New Attendance Policy at DD's school - no more family trips during school!

[HappyLawyer]

personally, i could care less what the schools say and i am not going to let them dictate when we can or cannot take vacation. People can respond any way they choose and i am not here to argue or debate the issue. No one knows what is going on in a family. Some people can only vacation at certain times. So if my child is unexcused then so be it, i am a former teacher and the children will not miss anything life threatening being gone from school a week or so.

 

[IndianaMouseLover]

My main problem with that kind of schedule is that usually there are different "tracks", rather than one year round schedule, or some schools are year round while others are traditional. I have some friends who were ery excited about their elementary making the switch to a year round schedule, and it was great. Until their oldest got to middle school, and was on a completely different school calendar than his younger siblings.

If they attend within the same school district is makes no sense as to why they are on different calendars. I would petition the governing body as to why and push to change. We have begun discussions on a year round calendar and all administrators have come to agreement that the calendar has to be uniform across the district.

Now if they are in two different districts I could see that.

 

[IndianaMouseLover]

I think that each individual has their own reasons for going to WDW during the school year. For us it means lesser crowds, cooler weather and a chance to enjoy time off with our kids. We go on vacation to relax, not to deal with 50,000 people a day. My DH and I both work full time so these weeks with our kids are a chance to really have some quality family fun time. I would loath the site of Main Street in July!

Do I try and make each trip with my kids educational? You bet, mainly because of the aforesaid degree in progress, but also to encourage my kids to always look around them for education. It isn't always in the classroom.

That being said I think that each parent had gotten their child this far, and should be able to make those decisions for their children. When a school makes these decisons for parents, that's when we see these type of debates. The director of our school just asks for advance written notice of the absence.

Our point here is not to judge other's reasons. We all make choices and decisions that are right for our families everyday, whereas someone else would make the opposite choice. It all boils down to your family, your children, and the circumstances surrounding your decision.

I commend you and others on this board that do feel that is is your responsibility to be a part of your child's eduaction. You are highly educated and are capable. There won't be any "holes" in your well rounded, educated children. I know many parents such as yourself. I am going to debate whether it is wrong or right to pull a child out of school. I am not going to pass judgement.

One thing I want all of you to acknowledge or some of you ......that while all of you recognize you are part of the key to your child's education there are just as many that do not feel this way. They feel it is the school's job to do that. They are not educated enough to accomplish what all of you are. You may not know any of these parents personally but they are out there. There are just as many on that end of the spectrum as on the end that you are all on. When these individuals do take a vacation it is what it is....a vacation. A vacation from school, from thinking, from learning, from everything but "freedom". They do not treat each and every opportunity they have with their children as a life changing family educational experience. All of us have been to WDW at any time and can almost just pick them out in a crowd that are on the oppostie end of the spectrum you are on. I can quite imagine that all of you expect your children to act civilized and part of society as whole. You have educated your child to act that way. It is obvious that you educate your children on all fronts.

 

[darlak]

As I've posted previously, I will continue to take my DD out of school for a week or so every year for our family vacation. I'm not sitting in judgement of those of you who think it's wrong, but you won't change my mind on the issue either.

The reason I won't change my mind isn't that I'm too close-minded to listen to your opinions on the subject. Rather, it is because the child I now take out of school, my DD13, is my youngest of 4 children. My oldest is my DD29. I have witnessed no ill effects to their academic acheivements as a result of my having taken each of them out of school for 1-2 weeks each school year for a family vacation. Of the 3 that are now adults, 2 are currently in college with a GPA of 3.5 or above. The oldest is now married and a responsible adult and mother of 3. None of my adult children have ever been in any serious trouble.

So please understand, that although I am still, even after raising 3 other children, always looking for ways to be a better parent, when I read your opinions of all the reasons I shouldn't take my DD13 out of school to vacation, I can't help but look at the other 3 and see that this practice seemed to have absolutely no detrimental effect on their educational success.

I do believe that everyone posting here is trying to raise their own children in the manner we believe to be in their best interest. That fact alone, makes each and every child of all the posters here, blessed.

 

[Irish9697]

Someone made a good point...the school and/or district determines break times. And, we all just are expected to go along with it. Imagine if we were to all bombard them with calls and let them know, "Well, ya know, actually, that time frame isn't working for us..."

The timing is a big thing with me. I'm a single mom and a CPA who focuses primarily on taxes. So, essentially, most of our school-year breaks aren't convenient for my job. Therein lies the dilemma of...is my job or my kids and their schooling more important??? I mean, look at this calendar year...our fall break is the week leading up to October 15th, the absolute last date an individual can file a tax return on time. So, yeah, school, that break time is just not working for me...And, spring break...we have off March 10-14 and again for a long weekend over Easter which is late March this year...this is just a month and weeks before the big ol' April 15th which sends my whole office into a panic.

So, what am I to do? Well, thankfully, my employer is overwhelmingly accommodating to the needs of the family and understands that as a parent, and a single one at that, that this schedule puts me in a bit of a bind. So, our solution? My employer lets me off for this time so I can spend it with my kids!! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE where I work!?!?!

But, isn't a strange world where my employer is more accommodating than a school district???

Now, I will say...in defense of my kids' school...I love it as well and I know they would be open to my kids missing school if necessary whenever for whatever. (They attend a private, Lutheran school...we're not Lutheran, but it's an EXCELLENT school that we are very happy we are a part of!) It's their father who would have a heart attack if they were to miss for any reason...their father who sees them, 3-4 days per month, by choice. So, yeah, father of the year...but that's a whole other story. The point is...I have some hardships to face in terms of vacation timing, but thankfully, I have an accommodating employer and school, so it hasn't *yet* been an issue.

We're headed to Disney the 10th-15th of October and am hoping that this is as good of a time as I hear it is!

 

[Lizzy2]

Nope, but I do believe that parents set an example for their children. And I believe that taking children out of school for a WDW vacation implies that self-indulgence is more important than education.

It's up to every parent to decide which is more important. Their children's education or a more comfortable day at the amusement park.

I started to write a response to this but the bottom line is this- It must be nice to sit up there on your high horse and smugly decide that I don't care about my child because she misses school for a family trip. You are the same people who drag yourselves into the office coughing germs all over everybody else because you can't miss a day (God forbid! What would the world do without you?)- I hope on your deathbed you lie there and count all the days you DIDN'T miss from school and work and all the other "too critical to miss" events and you and your children are just as satisfied and smug as you are now. I'm sure the memories of your lack of self-indulgence will give you and them peace.

 

[Colleen27]

It just seems stupid that parents are pitted as adversaries against the school systems over what amounts to really trivial matters such as this. There are far more important matter at hand that have direct effects on the children and their education. This is exactly why the public education system in this country loses more supporters every year...making mountains into molehills while also ignoring the real issues at hand.

That's it in a nutshell, isn't it? So many of these policies (and the factors driving them) miss the point entirely, and as we move further and further from meaningful local control of schools, I see more and more of this sort of thing happening. Yes, attendance is a problem in some districts, but it makes little sense to apply a blanket policy in reaction to a localized issue and force districts where attendance isn't and has never been a problem to create strict rules and impose ridiculous penalties in the name of improving the districts where those sorts of rules are needed. There is absolutely no logical reason why a parent taking their child our of school for a special family vacation should be treated in the same manner as a parent who just doesn't care enough to get their child to school in the morning.

 

[Colleen27]

When we enroll our kids in school, we have to expect rules and guidelines to be in place. Some we'll agree with and some we won't.

If vacation days were excused, what would be an appropriate number? 5 days, 10, 20? There was a DISer who pulled her child out of school for a total of 30 days during one school year. Should all of those days be excused?

Where do you draw the line?

Personally, I think any child capable of doing the work should pass, regardless of days missed. That is the point of schooling, isn't it? To pass on information, not to ascertain one's ability to keep their butt in the same chair for 180 days out of the year.

But if the school district feels a need to draw a line, there are easy ones to draw. Our district will only excuse a total of 2 trips per year (officially written as one family vacation and one hunting trip); the number of days don't matter. And there are a few other restrictions - vacations are strongly discouraged during MEAP testing, so they don't excuse vacations for those weeks unless there are exceptional circumstances, and at the middle and high school level, vacations cannot be excused during midterms or finals. It doesn't have to be all or nothing - a school district can choose to create an absence policy that imposes limits and conditions on vacation absences without making them unexcused across the board.

 

[Colleen27]

If they attend within the same school district is makes no sense as to why they are on different calendars. I would petition the governing body as to why and push to change. We have begun discussions on a year round calendar and all administrators have come to agreement that the calendar has to be uniform across the district.

Now if they are in two different districts I could see that.

The problem stems from resistance to the year-round schedule (with some valid reasons - spacing breaks sounds good in theory, but what good is vacation time when we're all snowed in and the in-state tourist destinations are all closed for the winter?). One elementary was chosen to be a pilot school for the year round calendar, while the rest of the district stayed on the traditional schedule. Which, as I said, was fine if you only had kids at the elementary, but not so good when you have a child in middle school on a traditional schedule and one in elementary on a year-round schedule.

 

[cissy]

If they attend within the same school district is makes no sense as to why they are on different calendars. I would petition the governing body as to why and push to change. We have begun discussions on a year round calendar and all administrators have come to agreement that the calendar has to be uniform across the district.

Now if they are in two different districts I could see that.

BE WARNED!! Don't trust for one second that your school district will agree to move ALL schools to a year round calendar in your district. Unless you are a very small district, it ain't gonna happen. The problem is that elementary schools vastly outnumber middle and upper schools. We probably have 4 elementary for every high school here. And elementary schools don't have SPORTS teams so it is much easier to change their calendar year.

As I stated earlier, we get 7,000 students per year in our county. We started school last week and the paper reported that 1,500 unexpected kids entered the system between Monday and Friday. We also started the year 30 teachers short!

Anyway, very few middle or high schools will EVER go year round. Not if athletics is at all an issue (and I have NO problem with athletics so don't flame me). And, there are college admissions to consider. Some tracks don;t get out until late July. What then? A high schooler would be hussling to get tests and applications in place when he doesn't graduate until middle of the summer.

I love the year round system and wish our private school would adopt it. But BE VERY WARY of any school official who tells you that ALL schools in your district will change over. Get stats behind you on how many middle and high schools actually are year round. I bet there aren't many. Our county had no choice but to go year round. And our school board has gotten sued every year for the past three years. It is a mess! But as big as a mess it may be, I can tell you right now that if they attempted to change middle and high schools over, there would be an all out revolt!

Good luck!

 

[kyhardy]

I despise the attendance policy in our public schools! DD8 attends a private school & DS15 goes to a public HS (no private HS in our city,yet) I never have had trouble when they were in private school. I always let the teacher know way ahead of our trip & DD does work ahead of time & catches up the rest when we get back. Not so easy for my public school attending DS. Last year, even though 1 educational/family trip is excusable, his teachers really gave him a hard time about his make-up work & refused to send home any wk ahead of time. This year I am just taking him out & will send a note with him to school on the first day back. IMO these are my children, they are not troublemakers & are excellent students, I am a responsible parent & value education. I will remove my children from school at my discretion & not be dictated to by someone who is only interested in the greater good of their bank account! BTW - my DS only missed 1 other day of school last year for an illness & had to leave early a few times for ortho appts.

 

[momimouse27]

I can't understand why Social Workers will be bogged down doing this type of bull crap work when there are thousands of children in the ghetto who aren't fed dinner and have to live in houses that are hang out spots for drug dealers and crackheads......Yet, ANOTHER reason why I'll be homeschooling.

Sorry, didn't mean to come off crazy, this stuff just grates on my nerves.....

Yes, it gets on my nerves also. We have homeschooled our children for six years now and this is just an example of some of the silliness which we felt led to our departure from our school district. When I was growing up, instead of making all these off-the-wall rules, the parent would just inform the teacher, the teacher would give us our homework, and we would make it up at home, no big deal. I agree that there are too many other children with real problems and bad situations for the state DHS to be worrying about "vacation delinquents"...

 

[bzzymom]

I will say that our private school is tolerant of vacations, what the policy says is that teachers are not expected to make their plan ahead of time to accomodate the child's trip. The teachers DS had did send work. I told them I didn't want to take big books, so they sent mostly math pages and some english/ grammer papers. DS did journal as well which was not expected, but I told him he needed to be writing. When he was in 2nd grade, he worte his journal and drew his favorite thing each day. It was great.

 

[darlak]

Personally, I think any child capable of doing the work should pass, regardless of days missed. That is the point of schooling, isn't it? To pass on information, not to ascertain one's ability to keep their butt in the same chair for 180 days out of the year.

EXACTLY! That's why we have teacher prepared testing as well as standardized testing. If a student is able to score a level of proficiency on these tests, THAT and that ALONE should be the criteria used to determine whether a student is promoted or retained.

If they have mastered the academic skills presented for that grade level, then clearly they have learned the subject matter and should be promoted to the next grade level.

 

[IndianaMouseLover]

Hey Irish9697,

That is a wonderful family pic!

 

[IndianaMouseLover]

The problem stems from resistance to the year-round schedule (with some valid reasons - spacing breaks sounds good in theory, but what good is vacation time when we're all snowed in and the in-state tourist destinations are all closed for the winter?). One elementary was chosen to be a pilot school for the year round calendar, while the rest of the district stayed on the traditional schedule. Which, as I said, was fine if you only had kids at the elementary, but not so good when you have a child in middle school on a traditional schedule and one in elementary on a year-round schedule.

I see now and understand. That would cause a big problem if all of the schools are not in board. Hopefully that will change for the MS and HS.

 

[IndianaMouseLover]

BE WARNED!! Don't trust for one second that your school district will agree to move ALL schools to a year round calendar in your district. Unless you are a very small district, it ain't gonna happen. The problem is that elementary schools vastly outnumber middle and upper schools. We probably have 4 elementary for every high school here. And elementary schools don't have SPORTS teams so it is much easier to change their calendar year.

As I stated earlier, we get 7,000 students per year in our county. We started school last week and the paper reported that 1,500 unexpected kids entered the system between Monday and Friday. We also started the year 30 teachers short!

Anyway, very few middle or high schools will EVER go year round. Not if athletics is at all an issue (and I have NO problem with athletics so don't flame me). And, there are college admissions to consider. Some tracks don;t get out until late July. What then? A high schooler would be hussling to get tests and applications in place when he doesn't graduate until middle of the summer.

I love the year round system and wish our private school would adopt it. But BE VERY WARY of any school official who tells you that ALL schools in your district will change over. Get stats behind you on how many middle and high schools actually are year round. I bet there aren't many. Our county had no choice but to go year round. And our school board has gotten sued every year for the past three years. It is a mess! But as big as a mess it may be, I can tell you right now that if they attempted to change middle and high schools over, there would be an all out revolt!

Good luck!

Thanks for the warning.

As for sports I feel that it contributes to well rounded students. I know that for a fact. My grades were always better when I was in-season versus off-season. I guess I realized I had to buckle down.

Back the the year round.....I still think it can happen. Many tracks in our state end in late June with the first grading period for the new year beginning in mid to late July. Only a 4 or 5 weeks earlier than we normally would start depending on the district. But you points are definite points to be pondering and thinking about in the planning stages.

PS. Rumor has it that the IDOE (Indiana Dept. of Ed.) is thinking about moving from 180 day calendar to a 200. I just read that in my email today. Money is too tight and that is a long way down the road. I would be totally against that. I see that quality versus quantity is the way to go.

 

[aimsicle]

You are instilling the values you live by, and your value system says that education is important but it's ok to sacrifice a week's education for a week's personal indulgence. There's nothing wrong with that - but it isn't *my* value system, which is what I was speaking to.

If you don't feel guilt, why do you seem defensive? That last line said "It's up to every parent to decide which is more important. Their children's education or a more comfortable day at the amusement park." You've made your decision. It's not the decision I would have made, but I did say that it was up to every parent to come to their own decision. I never suggested that anyone in the family be unwillingly left behind.

I have a Ph.D from a highly ranked university. Obviously, I do value education. I value education so much that during the summer breaks, we still do some schoolwork with my children. I value education so much that my youngest, who just turned 4 two weeks ago, is already reading because I have worked with her. HOWEVER important education is, family is moreso. Yes, I understand that there are summer breaks, but that is not always the best for the FAMILY.

I pulled my oldest out of first grade a few years ago for a WDW trip in September. Why September? Her brother had died, and September would have been his birthday. We, as a family, needed it for some healing. And yes, it seemed to be much more important to heal as a family in the middle of the school year than it did for my daughter to attend a school that tries to fit every child into a cookie cutter mold.

I do not believe that those who take their children out during the school year are all about personal indulgence over education. Perhaps our value systems are not so different; rather, the way we define education is what is different. To me, education is so much more than sitting at a desk in a classroom following a curriculum that the state dictates. Education is essentially about becoming a productive member of society. No one cares how old you were when you started reading; when you go out and get a job, they just want to know if you have the skills, can follow directions, and can get along with others--the latter two you can most certainly learn at Disney!

 

[WildGrits]

I just wanted to say to OP..............

I am far from surprised about this new rule. My girls went to Gregory when we lived in Wilmington Full-time and it was an awesome school. I'm not sure if that is the school you are talking about but they where quite strict like that 2 years ago.

Now my girls go to school in Albany, NY and sadly there is no comparison in the quality of education they receive now. IT was a total culture shock for them to see how poorly student are allowed to behave.

Sorry for the OT.

I just had to comment on how awesome the schools in New Hanover County are.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

I just wanted to say to OP..............

I am far from surprised about this new rule. My girls went to Gregory when we lived in Wilmington Full-time and it was an awesome school. I'm not sure if that is the school you are talking about but they where quite strict like that 2 years ago.

Now my girls go to school in Albany, NY and sadly there is no comparison in the quality of education they receive now. IT was a total culture shock for them to see how poorly student are allowed to behave.

Sorry for the OT.

I just had to comment on how awesome the schools in New Hanover County are.

It's so funny that you posted this! We used to live in Clifton Park, and we had always heard how great the schools are there. We moved to Wilmington just before kindergarten for our oldest, so we didn't go to Shen schools. DD8 goes to Wrighstville Beach, which we love and are so blessed to be a part of, but I am just not crazy about the new attendance policy. It doesn't make me value the school any less and I have no interest in sending her to private school when she is part of such a wonderful place, but I sure wish we could still go to WDW in September!