Planning DVC when school calender aren't out!

[WithDisneySpirit]

Oh, they would have a field day with that in our school district (5 consecutive days off for a vacation)! I guess they would haul me in front of the judge as soon as we pulled in from OKW

Actually, things have changed because 8 years ago, I was able to arrange 3 days off for my older DS to go to the beach with us right after school started. I told the principal that we weren't able to take time off in the summer because of their father's job. They allowed it

Back to the truancy issue for a second, my younger DS had fever of 105 during the first strep episode and it flat scared me to death I was thinking about that when I read that stupid letter they sent me about his absences!!!

Good luck to all the parents planning that ever elusive family time

Lisa

 

[RonnoLovesFaline]

there will be better chances to snag a ressie during non-premier times.

 

[zulaya]

While I have never had any of the issues some of you have with schools dictating when you can and can't have vacations, and summoning you for truancies, if this becomes a huge deal in my area, I will bite the bullet and home school.

 

[lenshanem]

If Cobb county goes to the year round calendar...
there will be better chances to snag a ressie during non-premier times.

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm all for the year round calender now after seeing Cherokee's.
Like I said earlier it would be a DVC vacation bonanza!

 

[Kewz1]

Shan,

I live in AL and had a similar thing come up last year. We go to WDW in January and the kids miss several days of school. I spoke with the school directly and in person (I was always very upfront about what we were doing). It turns out we just needed to send in written notification to our principal to get approval. I think the unexcused absences thing is to prevent folks from taking there kids out of school but not notifying the school at all. My advice for you would be to talk to the school directly before panicking (too late!?) or rescheduling.

I haven't read through all the posts so if this has already been suggested I apologize for the repeat!

Kristen

 

[eileenfk]

One of the schools in this area, takes a field trip, where they visit WDW.
If it is educational enough for a school field trip, then it should qualify as an excused absence when done as a family vacation.

The field trip is such, that the kids have to do many of the things that they might not choose to do on Vacation. I believe they didn't get to spend much time in the Magic Kingdom (I think they had half a day to have fun there, before needing to leave to catch the flight home). I believe it was a 6th grade field trip, and the kids visited the Kennedy Space Center as well.

My niece once took a 1 week trip, with her dance program (a non school program) and went to DisneyLand, Universal Studios, and Knotts Berry Farm. This was an excused absence. The school policy was that she had a week to catch up her school work.
She was lucky, that her schools spring break was the week she got home, so she had that time to catch up the school work.

When I took my nieces and nephew, several years ago, the school (which was in Carlinville IL) had threatened to hold the kids back a grade for missing too much school. That didn't happen. The kids were in grade school then. Now that they are in high school, I don't believe I would pull them out of school.

Having the kids do school work, while visiting WDW is very difficult. I will never again go with the illusion that kids will do school work.
A good strategy for missing crowds, and dealing with the school work, is to plan your trip such that there is a long weekend (or some days off) AFTER you return home, to catch up on school work.

Eileen

 

[laceemouse]

Shan, I love your comments about the year round schedule!!! Most people hear "year round school" and think "YUK, the kids never get a break" but when you see the calendar you can see the benefit of having breaks spread throughout the year. I am in the process of trying to get our school board to consider some kind of modified calendar, but I still think most parents are very resistant to change. Everyone likes to travel, and DVC is not the only reason to plan early. We own another TS which requires early planning too, plus there are a LOT of places that would be nice to visit in the Fall or Spring, not to mention often lower hotel and flight prices then. My kids did a lot of activities this summer, but still got really bored and could not wait for school to start last week. The traditional calendar made sense when kids had to work on the farm all summer, now it is just antiquated IMO. Here, school is so hard and competitive that by Jr. High it is just too hard to miss and make up the work. My oldest is in gifted classes, and will be in High School next year, so missing school is not an option for us, althought they will miss one day in October for a quicky trip to OKW!!!!! Lacee

 

[LisaSt]

We plan it for early Dec every year no matter school or not.

 

[westjones]

We have homeschooled K- 5 (just started 5th), but next year for Middle School I plan to send them to school. It is going to be SO hard to get use to someone else telling me how to run my life. They also have letters to mail out and threaten parents whose children miss too much. I am worried about my daughter with asthma. I suppose if it get too bad, we will just have to homeschool again.

It is a shame that schools have started doing things like this. I must say, I am glad to hear that it isn't just our school system. I understand the smaller school systems around us don't threaten parents like this, and I have thought about taking my kids there, but it is very expensive to pay an out of district fee to do that (and we don't have any private schools here that I would be interested in sending my children to as an alternative).

As for planning vacations, that is one of our problems now. We want to book a Disney Cruise for 2006, but won't know spring break until April 2005. So just today we have decided to book for July 2006 instead. Then it won't matter what the school schedule is like. For DVC trips, it doesn't seem like it will be as bad to book because we will have the dates by the 11 month window. It is just with the cruise that it ends up being difficult.

DJ

 

[rocketriter]

I needed to know the dates of spring vacation well in advance in order to set up a II trade to Hawaii during our spring break. I called up our school district and got the "dates not released yet" stonewall. So I drove over at lunchtime when the superintendant was out of the office and I schmoozed a secretary. She allowed as to how the dates had been voted on but not made public yet, and shared them with me.

 

[Simba's Girl]

All I have to say is this taking you kids out of school business is scaring me to death! DD and my niece and nephew will all be taken out of school in Oct 05 for a trip home! No wonder SIL was so adamant about taking the vacation over a holiday period! DD and my niece will be in Kindergarten and my nephew will be in 3rd grade.
I am utterly appaled that the state and school districts think that they can tell you how to raise your children. Is this a democracy or a socialist government. Shouldn't we as parents have the right to decide what is best for our kids? Shouldn't I be responsible for my child and not the government?
I tell you what too, If I *ever* get one of those "letters" someone will pay!
Nice to know that the law is 5 consecutive days in MA...
Heather

 

[LisaSt]

Simbas girl very well said thankfully we don't have to deal with that mentality from our schoolboards here in Canada. Ours are all funded the same no matter what city or province etc. If the school needs anything else they do a fund raiser and are not paid by the attendance records kept by the school. If it ever goes to that I am sure there will be trouble here and the GOV will never hear the ned of it.

 

[RLevy29]

I know that our teachers vote on the next year's calendar around March or so

MommaluvsDis,
Your TEACHERS vote on the calendar? We have no input at all!
Our school system is constantly changing our Spring Break. We now only have 5 days when we used to have 10. We never know from year to year. And our Spring Breaks have been taken away in the past due to snow days. That's why I never plan anything until late Feb. when most of the snow season is over.

 

[westjones]

Has anyone had good luck booking a DVC room less than 6 months from spring break?

I am just wondering if we will be able to get a room (any room--but the same room for the whole stay) if we can't book it until school starts next year.

DJ