Schools & vacations/am i gonna have a problem

[myprincessgirlisa]

Hi....hope this wasnt asked to many times....couldnt find a thread, but

We will be traveling to WDW this November 30-Dec9th our 10yr wedding anniversary(we were married at WDW) & it is now turning into a huge family event which includes DHs elderly parents. Basically like a mini family reunion.

Anyway....Ive heard rumors about schools and WDW vacations & Im worried about the hard time they are gonna give me about taking DD out of school. She will be in 1st grade.

so Heres my question....how should I go about this

1 tell the principal as soon as school starts?
2 Tell teacher as soon as school starts
3 Dont tell them til last minute
4 Dont tell them its a trip to WDW?

Any help would be appreciated, I want to problem solve this before we get to close.

Thanks guys

 

[Lovemy3babes]

We were honest and up front. I let the teacher know as soon as possible and then wrote a letter to the principal a month ahead of time. My girls got their homework and had it done before we left. It wasn't a problem at all.

 

[Darcy03231]

The best thing to do is to call your school district and find out what their policy is on excused absenses. Every school district seems to have a different one. Some are very strict and others aren't. In our school district after 5 unexcused absences the parent may get a visit from the truant officer and may be subject to legal action. Its also up to the individual teachers whether or not they want to give/accept make-up work. If they don't the child gets zeros on anything missed. Having said this when my kids were in elementary school we did pull them for vacation for a few days (less than five) and none of the teachers had any issue with it. Once in middle & high school our kids are on block scheduling so there's no way I would pull them for vacation. They'd miss way too much. With block scheduling so much is covered in class during a week there's no way they could ever catch up - even if the teacher we willing to work with us.

 

[Darcy03231]

Oops, I meant un-excused absences. Also, in our district if your child is out more than three days sick (excused absence) they need a doctor's note to return.

 

[Tikicampers]

As the other poster said, you will need to check with the school about the absence policy. I would be honest about it, and let the teacher know soon, but don't feel the need to tell her the first week of school or anything. I would think that if your kids have good past attendence records, and this is clearly a one time thing, you shouldn't have too big of a problem.

 

[daisyduck123]

Hi! 1st grade teacher here...

tell the teacher, but no need to hurry.
My principal would not even want to be bothered with hearing about student vacations.

I had 2 or 3 students miss a week or so to go to WDW this year...no big deal.

I even pulled my own DD12 & DS9 out to go & each of us missed 6 school days when we went. Have a great trip!!

 

[myprincessgirlisa]

Thank you !!

I really appreciate honest opinions & real life stories...it helps out alot

Im new to this whole school world..things have changed since i was a kid

i dont want to cause problems & have my kid marked as a "problem'

I think I will tell the teacher the 1st week of school & if she recommends it I will tell the principal. Plus I will ask about any Extra credit she can do.

Thanks again & Im hoping things work out smoothly

 

[MSSANDRA]

What we did every trip in elemenrty was to tell (not ask) the teacher at the first parent/teacher meeting. I asked if I needed to let anyone else know and was always told no. I sent a reminder note two weeks before we left and asked if any work could be sent home early that was great but understood if we needed to make it up later. Only ONE year did the teachers give him ANY makeup work at all. That one year he had a lot but they sent most before the trip and with our travel time, we had it all done before he returned to school. doing the work at WDW did NOT work for us. He missed 5 to 5 1/2 days per trip.

Middle school is harder and we talked with the attendance officer to be sure that we were ok with things. He missed 4 days for our trip this year. DS had missed someother days sick but we made sure that ALL his days including the WDW trip were excused. It was a simple form and a project to be done on the trip. We had a blast with the project as we did in on the courtries of Epcot. Kept is VERY simple, was not for a grade, just that he had to do it.
DS is straight A's and had no trouble catching up. Some children can not handle missing time in middle school.

This year was our last year taking him out of school for more than two days as his high school is VERY intense and he is on a CP path that will make it even harder to miss school.

I never hesitated to take DS out and truly will miss our winter trips. Go enjoy and make memories!!!!!!1

 

[smschex]

We have taken our kids out of school once for a WDW trip associated with a meeting for DH, so the dates weren't negotiable. Even though it goes against every fiber of my being to have them miss school when it isn't absolutely necessary, it really wasn't a problem. We go to a small private school and the kids have a proven track record as good students so the teachers knew all the work would be made up and they could easily catch up.

That said, I might wait until a few weeks into the school year before announcing you are pulling your daughter out of school for a 10 day vacation. Just let the teacher get to know you and your daughter so she will feel more comfortable with your daughter's ability and work ethic. After all it is first grade and she probably won't be missing a huge amount of complex concepts! It would be different if she were in jr. high and impossible if it were high school. Ask the teacher to provide the work early so you can take care of most of it before you leave and enjoy the trip without makeup work hanging over your head. You might also ask other parents at the school how they have handled it.

Congratulations on your anniversary! Have a wonderful trip.

 

[bzzymom]

DS goes to a private catholic school. The policy for vacation is accomodating for people. They don't encourage it, but they have families of MD's who take their kids out of school for meetings and such. They also understand that not everyone can take their family vacation during the summer, or at holiday time. The only thing they stell us is that the parents have to understand that the teacher doesn't have to get lesson planning done to accomodate sending work with the kids. In my cases, they have sent work. I took DS out of school in K, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. At the begining of the school year, I told the teachers. They all told me to send them a note 1-2 weeks before we leave, so they know.

 

[Zoemakes5]

I have to ditto, though, the "find out the guidelines" first. I can tell you, we went relatively easily for trips we've gone on. I always tried to "piggy back" them on weeks that they already had some time off, for conferences, end of semester, etc., but that didn't always work. We didn't have any issues. I've never been terribly specific with them about where we're going, I generally say "family reunion", since our last four big trips were to see my parents in CA or meet up with them in FL. Obviously, the kids talk about where they're going and where they've gone, but I make it a point to remind them to talk about Nana and Papa and their Uncle/Aunt/Cousin, too.
BUT, I know many others, both IRL, on the Disboards and other parenting forums I've belonged to, have horror stories about very strict standards regarding time away from school. Some will only give time off for education related activities (like touring colleges), school sponsored/approved events (like 8th grade trip to Washington DC), or illness. Anything else is unexused and each school will have a cut off and consequences for unexcused absences. No lie, I heard of a parent having to send her DS to summer school when he was in 2nd grade because of a 10 day (not 10 missed school days, just 10 total day) family trip. That was actually a negotiated "settlement" so to speak, as they were going to hold him back in second grade because of the loss. Also, there is also an underlying "maximum" of excused absences in any grade too. Every school district will have it in writing. The excused absences are there, supposedly to say if you miss this much time, you won't have learned what you need to. They can, and often will, hold a child back due to even excused absences. If you have to have a review, the fact that there's a bunch of unexcused absences as well give them greater leverage to not allow the child to go to the next grade.
Though, I must tell you, those examples are certainly extremes! Just be prepared, know the policy, and work from there.
Have a great great trip! How much fun!

 

[jakoky]

hi there, we are in bc, canada and we have never had a problem pulling our kids out of school here...as a matter of fact, i just phoned the high school for my oldest daughter to talk to the counseller about pulling her out in september...he actually helped arrange her course load for me so she will not be in math that semester... she will miss 6 school days and on the stupid semester system that means she will miss over 400 minutes per class ...all my kids do very well in school(honour roll), so i have never worried about taking them out...they all missed 6 days when they were in grades 8, 6 and 4 and then again last year in grades 9, 7, and 5 and the next trip they will be in grades 11,9 and 7...all their teachers have basically said is "have fun" and that they were jealous....i hope u have a teacher and prinicpal that have this attitude, it definately helps going away when you know that the teacher is behind you..my older two will have extra work before we leave and i assuming a very small amount when gone, and then extra when we get back and they are prepared for this...have fun
sharon
me, dh, dd-16-, ds-almost 14-, dd-11 1/2-
WDW-Dec 04-first disney experience for my DH, DD, DS, DD and first time at WDW for us all
DL-MAY 06-first time at DL for DH and kids , and my 9th(but the first 8 were all by the time i was about 13) so it was all new to me
COUNTDOWN IS ON....WE ARE GOING BACK TO DL SEPT 15-25!!!!!

 

[joyerbides]

Hi....hope this wasnt asked to many times....couldnt find a thread, but

We will be traveling to WDW this November 30-Dec9th our 10yr wedding anniversary(we were married at WDW) & it is now turning into a huge family event which includes DHs elderly parents. Basically like a mini family reunion.

Anyway....Ive heard rumors about schools and WDW vacations & Im worried about the hard time they are gonna give me about taking DD out of school. She will be in 1st grade.

so Heres my question....how should I go about this

1 tell the principal as soon as school starts?
2 Tell teacher as soon as school starts
3 Dont tell them til last minute
4 Dont tell them its a trip to WDW?

Any help would be appreciated, I want to problem solve this before we get to close.

Thanks guys

Thank goodness I found your thread. I was searching to see if anyone posted this question. I too, was wondering about this and what has happened with others who have done this. We are going Aug 31st thur Sept 7 The only reason we are doing this is because of the free dining. Could not pass this up. The kids start school on the 28th of Aug. So they will be missing the last day of the week and four days the following week (due to labor day). So they are really only missing 5 days of school, but still .
They are in 8th, 6th and Kindergarten. DD is only 3, so we are good there. This is our first family vacation...EVER...so I really am looking forward to this. I don't want anything to spoil it for them, so if anyone has any suggestions to eliminate potential "problems" I'd be very grateful.

 

[LJRJR]

I have taken my DD out of Kindergarten (last year) and then 1st grade. Since I went in the Spring I told the teacher at the parent teacher conference in November that she would be out in May, then I would remind the teacher that we were going about two weeks before I left. It was not a big deal, I am sure the school would prefer that she not be out for a week for a vacation, but my daughter is a very good student. If she struggled with school I would think twice. As another poster stated, tell them that you are taking your child out, dont ask (you might be leaving yourself open for an answer you might not want to hear). I believe that family vacations are very important, however other people dont always feel that way. Keep it short and simple and dont over explain yourself.

 

[Tikicampers]

They are in 8th, 6th and Kindergarten. DD is only 3, so we are good there. This is our first family vacation...EVER...so I really am looking forward to this. I don't want anything to spoil it for them, so if anyone has any suggestions to eliminate potential "problems" I'd be very grateful.

The only one I can see any potential problems for is the Kindergartener. The first few weeks of Kindergarten are all about setting routines. I would ask the teacher about some of the classroom routines, and maybe role-play them with your child (maybe while waiting for a ride). Also, be prepared that if your child has a rough transition the first few days, it may happen again after you return from your vacation. Kids bounce back pretty quickly though, and it may not be a problem for your child anyway. The good news is she/he probably won't miss much in the way of academics.

 

[kidtink]

Yes, check the guidelines. I am a teacher and while I don't care when my students take time off to take vacations they must be approved by the principal and I have heard her complain about these (although she almost always approves them). I would just state the reason as a family reunion in FL. As an educator, it bodes well when students have strong family ties. We like that.

As a mother I take my children out of school every three years for vacation. Don't ever feel guilty about it. I always tell myself that the things learned and the memories made on our trip to Disney World are much stronger than those they would have made in school that week.

 

[barkley]

def. check the school and the district guidelines-some are very proactive on attendance policies. district we recently moved from had a tolerance level of i believe 10 days after which the student got an incomplete in the grade despite their otherwise performance (and summer school was hard to get into-first slots went to kids with acceptable attendance but failed due to academic issues). districts in the county i used to work in sent attendance reports to social services where we had to refer kids exceeding the tolerance level on to the district attny's office-and he decided if he was pursuing legal action (he was pretty dogged about it too, and saw no difference between a parent taking a vacation or a parent simply letting a child skip).

one private school my kids attended would expell if absences exceeded number (and if you fudged and told them it was'nt for a vacation-then they found out-expelled for providing false attendance information). last school my kids went to did'nt make a huge issue out of the days missed, but would'nt allow work done in advance or extra credit-and the kids had a very short window of time to get the work they missed done.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Our schools don't require approval for kids taking vacations-thank goodness! But every school district is different. We go every year in October for our family vacation because it is the only time my husband can take off from work without a financial penalty. I tell my kids teachers about it on back to school night (not sure if everyone has these). This normally takes place within the first week of school. I see no point in lying about it being a vacation, we're up front and we've never had a teacher or the school take issue with it. (If they had a problem, they definitely kept their opinions to themselves because we never heard any complaints). Most times our kids got their work ahead of time, sometimes they were given the work when they came back and were allowed a week to make it up.

 

[AlyLynn]

Hi! DH and I are both teachers, and our experiences have shown us that each school district is different. We have to fill out paperwork for our own children
requesting no more than 5 days. That is why we tied our next trip in with Thanksgiving vacation. That way they'd only miss 3 days. And we could still use the other 2 days at another point during the year. Our price is cheaper than the week after Thanksgiving, which I could not believe! I'd check with your school district just in case, especially since you have so many relatives joining you!

 

[Starr W.]

Like Keep MovingForward, we let our eldest son's teacher know about the trip(only missing 2 days) at our Open House, which is right before school starts.

We had to fill out the "official" form and his teacher asked me to remind her about 2 weeks before to get the work together(they co-teach in 4th grade so she had to get math & SS from the other teacher).

From my son's past teachers, what they and the principal really dislike are the parents who wait till the last minute to let the school know they are going and expect everyone to jump through hoops with paperwork and lesson plans. I guess this happens more often then I would think.