School in/out

[Steph9072]

I am 100% sure this has been discussed before. But what is everyones opinion on taking kids out of school for WDW? DD goes to a private Lutheran school. There are a few times during the year the kids are out for 2 or 3 days for Lutheran confrences or Lutheran week. My thought was take her out of school for the other days in the week and go. We have a LOOOOOOOOOOOOng drive so we have plenty of time to do her school work and all

 

[danx2plus3more]

well my kids will miss 6 or 7 school days this sept when i take them out..spring break 07 they missed a week..we spent 7 days at disney and 3 at universal and then 1 at sea world..plus driving..so spring break was one week we took two..my kids made thier work up when they went back to school all was good...both the 6th grade teacher and the 2nd grade teacher didnt want to give them thier work until they returned from thier trip ..it was nice

 

[disneyjunkie]

I am 100% sure this has been discussed before. But what is everyones opinion on taking kids out of school for WDW? DD goes to a private Lutheran school. There are a few times during the year the kids are out for 2 or 3 days for Lutheran confrences or Lutheran week. My thought was take her out of school for the other days in the week and go. We have a LOOOOOOOOOOOOng drive so we have plenty of time to do her school work and all

I think it's up to each family to decide.

I have decided not to pull my son out of school for vacations to WDW. I just don't see the need to do so.

I'm able to vacation when school is out.
The summer heat doesn't bother us.
The crowd during peak time doesn’t bother us.

Since the school year here starts after Labor Day, we can vacation during value season without missing school.

I'm not willing to fight with the school about unexcused days and missed assignments. I feel if I pull him out of school, I have to be willing to accept the consequences. (Zeros for missed exams and assignments, unexcused day)

I think school and family time are equally important. Luckily I've never had to put one above the other. It has just always worked out for us.

 

[southtexasmom]

I would never take my kids out of school for a vacation, maybe I would let them miss one or two days but only if I was positive they wouldn't miss anything important. DS has ADD and he would be really stressed thinking about all the work he is missing, he is doing great in school and I wouldn't take the chance on messing that up for him.

 

[ksjayhawkfan]

I think it depends on how old the kids are, and that its up to each family to decide. That being said...we are taking our kids out for a week the end of October. They will be a 4th grader and a 6th grader, plus a preschooler. Good luck with your decision.

 

[vicceja]

We just returned from a week long vacation at Disney in December and we had such a great time. I was a little hesitent to take the boys out (6th grade, 3rd grade and 1st grade), but decided to do so anyways. The schools weren't too happy about pulling the boys out and only my 3rd grade teacher gave me more of a problem about giving my son extra work before he leaves so he won't miss much. After we got back a letter was sent out to all the parents about taking kids out for vacation during the year and apparently there are people taking kids out for months at a time to go back to their countries or whatnot. My boys are right on track and did not miss anything as I always supplement their school work with extra work at home. It all depends on you and what you want to do. That being said I'm planning our next trip this June...

 

[LadyShea]

It really depends on your family and your school's policies. Some school districts will hold kids back, no matter their performance, for X amount of unexcused absence days, for example. Some will require truancy hearings, etc. Some are pretty laid back about it.

Some kids do fine missing school, others struggle with missed days. There's really no one right answer.

We live in area where the kids are out for Mardi Gras (this Monday and Tuesday in fact this year) so are considering taking niece next
Mardi Gras as she would only miss two or three days, well under the school's X number before you have to be counseled or whatever. If you have special weeks off, that most schools do not, I think that would be a reasonable choice.

 

[design_mom]

Like others said, I think it depends on the kids and the school district.

We took DS (first grade) out for a week in December. The school did not give us a problem about it at all. We were able to sign up for an "Alternate Learning Experience" with the district and the absences were considered excused.

Still...I'm not sure we'll do it again. DS did not have any trouble making up the work, and he's still doing great in school. However, he was stressed out for the entire trip worried about missing school. My sister called us one day to let us know that it was a "snow day" at home and school was cancelled anyway. My DS was very relieved.

So...for him and his personality, I don't think we'll take him out of school again. Although I did love being there in Value season.

If you do choose to go, I think one of the weeks that you mentioned (Lutheran conference) sounds like an excellent week to choose. She won't miss as much school and it's not a holiday that everyone will get off.

 

[kmccartney]

I fully agree that it really depends on the family and the school district.

Our school district does not promote missing school for family vacations, however they know that it will happen and they do not penalize the kids for it. My 7th grade son is on the high honor roll and when I took him out of school for a week we let his teachers know almost two months in advance, and we made the arrangement to get all of his assignments ahead of time. We made sure that during the trip he was given plenty of time to complete his work assignments, and he had all of his work completed when he went back to school. The only test he missed he stayed after school to take on his first day back.

So for us it worked.

 

[danx2plus3more]

my district doesnt promote it ..and when my kids missed i let them know why 1 month in advance...the teachers wanted my kids to enjoy thier trip and not worry till we got back..the week was not excused on file but the teachers allowed them to make everything up...no biggie...i hope later this year same goes.

 

[Fabinva]

I was hesitant too about taking my DS7 (2nd grade) for a whole week this April so I asked teacher first and she was very nice and told me to go ahead, she will be sending some homework with him but it's pretty easy and since we are driving he'll have some time to do that then.
I'm also taking DD5 off her kindergarten school but not worry about that.

 

[daisyduck123]

We do it every year with DD13 (freshman) & DS9 (4th grade).
If fact, we just pulled them out this past December for WDW.
Each year, they miss 6-11 school days for our trips.

Never had a problem.
It hasn't hurt DD's grades so far (4.25 GPA).
DS hasn't gotten anything below a "B", so no worries there either.

 

[nemomama]

I personally do not agree with removing children from school for the purpose of vacation. Our district has a very strict policy about this also - students will be marked as unexcused absence, and will be unable to make up tests/quizzes, etc.

 

[TexasBee]

My kids aren't in school yet so I don't really have any authority to speak to this but I wanted to ask what on earth "Lutheran week" is. We are ELCA and I was brought up MS (my dad is a MS pastor as a matter of fact) and I've never heard of such a thing.

 

[Steph9072]

After I started this thread it dawned on me that dd's teacher was out of school this week on a cruise. So I think if the school is okay with the teachers taking off then why can't the kids also?

Dh and I talked tonight and we will probally try to go late Aug or early Sept
09'

 

[JoanneNC]

I conteplated this but in the end - we are taking DS out of school for 5 days in March. I work full-time and DH is in the military so we take/schedule what we can around his deployments. I have his teacher 5 weeks notice and she said to have a good time....Of course its just Kinder

 

[maxtomsmom]

I have to agree with most of the previous posters. It depends upon first your child and then your school. We took our son out of Kindergarten for 5 days last year. He missed 7 more due to illnesses that he got from most likely being in school - I know this because when the notices came home about the flu and strep, he got them both. He even had the flu shot. : The school was concerned about his "frequent absences", but I went to the principal and showed her 4 different doctor's notes and the letters letting parents know about confirmed illnesses that came home prior to his sickness. When I spoke to the principal I said that perhaps the vents needed cleaning because my son attended preschool for three years and only missed 4 days in total. The school was old, I used to work there as a teacher and know that the vents are in bad shape. The whole heating system needed to be replaced. Who knows what was brewing in that school. People were always sick, teachers and kids.

We've moved to a new district and my son hasn't missed any school and yes, we are taking him out again for 5 days. He does well. While I won't do work on our vacation except for reading and a journal, I have no problems with doing the work when we get back.

However, I do not plan on continuing to take him out of school. We originally were going to go during his spring break, but DH has a major conference then and won't be able to come. Our kids are too young to handle the crowds and DS asthma makes it hard to go in the summer.