note for school

[snowy76]

I have a problem with the schools systems that have rules without someone looking at the overall situation.

Unfortunately most schools do not have the manpower or the hours to confirm each situation individually unless the family takes the initiative. You wouldn't believe how many parents are out there who don't bat an eyelash at receiving any such notice... but it is just that, a first notice to parents to not let the absences continue if possible. I had a student this year who was absent 15 times EVERY quarter... that's THREE WEEKS out of every nine week marking period... a 33% absence rate! That's like missing all of September and October, and then some! Finally the school nurse ordered the parents to keep him out until he saw a doctor... because he never had... turns out his parents were letting him eat at 10:00 at night and he'd wake up with an upset stomach! Doooh!

Anyways, I wouldn't be too concerned about getting this letter -- it's not going to follow your child to college or anything! In our area, we are obligated to make a documentation of anything over a certain number of days so that we are following the laws about educational neglect. If a child who is often absent ends up in the family court system, the school has to prove it did something to remind the parents about school attendance policies and laws.

I can honestly say that I receive parent or doctor notes about absences probably 5 percent of the time. Often I have students who are absent because they are home watching younger siblings, or because they are skipping school. Sometimes the parents have no clue; sometimes they do. The letters are designed to protect the children by saying that someone is, in fact, keeping track. They're not designed to upset parents whose kids have legitimate reasons for being out of school -- but if I or another educator made the decision about who to go after and who not to, I'd probably be accused of discriminating in some way. So the notices go out to everyone.

...And as for vacations.. my parents took us out of school for my first and second WDW trips... I did my homework on the plane... but I can understand teachers not giving work ahead of time... often my specific lesson plans and assignments are not firmed up until the weekend before the week I teach them... I often don't have materials available for a child ahead of time... but I give them plenty of time to make them up.

 

[friend of pooh]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the new laws regarding attendance in NO Child Left Behind. Under these laws schools must have a certain percentage rate of students in school. It doesn't matter if the absesnses are for illnesses or not...they are still counted. If the school doesn't meet this percentage they face many ramifications....eachyear getting worse. So when schools tell you that you can't take your kids out of school whenever you wish, they aren't just trying to give you a hard time, there are laws about it now. Personally I don't understand why my job should be in jeopardy because students aren't in school. It's not like I can do anything about it.

 

[ImMarcik]

We are going the week of Thanksgiving. My DD 6th grade, will be off half a day Tuesday and then Wed - Fri. So first off I know they won't be doing much on Tuesday. We are thinking of leaving The Thursday before. So she will miss Friday then Monday, half a day Tuesday and the following week we will get home probably on Monday. So she will be missing 3 1/2 days total. I think I will tell her teacher at Meet the Teacher night when school starts and then again in October at the Student confrerences.

 

[TimothyG]

To me the letter sounded a little corny but all of the information is true as you can learn that.

As far as teachers going on vacation, I can see why the school doesn't allow it. As far as I'm concerned, it isn't a big deal. In my high school, all the parent has to do is ask for an excuse and that is a legitimate excuse. As long as the parents know about it, it is okay. However, of course work has to be made up within 3 days and only 3 days per semester are accepted (plus 2 from Doctors totalling 5 per semester).

It all depends on the school and its policies. Although to me, I think the school quite frankly has no business into not allowing parents to take their children on vacation. That is the problem with society, people aren't spending enough time with their families and as a result, people (although mostly in the teens) are making bad choices, following the bad crowd, etc. This can all be avoided by a childhood around parents. It is kind of like the Family Table campaign on Nick at Nite. The school shouldn't be able to say what is acceptable and what isn't.

Yes, we need a certain amount of days to receive credit so I'm not saying stay out for 2 weeks, only like the day or two days before school lets out or one or two days after school lets back in from holidays. I think the more important thing is that people spend time with their families.

 

[babar41]

I don't see what the problem is. If your child had exceeded the maximum number of absences, it would have been a simple matter to write an appeal based on the doctor's recommendations for your child to stay home. The letter is just a reminder that your child has 'x' number of absences and may be running out of allowable days. There's no chance she would have been retained based on this, but it isn't the attendance officer's job to go through each child's record and determine if it's important for that letter to be sent. It's just automatically sent to every parent.

The problem that I had was really twofold. First of all the wording of the letter I found to be offensive. Since none of my children had ever skipped school or been absent without excuse, being told that "legal actions" could happen if continued absences took place I thought was a bit (?) overkill. I was not a repeat offender, and being spoken to (or written to) as though I was an errant child was offensive. Secondly this event took place where district wide for a month 1/3 to 1/2 of the children were absent due to the various flus that were going around. In all of my years with children in school (between my DH and I we have 6 children and now 11 grandchildren) I have never seen this bad of a flu season. By the way, this happened probably 16 years ago, not a recent event, but the thought of that letter still irks me! I realize school districts don't have the man power to look into each absence, but when you are sending this letter to 1/2 of your school population, when the news is reporting the huge numbers of absent students, when some of the schools closed due to the numbers of absences, I think continuing to send this offensive letter was not the right thing to do. Just my opinion.

 

[babar41]

I agree, babar41. I would also like to humbly remind everyone that she didn't ask for our opinions on whether or not she should take her children out of school. She only asked what we thought about the letter.

You're right.. Time for me to get off my soap box! But sometimes it is just sooooooo tempting!!

 

[shelby_36]

tom and Tammy- My only other concern will be that your children will miss the first few days ..maybe not missing content...but will be missing all of the instructions on how class will be managed, the expectations as far as homework, missing and late work, discipline etc. the teacher may recap the rules for them but theres nothing as good as being there when the teacher says it. I actually returned home early from my father's funeral b/c I didn't want my kids to miss the first days of school for these reasons.

 

[chipscinderelly]

These threads are always amusing given the number of teachers/administrators we have on the board.

My parents took us out of school every year the week of Thanksgiving from my 4th grade year through my graduation from High School. My mom was a teacher before we were born and ALWAYS had us do the work only to find most years we came back 2 - 3 days ahead of the class (note we only missed 3 days at most) so we would have to SIT and wait for the class to catch up. I learned far more about the world (trips not to WDW) on those trips than I would have watching a movie or sitting in science and that family time was precious to me.

Oh and Cheers to the OP who just asked for a copy of the letter.

 

[AngelEyes]

Family vacations are considered an "excusable absence" in our district, so no need for the BS letter, which is quite good by the way.

 

[dyna]

The letter is BS like I said before I am one of those parents who took DD out most every year for at least a week and we did do some educational things at disney. We always drove and last trip DD was in 7th grade and had the map and was responsible for gettin us from home to disney (not like mom and dad didn't know the way)

About absences DD missed all of the 7th grade from Oct to early May she went back a couple of days ended up sick again and missed the rest of the school year the end of May. School did NOT provide her a tutor like they was supposed to all the time. She went on to 8th grade no problem. We did have DR's excuses and had DD in an out of the hospital several times even took her all the way to Mayo clinic 700 miles away twice before the end of the school year. She did improve over the summer and went back for the 8th grade started out fine but 2 weeks into the school year started going down hill and by Oct was totally out of school once again.
This time she was at least getting tutoring provided by the school but it was only 5 hours a week. From Oct to the 1st week of Jan I was waiting on a rehab hospital to return my calls I was doing my part calling the hosp every 2 or 3 days. The 1st Friday in Jan I got a call from that hospital telling me what I needed to do to get DD back into rehab. I called the Dr she needed to see and got an appointment for almost 2 months later she had to see this certain DR before going back into rehab. That same afternoon we had an appointment with school about what to do with DD SCHOOL DISMISSED my DD until she saw the dr with NO TUTOR.

With that I came home called the DR back was told that he couldn't see DD any sooner and NO I could not go thru another DR. Lucky for me DD got even sicker to the point she was in so much pain she couldn't even walk. Took her to her regular Pediatrican who had told us months before he couldn't help with anymore than the common cold with DD. At least he did put her back in the childrens hospital and from there we was able to see the DR we needed to see to get into rehab.

3 weeks of very very intensive rehab physical rehab. But the day after DD was dismissed from rehab she was to be back in school FULL TIME plus do about 3 hours of outpatient rehab 5 days a week after school. I knew going in to that it was gonna be to much for DD. Within 3 days of being back in school she was not able to walk from class to class without dropping to her knees SCHOOL then put her in a wheelchair against DRS ORDERS. TO funny I'd fought school for almost 2 yrs and now they had DD in school and didn't know what to do with her. SCHOOL ended up dismissing my DD again without any tutoring.

The shrink my DD was set up to see shrugged of the not walking thing as something to be ignored. It was not till the head shrink seen my DD on the floor unable to get up that she got help. Then we had to wait almost a month for a bed to become avalible.

DD did go back to school full time the last term she went back full time with her class in her honors classes and came home with a report card with 5A's and 2B's on it. Lucky for her she was always a good student or she would have never been able to have done it.

Take the kid out of school go have your vacation a week not gonna amount to nothin not in grade school or jrhigh for that matter. High school is a bit different tho.

MY DD is living proof schools don't always hold up their end of the bargain either. I found it very odd that the rehab hospital wouldn't talk to me until the school apparently called and checked as to when my DD was gonna be admitted. Funny the hospital called same day the school dismissed DD yet I had not given school permission to talk DD's doctors at that time either. Sorry rambling here.....

 

[meandtheguys2]

I agree, babar41. I would also like to humbly remind everyone that she didn't ask for our opinions on whether or not she should take her children out of school. She only asked what we thought about the letter.

Actually, she didn't even ask what we thought! (How rude!) She just wanted to know where to find it! Of course then she used the words "good letter" and some of us couldn't let that go!

 

[skbasnett]

I think some of you are lucky that they just lower the grades for absences. In the high schools in my district, if you miss 7 days of a class, you fail. Parents can appeal, but the fact that you took a week to go to Disney World is not going to get your child credit for the class, no matter how well they did.

In elementary and middle school, you can miss 20 days, which gives you more leeway, but if you go over, only illness and family emergencies will be able to be appealed.

Personally I dont think this is right. As long as the kids have good grades and an overall good attendance record, I dont see anything wrong with taking them out for a few days. Some people cant do the summer months for a vacation, (mainly for the price) so what is wrong with one at another time? My parents are both teachers and they sent us to FL for a week. We wound up being good students and didnt go overboard with the absences!

 

[samsmom05]

Let me start this out by saying that I am a former teacher and I will be taking my child out for a week for our trip. She is a good student and the work will be made up. I will talk with the teacher and office prior to our trip and we will do whatever they need.

It does seem to me that school policies are just that, policies. Sometimes these policies don't work together as they should. In our district the policy for illness absences states that the child should be free from fever without medication for 24 hours prior to returning to class. That means at least 2 days out if there is a fever involved. My daughter has allergies that cause cold symtoms with a fever. Prior to us figuring this out she missed several days off and on. There were days she was home that she could have been in school because we were following their policy. As in every business there are policies and then there are ways things are handled when the policies do not apply to the situation.

 

[sleepyone]

The letter is insulting. I'd laugh in your face if you handed me that. I'd probably say something like if you're going to hand me BS, at least make it good BS.

Maybe you were my dd's teacher last year???

 

[sleepyone]

Hi i found a web site a few weeks back with a good letter you can send to school, to excuse your children. I feel bad allowing my children to miss school, but it is only the first 2 or 3 days depending on the start day! Does anyone know where i can find this letter?

I just wanted to let you know that I used the form letter and deleted some things from it and added some of my own things to it. The teacher showed the letter to another teacher and they laughed about it in front of my dd. I was p!ssed. I guess she really didn't believe that we would teach her things while on our vacation.

 

[disgal1]

We took our boys out for a week while in 4th and 6th grade, and it was miserable! I worried about what they were missing, I had to check each night that the work was done, they were too tired to do the work, we had to come back early to get it done, time scheduled for study, blah, blah, blah!

After that, I swore I'd rather suffer 100 degrees for a week,( which we just did) than to EVER take them out of school again! It didn't really seem like a vacation. Plus it was so hard to get them back in the school mood.

my time with that is almost over, two are in in college, and the other is a junior in high school, It will be so nice to travel in May when they first are out! (assuming they will still want to go with us!)

 

[SplashLover93]

really i have no clue whats the big deal? its the same doing work at home or in a hotel! so why get in a fuss about it? i have been takin out of school since i was little to go to wdw! im going into 7th grade and its no biggie my teachers just say lucky you or can i come which is funny but some of them go to disney and totally understand and the school doesn't care really i just have to make up work and this year they got behind schedule so i did hw for the next week i came back

 

[Sinderelli]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomandtammy
Hi i found a web site a few weeks back with a good letter you can send to school, to excuse your children. I feel bad allowing my children to miss school, but it is only the first 2 or 3 days depending on the start day! Does anyone know where i can find this letter?

I just wanted to let you know that I used the form letter and deleted some things from it and added some of my own things to it. The teacher showed the letter to another teacher and they laughed about it in front of my dd. I was p!ssed. I guess she really didn't believe that we would teach her things while on our vacation.


****That was exactly my point when I stated that a less than tactful teacher could use that letter against you. I think it's terrible that one teacher showed it to another teacher in front of your daughter. I would talk to the teacher and explain that you are going on a family vacation, but I wouldn't put anything in writing. You never know what will come back to haunt you.

 

[MickeyMousesGal]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomandtammy
Hi i found a web site a few weeks back with a good letter you can send to school, to excuse your children. I feel bad allowing my children to miss school, but it is only the first 2 or 3 days depending on the start day! Does anyone know where i can find this letter?

I just wanted to let you know that I used the form letter and deleted some things from it and added some of my own things to it. The teacher showed the letter to another teacher and they laughed about it in front of my dd. I was p!ssed. I guess she really didn't believe that we would teach her things while on our vacation.


****That was exactly my point when I stated that a less than tactful teacher could use that letter against you. I think it's terrible that one teacher showed it to another teacher in front of your daughter. I would talk to the teacher and explain that you are going on a family vacation, but I wouldn't put anything in writing. You never know what will come back to haunt you.

Here I found the letter on MouseForLess.com

http://www.themouseforless.com/downloads/kids/SE.shtml

 

[InstImpres]

I have pulled DD from school for Disney and spoken with the teacher way in advance (end of Sept for Feb). My concern with handing in a letter like this is two fold, they may think you believe them to be an idiot to think you could "pass this off" or they may think you are an idiot and think less of you the rest of the year.

JMHO