Taking Children out for Vacation and Absences

[daisyduck123]

Teacher here...and no flames either.

I wish all schools would do what my DD11's middle school does - each child is allowed 5 PRE-PLANNED absences for anything - vacation or whatever. We just have to let them know ahead of time. I love this policy. We're actually going to DW this January & May, so one of the weeks will be unexcused, but
oh well.

Now, DS7 goes to school with me & although we're in the same district, my school does not have these 5 allowable absences. It's up to each principal.

 

[Beth76]

You know this subject almost makes me want to support the year round school in my district. I absolutely hate the thought of having to vacation during typical school holidays when my kids are older. It's always more expensive and more crowded. And no way am I going to disney during the summer, spring break, thanksgiving or xmas. I hate crowds!

 

[aprilgail2]

The funny thing is, our school district allows 15 absences per semester. That's right - 30 days a year! Like, where am I gonna go spend all that time????

My daughter missed over 30 days of school last year...between 6 days out for a cruise and numerous strep times, then fifth disease, surgery etc she was out well over 30 days and they still promoted her. Once it got close to the number of days that they could leave her back (30) I contacted the school adn said if they were going to leave her back just based on attendance then I wanted a home tutor for the rest of the year and they said don't worry about it so she missed the last 2 weeks of the year for surgery.

 

[aprilgail2]

Hey - no fair! I don't get 5 days off for family vaca. as a teacher!!!! That's ok -- I'm not complaining. But, it would be nice!!!!

Are you serious?? Teachers around here get 5 personal days a school year to take as they please....

 

[monsterkitty]

I'm a teacher and I say take the children out. What my nieces would do for a vacation with their late father...


Please remember, in most cases it is not the schools who set up the attendance policy - it is the school board. You know, the people you elect to represent you.

 

[Marseeya]

You can thank NCLB and the current administration for a lot of this nonsense. Before NCLB, our district allowed 20 days a year for excused absences, including pre-approved vacations. Now, they're down to 10 days and THEY WILL call child protective services and turn you in to the magistrate for more than 3 unexcused absences.

We'd love to take a vacation somewhere during the school year (my spring break for example) to visit the in-laws or take a less expensive WDW vacation. Too bad, so sad, the kids' educational commitments are a priority.

 

[Nancy]

you are really setting yourself up for some blasting by even bringing this topic up.
---
I've always thought that these types of rules do nothing but highly frustrate the group of students and parents who are for the most part people who care and try to follow rules. Believe me, DCFS has far bigger problems to address than a Mom who wants to take her kid to WDW during January. What a total waste of time and resources that is just to create a huge pile of paperwork for somebody's files.

QUOTE]

I just have to comment on this. it's long so bear with me.

My oldest daughter was 16 and wanted to stop going to school. 16 was the age you could drop out. After she had missed 30 days (not all in a row, it was only about 2 weeks in a row) we get a call from the district threatening us with Child Protective Services because we are out of compliance with NY State laws. Turns out that she turned 16 3 DAYS after the cutoff date. She did start going back to school but only in spurts. She took her finals and got a 93 on regents history, 89 on a 2 day english regents exam, she passed the NY State math b regents exam with an 89.They wouldn't pass her in any classes because she missed too many days. Guess what else we got turned in to CPS! They did a formal investigation which had them going to the schools and talking to all 3 of my kids, they came to my house and spent 2 hours here. They were going to prosecute us because she missed the days and we are responsible. If it wasn't for the fact that she is going to counseling for depression (one of the reasons she can't stand to be in school) we would have had to get a lawyer and go to court. They were talking about removing her from my house! They did finally close the files but not until 3 months later. She is now 17, I have been told she still has to attend school, she still hates to go, she still goes to counseling. She is repeating all of last years classes, she is bored to tears. She goes in for tests and gets the highest scores in the class.

I won't take them out of school for anything now, I am so afraid of them calling CPS again if any of my kids miss too many days.

 

[teacherforhi]

Are you serious?? Teachers around here get 5 personal days a school year to take as they please....

In NC, we can have up to five personal days, but we are docked $50 per day for them.

 

[MinnieM3]

Are you serious?? Teachers around here get 5 personal days a school year to take as they please....

Wow, we get ZERO personal days. It's amazing how rules are so different around the country.

 

[MinnieM3]

You know this subject almost makes me want to support the year round school in my district. I absolutely hate the thought of having to vacation during typical school holidays when my kids are older. It's always more expensive and more crowded. And no way am I going to disney during the summer, spring break, thanksgiving or xmas. I hate crowds!

Don't be a teacher! We've been over many summers (yuck), Thanksgivng, Spring Breaks, etc. Summer is the worst; the holidays really were not that bad. But I love my job, so them's the breaks!

 

[monsterkitty]

In NC, we can have up to five personal days, but we are docked $50 per day for them.

We are given 10 to 14 days, depending on how many years you have, to use as sick days or personal days.

However, if we take a Friday, Monday, a day before a school vacation, or after a vacation, we must have a doctor's note. If we do not have a doctor's note, we are docked $250 per day and they take double the days you missed. I missed three days after Thanksgiving break a few years ago and was docked $700. The Human Resource Director lost my doctor's note then said I didn't really need to take that time off at all. I had another miscarriage later that year and ran out of sick days so I was docked even more. It took almost a year to get my $700 plus interest back. The district also had to refund the money they docked me for running out of days.

Wow, I really got off on a tangent. Sorry.

 

[Bayshore Bandit]

It's not that vacactions are "not allowed", but there are consequences
for actions. Schools have attendance policies, just like most employers
have attendance policies.

Schools send out forms, letters, phone calls, etc. simply because too many
parents could come back and say they had NO IDEA their child had missed
so many days, yada, yada, yada.

What parents see is tunnel vision for their own child, their own situation,
and that's find and understandable. Districts though need to see the big
picture, and they cannot be selective in who they make policies for.
Most districts give some type of excused time for family vacations.
I really don't see what the all the hub-bub is about

 

[castleview]

Hi There,

Having grown up in a house where you went to school as long as you were breathing, I'd feel very guilty taking my kids out of school for 5 days at Disney. Fortunately, I married a teacher and don't have to make that decision. See you at Disney in August!

 

[MiknMinMouse]

If your child had skipped school on those 3 days and you didn't know he was gone from school, wouldn't you be upset if the school didn't let you know he wasn't there (even good kids skip school so don't think your son wouldn't do it)..

The thing is that when a child misses school in our district on that day the school phones the child's home to inform that the child has missed. Therefore this letter wasn't just a BTW your kid missed three days. It had a threatening tone with legal action mentioned. Yet when I called the attendence office they brushed it off. If it's no big deal then why send the letters in the first place. I have no problem with informing the school about my son being out of school, but it's not work it's school and I am the parent. If I feel he needs to be out, that's my decision. My DH seriously wants to homeschool our son, not just because of the lack of control a parent has over things like this but because of safety issues (HUGE fights at his school with police involvement) and what they teach the kids these days.

 

[MiknMinMouse]

You know this subject almost makes me want to support the year round school in my district. I absolutely hate the thought of having to vacation during typical school holidays when my kids are older. It's always more expensive and more crowded. And no way am I going to disney during the summer, spring break, thanksgiving or xmas. I hate crowds!

Please do support year round. This is why I'm having the problem. My daughter is in year round and my son just went traditional with both now being on totally separate schedules. We're going on vacation while our daughter is tracked out and while it's much less expensive to be at WDW. If they offered year round high schools we wouldn't be dealing with this issue. When my son started traditional this year he was so bummed because he LOVED the year round schedule.

 

[georgina]

Please do support year round. This is why I'm having the problem. My daughter is in year round and my son just went traditional with both now being on totally separate schedules. We're going on vacation while our daughter is tracked out and while it's much less expensive to be at WDW. If they offered year round high schools we wouldn't be dealing with this issue. When my son started traditional this year he was so bummed because he LOVED the year round schedule.

I can see some advantages of year round, especially in southern parts of the country where the weather is milder, but I have a hard time picturing it here. There are just a few months to go to the swimming pool, and summer internships and jobs would be cut.

We never had a problem taking our elementary kids out of school for Disney, and DD missed 2 days in 7th grade for a trip, but those were the only 2 days she missed all year. I would never plan a trip during school time now that she is in High school.

 

[Eric95403]

We recently went on a Disney Cruise for a week. Our DD;s 9 & 6 were out of school for a total of 6 days. We signed a vacation contract and received homework for our trip. We have always taken vacations during the school year and here is why...

I work a very stressful job which bases vacation bids on seniority. The shift I work has 12 people (all with very senior people on it)...while having worked for 13yrs, I am still near the bottom of the vacation bid list. We can only have 1 person off on vacation at a time. You can imagine the summer months go quick for those with families. What does that leave me? Spring and Fall. I ... AM ... going to take my vacation. I ... AM ... not going to sit home and do nothing while on vacation. Since I work very long hours, I ... AM ... going to enjoy my vacation with my family. Thus we take trips to WDW and other parts of the country during the off season. I don't care what my school says. My children are very bright and have not had a problem thus far.

Also...with that said...my eldest is advancing in grades where taking her out of school means a lot of catching up to do. It seems unfair to take her out of school and have her play catch up for a short time upon her return. Thus, I am gaining in seniority and summer months are becoming more available to me. So summer vacations will come more often...and those awful summer crowds will be looming. I am soooo looking forward to two weeks in WDW next year.... with all those crowds. I'm already hating it...

I would not hesitate to pull them out of school again though for an all important family trip (aka...life learning experience and quality time with mom and dad while we're still around). I don't care what people say...threatening with jail, etc.... I'm not scared of jail...I spend 12hrs a day there

 

[Boston Tea Party]

He ended up missing a total of 28 days that year.

Got ya beat. Had a kid miss over 50 days last year. They still passed her on.

 

[aprilgail2]

I work a very stressful job which bases vacation bids on seniority. The shift I work has 12 people (all with very senior people on it)...while having worked for 13yrs, I am still near the bottom of the vacation bid list. We can only have 1 person off on vacation at a time. You can imagine the summer months go quick for those with families. What does that leave me? Spring and Fall. I ... AM ... going to take my vacation.

Thats how my job works also....the first 7-10 years there I could not get a vacatio while the kids were out of school for nothing! My first 2 I was told what was left after the others picked...I ended up with the second week in Jan and the first week in Nov! Now I am at the top so I get whatever 5 weeks I want but I STILL do not like to take vacation then as its twice the price and way to crowded!

 

[Disney1fan2002]

Call me weird, but I have seriously considered home-schooling. Not because of social reasons, not because of education reasons, strictly for WDW reasons.

I would like to be able to go to WDW anytime. Preferably, no crowds. We can't avoid the crowds when we go by the school calander, and I am so very tired of the guilt I feel when my kids miss school.

I mean really, in 20 years when the kids look back, is it truly going to matter that they missed a few days of school each year to go to WDW?