School absences? Does this go to far?

[auntie]

Thought this might be of interest to some, since we've had the subject of taking the kids out of school for a Disney trip come up several times.
In West Virginia there is an attempt to link parental driving privileges to their childrens school attendance. The limit being 10 absences and the parents driving license would be "yanked".

For your reading pleasure.
http://www.parentdish.com/2011/01/1...?icid=main|htmlws-main-w|dl6|sec1_lnk3|194736

Not sure what that means exactly, but here in NY you can be arrested for driving with a suspended license. Not to mention how this might influence your insurance rates as well.
I for one, am glad I don't have to deal with this issue any longer. (youngest graduated in June). Especially where the issue seems to be headed now. I know our district had been cracking down on kids missing school time to vacations. They are limiting the amount of consecutive days a child could be out without having to return with a doctors note.
I don't think there are gonna be a lot of happy campers in West Virginia.

 

[mnsprk]

Thought this might be of interest to some, since we've had the subject of taking the kids out of school for a Disney trip come up several times.
In West Virginia there is an attempt to link parental driving privileges to their childrens school attendance. The limit being 10 absences and the parents driving license would be "yanked".

I think the key word is "unexcused". If the principal ok's the absence there shouldn't be an issue.

 

[DaveInTN]

If I say what I want to say on this subject, I would probably be banned.

 

[kampfirekim]

If your DL is "yanked" how do you get the kids to school?

I'm with you Dave....don't get me started on the truant officer at our door b/c DS missed 3 days...ALL YEAR!!!! I may burst into flames thinking about it!!!!

 

[Just Beachy]

I don't have kids so maybe I'm missing something here, but what qualifies a school principal to deem which absences are excusable? If I write my kid a note explaining why they missed school, then that's it. End of discussion. If my kid misses school and I don't know about it to write a note, then the school and I can deal with the situation together. Again, am I missing something here?

 

[auntie]

Usually "excused absences" are provided to the student/parents by the district. In my experience they are for illness, (however, districts are getting around this by requesting that if your child is really ill, they return with a dr.'s note...if you don't have the dr.'s note, then it is recorded as an unexcused absence), legal obligations, religious observance, death or illness in the family.

Our district has also implemented a rule that you can not be out of class for more than three days without returning with a dr.'s note. This is in place so as to discourage parents from pulling kids out of school during the school year for vacation.

 

[auntie]

It really is about the money. The more kids that are in the school..the more state and federal assistance the district will receive. If the kids aren't filling the seats..they get less. It's about the bottom line.

 

[Just Beachy]

It really is about the money. The more kids that are in the school..the more state and federal assistance the district will receive. If the kids aren't filling the seats..they get less. It's about the bottom line.

So sad. It's always about the money and rarely about the kids.

 

[mnsprk]

Usually "excused absences" are provided to the student/parents by the district. In my experience they are for illness, (however, districts are getting around this by requesting that if your child is really ill, they return with a dr.'s note...if you don't have the dr.'s note, then it is recorded as an unexcused absence), legal obligations, religious observance, death or illness in the family.

Our district has also implemented a rule that you can not be out of class for more than three days without returning with a dr.'s note. This is in place so as to discourage parents from pulling kids out of school during the school year for vacation.

Here's our district's policy, even though I don't need to worry about it anymore.

VACATIONS:
The school discourages students from being absent during the school year any more than absolutely
necessary. Family vacations should be scheduled during the summer months. In the event
that students must go on vacation with their parents during the school year, the absences will be
excused.
In order to make sure that the absences are entered as excused on the computer system, we ask
that you please do the following:
1. Send a written note to the attendance office prior to your child leaving on vacation. Please list
the dates that your child will be absent due to the family vacation.
2. Any assignments will need to be made up and turned in to the classroom teacher per that
teacher’s time schedule.
3. We recommend that parents speak with the child’s advisor and attendance office prior to the vacation

 

[Just Beachy]

VACATIONS:
In order to make sure that the absences are entered as excused on the computer system, we ask
that you please do the following:
1. Send a written note to the attendance office prior to your child leaving on vacation. Please list
the dates that your child will be absent due to the family vacation.
2. Any assignments will need to be made up and turned in to the classroom teacher per that
teacher’s time schedule.
3. We recommend that parents speak with the child’s advisor and attendance office prior to the vacation

This sounds reasonable to me.

 

[DaveInTN]

It really is about the money. The more kids that are in the school..the more state and federal assistance the district will receive. If the kids aren't filling the seats..they get less. It's about the bottom line.

Bingo!

That, and our nation's rapid descent into becoming a nanny state, where our government is equipped to make decisions that families used to make on their own. Because of course a bureaucrat with a lifetime spent in higher education or working for some "think tank" foundation knows better how to raise my children than I do. The only thing those jackwagons are good at raising is my blood pressure!

Are there parents out there that are not effectively raising their kids...thereby leading to stupid laws like this? Yes! And why is that? Because our government has been spoon feeding them handouts for so long they have FORGOTTEN how to take care of themselves or their children. So the solution is yet another layer of government oversight, hand holding and spoon feeding?

Wait, I wasn't going to go there. Nevermind. I retract all the above. Carry on with the discussion while I homeschool my kids.

 

[mgsmom]

I have to say, I suspect these kinds of rules are in place to catch the ones who are "always" out of school or who don't seem to mind missing a lot of days and then get very frustrated when they are in a retention conference at the end of the semester.
Students cannot perform to their best ability if they are habitually absent. They just can't.

I hate to hear people having crazy ridiculous things happen with truancy officers - KFK they should NOT have done that to you. I only WISH all my students only missed 3 days all year!

I don't know if I'd give the money thing too much merit - to my knowledge (at least in my state anyway), funding is based on enrollment and not attendance.

A few bad apples can ruin it for everyone...

 

[mgsmom]

Dave - I just saw your post - I agree with you - quit all the hand holding!!

It would be so much nicer if we could just say "No, your child has failed Algebra because he wasn't here enough to learn and he failed all the tests". You would not believe the hoops we have to jump through to "prove" that WE have done everything humanly possible to help that child who only graces us with his presence 60% of the time.

Okay I'll be quiet now too...

 

[DaveInTN]

The saddest thing to me is that I know a lot of teachers (my wife herself is trained as one) and they all seem to care so much about their jobs and the kids. But the system in many ways just works against them.

 

[auntie]

I have to say, I suspect these kinds of rules are in place to catch the ones who are "always" out of school or who don't seem to mind missing a lot of days and then get very frustrated when they are in a retention conference at the end of the semester.
Students cannot perform to their best ability if they are habitually absent. They just can't.

I hate to hear people having crazy ridiculous things happen with truancy officers - KFK they should NOT have done that to you. I only WISH all my students only missed 3 days all year!

I don't know if I'd give the money thing too much merit - to my knowledge (at least in my state anyway), funding is based on enrollment and not attendance.

A few bad apples can ruin it for everyone...

Here..it's bodies in the seat. That's why they also have so called "half days" of school during the last week or so. The kids barely spend an hour in the building. I mean really..what is a child getting out of that one hour in the classroom. Especially the last two weeks in June. School doesn't end here untill at least June 25-27th here. The teachers aren't even teaching. Our NYS Regent exams are DONE. Yet they have the elementary kids come in anyway. They are told to bring video and board games with them. Seriously.. just to stretch out the year.
Yet,if you want to take your child out on vacation in our district, that is not an excusable absence. You can not have your child out more than three days without his having to return with a dr.'s note. It used to be four days..they cut it back when it was apparent that parents were pulling the kids out during a week that had a Monday holiday in it, therefore getting an entire week off for vacation. . Sadly, this isn't even up to the teachers. It's a district attendance policy. The teacher isn't even consulted as to whether the child is doing well, or not. Again, I'm soooooo glad I don't have to deal with it any longer. As I do see it becoming more and more of an issue as the policy spreads to other districts.


I should add, that I do understand the need for every single cent. In that our school taxes are based on the premise that our homes are single family dwellings. YET... many of the the homes are now being rented out illegally. These homes have more than one family in them, and our schools are having to educate the children in those homes. Yet the tax rate is based on it being a single family dwelling. More kids in the classroom, but not more money to educate them. If you report a home for being an illegal two family..they just move, and it starts somewhere else. Or they suddenly have lots of relatives that live with them. That's if the town has enough people to send out and even check. It's vicious cycle. Then you have the district that needs desperately the state/fed money, and you get these ridiculous attendance policies. Not to get into a political debate, as I realize that's not allowed. Yet...illegal immigration is contributer to crackdown on attendance in our district. Every cent is needed.


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[clkelley]

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[liv luvs disney]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is one of the many, many reasons why we homeschool. Ain't no dang body gonna tell me when I can take my kids to visit family members that live a day's drive away or when I can take them on vacation or anything else I feel like doing with them as long as they are minors living under my roof.

 

[big kahuna1]

Both my kids raced Soap Box Derby cars and we travelled all over the States competing. I would pull my kids out of school for this and would not have a problem with the Teachers as we consulted with them every time. Of course it helps if your kids are doing wvery well in school also. Heck, they learned more life skills and more on road trips then any school could ever teach.

We also have what they use to call Teacher Planning Days. They would always have them on like Thursday and then the kids would have to be back at school the next day. NOT!! I ALWAYS took advantage of this and pulled the kids out that next day and went for a long weekend camping trip somewhere. I often wonder why they did not make the planning day on a Friday or a Monday to avoid kids being pulled out of school to make an extra long weekend but Meh, that makes sense so I know it won't happen.

 

[grafxgirl]

I live in WV....I think one thing that makes this bill an issue is there are many parents who drive their children to school for one reason or another (one example might be maybe their work schedule doesn't allow them to wait around for a bus). If their license is taken away, then they won't be able to drive their kids to school.

One other thing that makes things difficult is in our society many families have two working parents. Once kids are of a certain age, most childcare facilities will not keep kids before/after school, and people don't always have family, friends, or neighbors to help, which means they are left with the only option of allowing a teenager the responsibility of getting themselves to/from the bus. We all know not all teenagers are going to be perfect little angels and go to school, but might skip a day here or there. It would be helpful if schools would call the parents if a child does not show up for school to see if there is a valid excuse.

This is the first time I've seen or heard anything about this.

 

[auntie]

Our district has an automated system. If the high schoolers aren't in class..you get an automated call for each period of class they miss. Hard for them to get around it. They then have an automated call by the dean later in the evening letting you know your child wasn't in school that day.