School excuse letter?

[canwegosoon]

As a teacher, I really dislike it when parents come in (and many times it is as they are picking their child up on the way to the airport) and ask for a week or two worth of work on the spot. Asking ahead is very nice, and offering to pick up work after trip is fine too. I am very flexible, but other districts may not allow their teachers to be so flexible.

Personally my children tell their teachers they will be out, and I let the office know we will be away. I grew up in a family that owned hotels, and never had a summer vacation. My parents pulled me out for 10 days for a vacation every year, but I know times have changed and so have school policies.

Finally, true story, please do not lie about vacations. At my son's school a parent pulled a child out of school saying they (the parent) were having surgery. The kindergarten class prayed for the parent and the student, and upon the student's return the class asked about the "surgical canidate parent", the child had no idea what everyone was talking about, and said they were away on vacation and that his mother was fine. I wonder who felt foolish that they did not just tell the truth, I know the teachers were all praying for the parent and truly concerned.

If your school district is a stickler for attendance, ask the school secretary or the attendance person for advice on wording for the note. I like " Please excuse Johnny Smith. We will be away 3/20-3/30, according to the school calander this includes 3 days of school (the 3/21, 3/22 and 3/30). Any work that can be provided ahead of time will be completed and returned on the first day back to school. Additional work that needs to be completed will be done so as soon as possible. Thank you"

 

[crazymomof4]

We took our 6th and 1st graders out for 10 school days last year. I do believe that kids can learn a lot in WDW but I agree with other posters that to try to make a WDW vacation sound educational would insult most teachers and put them on the defensive. Our school district allows up to 10 missed days for a family vacation, which made it a lot easier. Still, I was nervous. I sent a letter to the principal and spoke with each teacher about 2 weeks in advance. I gave them my personal assurance that the boys would complete every bit of work assigned. I said that I understand that missing class instruction may effect their understanding of the assignments. I said that I would help them in any way that I could so that the missed days would have as little impact as possible on their schoolwork. When you let them see that you value your child's education and will put your own time and energy into making sure the make up work is done in a timely and satisfactory manner their attitude softens.

 

[bdcp]

My husband wrote a letter and had each teacher sign off a couple of weeks before we left. The schools knew what what we were doing and why. I've never heard of a school district giving days for family vacations though.

 

[crazymomof4]

I've never heard of a school district giving days for family vacations though.

Yup!
I was surprised too. The attendance policy was revised about 5 years ago and in "Section H" it states that up 10 days school days can be used for a family vacation, but only one such occurance in a school year. These days are considered "excused".

 

[marciemi]

I just sent emails to each of my son's teachers explaining the trip to them and asking their opinions (we haven't decided whether or not to bring my 11 year old, but that's a separate thread - check it out if you want to help! ) Basically I told them what a great opportunity it was for us since DH's company would pay much of it, explained he'd miss 3 days of school, but would gladly make up any work before or after, and asked if they thought he could handle it. I did also throw in that I though he was a good student and responsible enough to make up the work. So far the responses (I've heard from 2 of 6) have been along the lines of "I'm sure he can make up the work. He will, however, miss classroom discussions which are irreplaceable." Still deciding!

 

[McDisney]

We will be gone the first week of the new semester (Jan.), at the beginning of the school year I went to the office to find out the policy and they handed me a form to fill out. It asked for the dates and destination(s), and had a space at the bottom for a description of what kind of educational activities we may be doing along with it. That was it, I have been in constant contact with the teacher and she was very understanding and wished us a good trip, and no makeup work was necessary (she's in kindergarten).

 

[eeyore0062]

Here is mine:

Dear ______,
We will be out of town on family business from ____ to ____.
I would appreciate if we could get ______'s work so she will be able to keep up while we are gone.

Sincererly,
____________


Works everytime. They don't need the details.

 

[crazymomof4]

Don't be surprised if the teacher will not give you any work for your child to take on the trip with you. I was quite upset that this was a "policy" in our district that was strictly enforced. I'm still not sure what the reason for this is. (????)
Anyway, I just took DS12 's textbooks along and he read ahead a chapter or two. Then he and I went over the summary questions at the end of the chapters and I explained anything he didn't fully understand. He said later that doing this really helped him breeze through the make-up worksheets, etc. that the teacher gave him after we got back.

 

[crazee4mickey]

The more notice the teachers have of the trip the better.
The "school excuse" letter on "the mouse for less" website IMHO is insulting to a teacher's intelligence--what a ridiculous letter!
I work in a school and we honestly have had kids who were just "gone" one day and when you ask the other students, they tell you the student and their family have gone on holidays with absolutely no notification from the parents.
In our instance, we were not going until December but let each teacher of our 4 children(grades 1, 2 10, 12) know immediately in September of our plans, I then sent each teacher (9 teachers in all-personalizing each letter for the teacher and subject taught) and the administration a letter approx. one month before we left indicating again that as per our discusiion earlier in the year that our trip was quickly approaching and we would like to request any work the kids may be missing so they do not fall behind. We received plenty of work beforehand that our kids could get caught up on. Many of the teachers supported the trip as this is the only time we have ever pulled our kids for a vacation.
example of letter we used(I even put a Mickey Mouse graphic at the top--they all know at our school that we love Disney):

Please be advised that ___________ will be out of school from ________ to __________. We are also asking for any homework which he/she may miss during this time so he/she does not fall behind.
The reason for this absence is that we will be driving to Florida on a family vacation. We know this is not the best time to pull our children out of school but it is the most affordable time for us.
We believe that ______ will be learning many things during this trip as we will be travelling through many states and that his/her education will continue in his/her absence from school.
If it is possible for him/her to get any assignments which he/she may miss during this period that can be done ahead of time, please let us know as soon as possible.
Thank you for your attention to this. If you have any questions or need any further information, please feel free to contact me.​

 

[sconstantz]

Why do I feel like I am a 12 year old back in middle school, raising my hand, requesting permission to go to the bathroom?

Last I checked, my kid, my tax dollars, my decision on the best way to educate my child.

I mean, comments like, some classwork can be made up, but discussion and lecture is irreplaceable. Well, jeez, I'm not an idiot, and i did think of that. however, a lot of teaching is done straight from the textbook.....

I am dealing with this right now, as we just decided to take my DS first grader in January. It works best for us for many reasons. Reasons that I don't feel are the teachers business. I have a good relationship with her, and intend to send my son back to school from Xmas vacation with a note. We will tell the truth (DS coudn't keep it a secret if he wanted to). We will request any math and reading sheets she can give us. DS has been warned that he will have to read every day, including his flashcards. I'm not worried about his math and social studies, but he needs extra work in reading. Well, not extra work, but it won't be helpful to him if he doesn't practice for week. And we made him practice during Xmas vacation too!!! Not because we had to, but because it is the best thing for him!!!

Hopefully she will be able to give us a few things, but if not, we will be bringing our own. I am doing that because I want him to know that a) we believe school work is important, b) one doesn't shirk responsibilities, and c) he needs to practice his reading. If I could bring the piano with us, so he could practice that every day, I would!!!

Thanks for all the comments regarding this. I read it because I was really struggling with this. After reading the posts, I decided that I shouldn't really be struggling with our decision. We have made it and will stand by it.

Shelly

 

[sunkissed212]

I read the letters and they were very informative about the trip.

MY family used to go to WDW during the school year every year. We would be in FL for 2 weeks every year and I would miss those 2 weeks of school. What my parents did was write a letter to each teacher individually telling them about my absence from their class. We would also ask the teachers to let us know what schoolwork would need to be completed during that time. We would take my textbooks to my mom's office and copy pages to be read and exercises to be done for each class and I'd have a folder for each subject that I would take with me on vacation.

I had "homework time" every day. I could choose when to do it but I had to do at least 2 hours of homework each day until the work was completed. This way, I didn't fall behind while I was on vacaiton.

My parents found that the teachers were much more understanding of the vacation once they realized that my schoolwork would be incorporated into the vacation on a daily basis and we never had any problems. This occurred for me from 1st through 10th grade.

 

[crazymomof4]

Why do I feel like I am a 12 year old back in middle school, raising my hand, requesting permission to go to the bathroom?

Last I checked, my kid, my tax dollars, my decision on the best way to educate my child.Shelly

I felt exactly the same way in 9/03. Then I spoke with a teacher and also read from a thread (where many teachers posted) that was on disboards at the time. From those two sources I found out that many students taken out for any vacation (not just WDW) NEVER make up any of the work missed. They lag behind for a long while bc. of this. My son's 6th grade teacher told me that she has had to take literally hours of her own time to teach a child the things he/she missed so that they could be on the "same page" as the rest of the class.
I think you and the majority of the the posters here, including myself, are the "best case scenario". We value our children's education and show it by our actions. We see to it, personally, that our kids are not behind bc. of absence. But the teachers and administrators often see the other side of it, parents and students who just don't care. Because of this, they may get their backs up when you tell them about an upcoming trip.

 

[sconstantz]

Crazymom, thanks for that perspective. I understand the reaction from a teacher now. Unfortunately, people are judged based on bad behaviour from the past, even I do it : )

Hopefully, our DS's teacher will understand and be willing to work with us. But, even if she doesn't, we will still work on our own. Because it is the best thing for our Son.

Shelly

 

[sha_lyn]

Please keep in mind that school work isn't the only hurdle your kids will have if you take kids out of school for vacation. It might be different now that more people take their kids out for vacation, but I know one of the biggest problems for me was my classmates. Of course a lot of the problem was how my parents handled it too. My parents took me out of school for the 1st week of 2nd grade. We went to WDW, Daytona Beach and a couple of other places. It was the first week that rates went down. They didn't notify the school so the school assumed we had moved. They took me off the role and the teachers told everyone I had moved. I also didn't know that school had started the week before.
It was pretty tough for a couple of months. Kids would say things because I had gone on vacation instead of coming to school, and rumors started about why I was really out. I found out that origionally I was asigned to the same teacher as one of my best friends, but they put a couple of new kids in that class and put me in the other class.

I'm sure teachers have seen similar situations over the yrs and that is another reason they frown upon it. I know from conversations with my aunt and uncle that once a kid gets a label from their classmates, it will stick for a long time. When we were moving 7 yrs ago we planned on DS attend his old school for the 2 months before the move. All the teachers I know personally urged me to enrole him at the new school (even though it meant a 30 min drive every morning and afternoon with a newborn who hated to ride in the car). It wasn't because of accademics, it was because kids who move into a class later in ther yr tend to be labeled as "that new kid" for yrs and have a much harder time fitting in that new students who start at the beginning of the yr.

 

[sha_lyn]

Last I checked, my kid, my tax dollars, my decision on the best way to educate my child

When you chose to enrole your child in a school you agree to the rules of that school/system. Schools can not allow parents to change the rules to suit then because it is "their tax dollars and their kid". Otherwise there would be a different set of rules for each child. If you don't want others making educational deicisions for your children, you should consisder homeschooling. Otherwise you have agreed to let others make many of the decisions for you.

 

[sconstantz]

[ If you don't want others making educational deicisions for your children, you should consisder homeschooling. Otherwise you have agreed to let others make many of the decisions for you.[/QUOTE]

To some degree I agree with you. There is a level of control that is handed over to the educational system. But, our educators are learning that the best system includes the parents. It doesn't alienate them and make them feel like children or outsiders.

Fortunately, we live in a district that values parents input and help. If it started to treat me with any less degree of respect (that I am my child's mother, and therefore the best equipped to make final decisions for him) than I would make the decision to change. Either to a private school or home schooling.

Shelly

 

[marciemi]

Just had to add in one of my favorite life's motto's that I read here on the DIS boards many years ago. It's a paraphrase of Mark Twain, and states:

Never let school interfere with your child's education.

 

[sha_lyn]

True, the best schools encourage parental involvement. However I think the system also has seen absences getting out of hand. In Ga now 5 unexcused absences (which would include vacations they are not excused) and they are reported to family and children services. Several yrs ago DS had a classmate (who was also a distant relative or ours) that would very often miss school because he was up all night watching TV. When he did make it, he was often asleep in class.

 

[AmazingGrace]

My hubby's military,getting ready for the second deployment in a year. So, we will be taking our kids out of school for Disney when he returns. We always take one big trip a year, and I've already let my kids' teachers and attendance moniters know that. Bribery doesn't hurt either. This last time, I sent a souvenir with the kids with their notes