School on Good Friday?

[missyc]

Sarasota county, FL has recently adopted a new "secular" calendar. Christmas break is now "Winter break", schools are not closed for Good Friday, etc. Is this happening anywhere else?
I think it's disgusting. Anyone else?!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We have had a secular calendar with "wording" for 10yrs+. It was always Spring Break & Winter Break.

They do give us Good Friday off however.

 

[geffric]

Chicago NW Suburban schools are closed for good Friday. Although we do have winter break..

 

[Lisa F]

It's no more disgusting than the fact that the two most holy jewish holidays are typically also school days. IMO, religious holidays should be something that the individual parent decides to observe, not something that the entire school has to follow. Of course I do believe that any religious holiday should be an automatically "excused" absence (which it always has been at all of the schools that I have attended).

 

[powellrj]

My kids have been going to school on good friday for the last 20 years. They have spring break in March and good friday is treated like any other day. When they were going to christian school they had good friday off, but not public school.

 

[phamton]

Orlando (Orange county) public schools have school on Good Friday.

 

[goofy4tink]

We do have Good Friday off. My dd, 10, came home yesterday and told me that there was no homework given due to Passover!! Now, I figure that it's either a holiday or it isn't. Some schools in my area have Friday off, some don't. I agree that it should be up to the family to decide. I know a lot of my dd's friends are Jewish and they travel at this time. So, they are not in school. Maybe school systems could just have, say, 5 days total for the year that would be discretionary so that families could celebrate the religious holidays they choose. I do think that Christmas would have to be a part of the 'winter break' tho. There are just too many out there that would never work on that day!!!

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

My children are out for Good Friday and the following week.

Lori

 

[MAC3]

My daughter goes to Catholic school so they always have Good Friday off. Funny thing is our work is nice enough to give it to us too!

 

[CheshireVal]

I grew up in public schools and NEVER had Good Friday off.

I work in a private school now and we do have the day off though.

 

[Kimberle]

Our school district is closed on Good Friday, as well as the 3 Jewish holidays in the fall.

Now my company, on the other hand, has become so "secular" that we are not even given *1* day off for Christmas this year. Everyone else will be closed on Friday (legal holiday since Christmas falls on a Saturday), but us....... We are told to use a PTO day UPON APPROVAL. Some departments, like the one I manage, MUST HAVE COVERAGE when the company is open.

 

[Kitty 34]

We usually get Good Friday off.

 

[vandergriff4]

Seminole County, FL schools are out for Good Friday.

 

[always quiet]

In our district, my kids are off all this week. Between teacher's in service days, act 80 day, then 'spring break'....the whole week they are home.

I believe the policy in the schools here are if there is a religious holy day for any religion, if the parent writes a letter before the holiday, it is considered an excused absence.

 

[aprincessmom]

Our schools are closed on Friday but it is called "Traditional Day of Low Attendance" which always makes me laugh. Well duh! If you don't have school wouldn't that be low attendance by default?

 

[believe]

My daughter has spring break this week, which gives her Good Friday off. The surrounding counties are not, their breaks are already complete. My work is closed.

 

[missyc]

Well I guess it's not as unusual as I thought!

 

[phamton]

Originally posted by aprincessmom
Our schools are closed on Friday but it is called "Traditional Day of Low Attendance" which always makes me laugh. Well duh! If you don't have school wouldn't that be low attendance by default?

Some school districts notice a low atendance on certain days, like the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or Veterans day or even for the State Fair. They might not have those days as holidays on their calendars. So on those days the school district loses funds because of low attendance.

So the next year they may want to use those days as one of their hoildays. Our district added those days as holidays and then added 3 more days of school at the end of the year.

 

[Danauk]

I live in England where our school system is different. As England's main religion is Church of England (as the monach is also the head of the church) we follow a Christian school year with breaks called Christmas and Easter. Schools are always closed for these festivals. However if children practice other religions which require religious observation on other days they are allowed a religious authorised absence from school. This seems to work without any problems that I have seen (and I work within the education system.)

 

[Cruise04]

Around here it depends on when spring break is. If it falls with Easter, they get Good Friday off (public schools that is). If it isn't with Easter, they don't get it off.