little education mixed in. I am taking Bill's advice and writing my principal a letter this summer to let him no whats going on.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

I also live in CA and get a good laugh when TVGuy goes off on his felony truant posts. We live about 20 minutes from his town and I have relatives who live in his town who vacation during school EVERY year. We pulled our dd out last year for a quick trip to Disneyland and will again this year for our cruise and I can guarantee we will not be going to jail. The worst that happens is if the unexcused absence is more then 3 days we get a nasty letter from the district WHICH the teacher and principal warn us is coming and say not to worry about. We have the option to do independant study (which allows the school to maintain there funding and does not record any absences on the childs record) for the vacation time if we will be gone longer then 7 days, but it is not forced upon us to do that.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

This is our schools official vacation during school year policy:

"If you know in advance that your student will be absent from school five (5) or more days, you may request an Independent Study contract from the teacher. Please give the teacher as much advance notice as possible. The teacher will provide materials and assignments to be completed during the period of absence. Absences between 5 and 15 school days will be excused provided the terms of the contract are met."

Note: this says will be excused but in every case we know (and some other note on the policy I read where it said it) they did not count as absences if Independent Study was done.

Obviously we are encouraged to do Independent Study so the school maintains their funding. Should we chose not to it says this:

"[name of school] will begin the School Attendance Review Board process on any student who violates the attendance policy (more then 3 unexcused absences). " Parentheses mine.

That review consists of the warning letter home from the district, and NOTHING else unless you vacation again during that year. If you do, and again opt not to do independent study you get another warning letter, and a meeting with the Principle. End of story.

 

[Kimmielee]

My son missed 5 days of school for our Disney Trip/Cruise. I worked it out in advance with his teacher, he kept a journal and shared with the class and it was considered "excused".

IMHO it's too costly to vacation/travel/cruise during normal school holidays and legal holidays because the prices are so high!

 

[lmok]

I think a big part to consider are/is you taking kids out of school EVERY year for an extended period of time. The school boards make policies and if you write a letter saying your child is going to miss 3 days of school is one thing as to someone thinking they can just get over it because their children make good grades and I'm taking them out of school for a week or two to go on vacation no matter what your policy says or what you think.
My daughters both have straight A's. If I were to want to take more than one to two days off I would explain to them that we have to write a letter asking if it is OK. We pick our vacations around school time vacations. So far we have been Ok with it.
I work in Human Resources and so many people are trying to get around the rules. What does this teach kids? That you don't have to follow the rules?
In our school system they follow the rules very close. For now I am teaching my kids that these are the dates we can go.

 

[calpacagal]

Like someone said, as long as the student is assigned work the school will get their Daily Attendance money and most teachers will try to accomodate their students in terms ofquizzes and tests, etc. State testing is a whole other story, schools only have a short window to administer those.

We homeschool our kids so we're starting a pirate unit to learn all about pirate stuff and we'll top it off with a field trip to the pirate museum in Nassau. The learning never stops!

 

[Lindy Loo]

hope you dont mind me butting in here, I saw somewhere I dont think on THIS site, a kind of standard letter you could use to request time off to the school. I really liked it cos it worded it well, about the vaction being educational too etc.

Has anyone seen this on another Dis/florida site, if so please send me the link.


Thanks..........

 

[ShannonR]

There have been many,many long threads about this, and ultimately it comes down to your own decision and knowing your child. We have pulled out kids out of school three times for cruises and twice more for other trips. We have three and they've ranged from high school, middle school and elementary school.

Fortuneately our schools have been fine with this and my children know that we'll only due this if they are maintaining at least a B average in their major/core subjects. In fact one year we went to WDW for the first week in December, but left our DD home with family because she hadn't lived up to her part of the bargin.

We feel like the amount of actual educational learning time they are missing from 5 days is really not that big a deal when you consider how much time is really devoted to instruction each day in a class of 20 or so students. The teachers aren't teaching just to your childs pace, but a whole class. We have always asked for assignments ahead of time and in every case when they returned to shcool, they were actually ahead of where the class was.

Also we think the educational benefits of travel far out way the missed class time. We always try to make a point of them really learning something. The first time we were on the Western cruise, my kids got to visit Mayan ruines in Cozumel, not just read about them but walk through them. We have also asked teachers to give them a special assignment to complete. My one son's social studies teacher gave him a world map and asked him to meet someone on the ship from 5 different countries and learn a word or two in a couple of native languages. He had like 30 countries represented, learned some Italian and made a lot of friends on the ship.

Finally, our children's edcuation is very important, that doesn't alway mean they are getting it from the school. And the time we spend with them, the memories we've built are priceless. We can't afford to cruise at peak season, plus we really don't like the heat to that extreme. We choose when to go, not the rest of the world, because when it all comes down to it, none of us are promised tomorrow, or next summer or anything else. We want to enjoy, responsibly when we can.

All that being said, once again it is a very personal, individual decision and you will get lots of strong opinions from posters here. Only you can make the choice that works best for you and your family. But make that choice and don't feel or let anyone make you feel guilty about it.

For those of you who can take your kids out of school at any time of the year, you should feel very fortunate that you can. We live in a state where there is a "truancy law" and if your child misses more than 3 days per semester, regardless of the cause, the school reports you to the truancy board and you have to go before the truancy court and "prove" that you are a fit parent. Therefore, to avoid this, we have been forced to take our WDW vacations during school break times, which mean crowds and high prices. We wouldn't trade our vacation experiences for anything, but it would be nice to travel other than spring and summer breaks.

 

[aprilgail2]

Therefore, to avoid this, we have been forced to take our WDW vacations during school break times, which mean crowds and high prices. We wouldn't trade our vacation experiences for anything, but it would be nice to travel other than spring and summer breaks.

For many of us that would not work, up until a few years ago I simply could not get off work while kids were off, any week! We pick vacations in seniority order and if you don't have much seniority they just tell you..ok, you can have the second week in Jan, the first week in March or the first week in Nov..which do you want. So there is no choice in the matter. I havea friend who's company shuts down, the first 2 week in March and thats the vacation she gets.

 

[SILLYANDI]

ALLEARS summed it up well. Personal choice, and a felony here in California if your child is in public school.

I live in California and have sat on SARB (school attendance review board), which is California's version of mediation for truancy, as a law enforcement rep. The law is that any unexcused absences in excess of 3 days is an INFRACTION punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.
Honestly, the paper trial that is required to prove truancy is so long and involved I can't imagine any school district would spend the time or money to prosecute a family for going on vacation. And I guarantee that our liberal courts wouldn't even let it go to trial if it made it through the preliminary mediation process.
EC Section 48293 (a): Any parent, guardian, or other person having control or charge of any pupil who fails to comply with this chapter, unless excused or exempted therefrom, is guilty of an infraction and shall be punished as follows:

(1) Upon a first conviction, by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars ($100).
(2) Upon a second conviction, by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250).
(3) Upon a third or subsequent conviction, if the person has willfully refused to comply with this section, by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500). In lieu of the fines prescribed in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3), the court may order the person to be placed in a parent education and counseling program


I'd hate to see somebody's vacation ruined because they were given incorrect information (and kudos to you for being such a committed parent!)

 

[tvguy]

This information is incorrect. The violation of school attendance is an infraction. Pursuant to EC 48293(a), the MOST that a parent can receive under truancy law for a first violation is no more than $100; a second condition is punishable by no more than $250; and a third or more conviction maxes out at $500. There is NO jail time for an infraction. If the violations are repeated and deliberate, the state can argue that the parent is guilty of contributing to the deliquency of a minor, which is a misdemeanor, not a felony.

Information I posted is correct.
You didn't read far enough down, specifically EC 48293c.

 

[SILLYANDI]

Other than to check state laws, like I said, it is personal choice. It is a felony here, and do truancy raids. Most of those arrested aren't folks who took kids out of school for vacations, they are folks who don't care if their kids go to school at all. While the first time penalty is 30 days in jail, and a $1,000 fine, usually first time vacation offenders just get a lecture from the judge, and have to pay $250 in court costs.

again, I'm not sure where you are getting htis information, but it's not California state law. It may be a municipal code in your city (which I doubt) but it certainly is not in the Education Code, Penal Code or Welfare & Institutions code....

 

[SILLYANDI]

Information I posted is correct.
You didn't read far enough down, specifically EC 48293c.

here's the full code:
Its a civil penalty-this is not a felony

48293. (a) Any parent, guardian, or other person having control or
charge of any pupil who fails to comply with this chapter, unless
excused or exempted therefrom, is guilty of an infraction and shall
be punished as follows:
(1) Upon a first conviction, by a fine of not more than one
hundred dollars ($100).
(2) Upon a second conviction, by a fine of not more than two
hundred fifty dollars ($250).
(3) Upon a third or subsequent conviction, if the person has
willfully refused to comply with this section, by a fine of not more
than five hundred dollars ($500). In lieu of imposing the fines
prescribed in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3), the court may order the
person to be placed in a parent education and counseling program.
(b) A judgment that a person convicted of an infraction be
punished as prescribed in subdivision (a) may also provide for the
payment of the fine within a specified time or in specified
installments, or for participation in the program. A judgment
granting a defendant time to pay the fine or prescribing the days of
attendance in a program shall order that if the defendant fails to
pay the fine, or any installment thereof, on the date that it is due,
or fails to attend a program on a prescribed date, he or she shall
appear in court on that date for further proceedings. Willful
violation of the order is punishable as contempt.
(c) Until January 1, 2006, the court may also order that the
person convicted of the violation of subdivision (a) immediately
enroll or reenroll the pupil in the appropriate school or educational
program and provide proof of enrollment to the court. Willful
violation of an order under this subdivision is punishable as civil
contempt with a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000). An
order of contempt under this subdivision shall not include
imprisonment

 

[MO Disney cruiser]

I find it sorry that our government, whether it be federal, state or local, gets involved in when I choose to take my child on vacation. They should be worried if she is actually learning something or just being taught the information on the standardized tests.

If my kid is getting good grades and is well adjusted while in school, they really need to mind their own business.

We've taken our DD out of school for vacations most years since she was in the first grade. She'll be in 10th when school starts up again. We'll be taking her out this year for Thanksgiving week and next year for a week in Sept because we're planning DCL. There is no way the school can tell me that she will get more out of the 3 days before Thanksgiving than she will get with being with her extended family (us, SIL and family, FIL and MIL) for those 3 days.

Honestly, if the school gets too involved, we'll home school. DH is a SAHD. He has the time.

 

[mom+3girls]

I have been on this board for a little over a year now and every time this question comes up there is always someone that gets upset.

IMO I think that the court systems should spend time and resources convicting real criminals like child molesters, drug dealers and murders rather than prosecute parents for spending time with their children.

IMO it is a personal choice to take your kids out of school and I don't think the government/court system/school board can tell you how to raise your kids.

With that said, I can understand doing something if parents are not being parents and just let their kids lay out of school and never do anything about it.

Have a question:
What would the court system/school system do if a child was taken out of school to go and see a dying grandparent, sibling or parent instead of vacation?

 

[goofysgirl]

Putting on my flame suit.....

I have taken and will continue to take my girls out of school whenever we have the chance to take a vacation together.
This covers from elementary school to freshman year in college. While I believe that education is important-I believe family life far outweighs it.

We are a family blessed with a 9/11 survivor, I will not take the time we have on this earth together for granted. Children live at home for such a short time, you need to enjoy all the time you can together as a family unit.

I have had various reactions through the years from the administration of the schools, but have weathered the bad and welcomed the good. Only you can make the necessary judgment call here...ask your daughter if she feels she will be okay missing a week. Mine always were-they are all into sports and other activities, but chose the vacation each time.

If work can let my husband and I go away for a week and survive then the school system can do the same.

 

[MO Disney cruiser]

If work can let my husband and I go away for a week and survive then the school system can do the same.

Never thought about it that way. Great point.