Taking kids out of school for a week!

[SandyinMonterey]

Up to a year ago, I lived in California. My daughter started her school years in a public Kindergarten program. I told the teacher she would miss a day of school (just 1 day) and boy oh boy did I get the look of disapproval. It's Kindergarten and one day, are you kidding me?! Then my daughter was in a private school for the next 5 years. Though we're told it's "frowned upon" to pull kids out of school for vacation and that the school is under no obligation to help or assist with make up work, many families did it. We did not. I find my daughter is one of those kids that needs to be and benefits from being at that desk with teacher instruction. She would miss too much and fall behind and be a bit lost and not understand things as well because she wasn't there. When she has been sick and missed a couple of days of school, the make up work was horrible. What is worse, is the stress that she put on herself. I would never want to intentionally put that on her. We now live in the Southeast and she attends public school. We live in a very high achieving school district and the work can be difficult at times and fast paced. I can't imagine how much work AND in instruction she'd miss in a week. I don't understand the reasoning behind taking school work on vacation with you or these journals or whatever. Who wants to do homework while on vacation? And the other stuff just sounds like busy work. What's important to know is your school/district policy about it.

 

[Canajan]

DrunkJam, I hope your family has a fabulous trip! Sincere best wishes for your husband's health.

 

[DrunkJam]

DrunkJam, I hope your family has a fabulous trip! Sincere best wishes for your husband's health.

Thank you so much. He has an appointment on Monday with his Oncologist. It should tell us whether he is going to be starting chemo sooner than we thought (which is looking likely, as he has been unwell) but, the doctors know about our trip, and are hopeful he can put the treatment off til afterwards.

 

[Colleen27]

Don't ask the internet know-it-alls, ask your school. Some districts are super-strict and any vacation absence can seriously impact a child's grades or even land you with a truancy referral. Others are supportive of family time and actively accommodate families' needs. Most are somewhere in between. Where your district falls on that spectrum matters far more than the opinions of busybodies online who can't wrap their heads around a diversity of choices all being equally valid.

We've taken our kids out a lot, almost every year except when the oldest was in high school. Our public district requires teachers provide a rough outline of the work that will be missed for any family that has submitted a vacation form to the front office and had it approved (there is a limit to how much they'll approve for a student in a year but we've never hit it so I don't know exactly where the line is drawn - somewhere more than a week per semester - and no vacations are approved for count days or testing weeks). But that's our school, in a community where three of the four largest industries/occupations are seasonal in nature and don't allow for summer vacations. You might run into a very different attitude in a district where taking kids out of school to travel is seen as less unavoidable, or in a state where daily attendance rather than designated count days are used to calculate funding.

 

[MaggieBags]

We did it last year for Kindergarten and will do it again this year for 1st grade. Last year our teacher was fabulous - told us to enjoy and how excited she was for us. Had our DD fill out a packet with a picture and a couple of sentence of what she did for each day of the trip. She loved doing this at the end of the day and I've kept the packet as a memento. I need to tell this year's teacher soon; hopefully it will go just as well.

We'll have to see when we are no longer comfortable taking her out - perhaps as early as 4th grade. It will depend on how she's doing. I don't see us doing it for junior high and def. not for high school.

It was good to hear a teacher's perspective; I won't ever expect make up assignments.

 

[danikoski]

OP, hope you are having a great time at WDW. Watch out for Hurricane Irma, but otherwise, have fun!
My parents pulled me from school from 1st to 6th grade to go to WDW. In 5th grade, they also pulled me for a week to go to Yellowstone. I graduated in the top ten percent of my class in HS and undergrad, have two MS degrees, and a decently paying job. The other thing I have are memories that I cherish of time with my family, especially with my dad at Epcot. I learned so much on those trips as well. I did always have to keep a journal, and there were years I had to do some school work, but it didn't really interfere with vacation.
And now I have a stepson who has high functioning autism. He's in 7th grade, and I would seriously consider pulling him from school for a WDW trip. I'd shoot for beginning of the school year, right before Christmas break, or a week with teacher in service days, but I would pull him for a family vacation. Now in HS, I might worry about it more.

 

[Sepo]

Has anyone had experience in a district whereby rather than absence, "independent study" is requested and granted. A friend of ours in California mentioned it as popular where they live and the process grants the school continued public funding as if your child was present on-site. Plus, there is bonafide work to complete. I'd never heard of it before that (or since). Anyone else?

 

[Fintastic]

We're going at Halloween. Our daughter is in 8th grade and our son is in 3rd. We know this will be the last year it will be "easy" to go during Halloween, since DD will be in high school next year, so we're taking advantage of it. The district handbook really frowns on excessive absences for any reason - even excused by a doctor - but guess what? They're my kids. We'll only be gone for five school days. This is the first time in ten years that we've gone, and DS's first time EVER, and honestly you couldn't pay me to go to Florida in the summer with the crowds and heat and humidity. I live in Louisiana; I get plenty of humidity already.

 

[StaciaRae]

We've taken our kids out of school to go to Disney and the school was fine with it. We're doing it again this year also. Our kids are still in elementary school so I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not. I know my sister has had issues when she had to take her high school students out of school because of all the state testing and athletics they're involved in.

 

[keepswimming76]

We've taken our kids out a few times. The first was for a week when DS was in 1st grade. The other times it was just a couple of days when he was in 2nd and then 3rd. I never caught any guff from teachers.

We will be doing a trip for MVMCP with my parents this December and he will have to miss 3 days. I am a bit nervous this time around as 4th grade work is more challenging for him. But it's a special "last time" trip with their 72 year old grandparents who have never been to Disney at Christmas. I keep reminding myself, "What' more important?"

On a side note, when we went to WDW when he was in 2rd grade he just missed the last 2 days of school. The teachers were totally cool with it as they were finished learning at that point. But my son was actually super annoyed about missing the last two days. I kept telling him that all he was missing was cleaning the classroom, but 2 years later he still talks about missing those days. I learned my lesson there!

Also, while I don't have any hard evidence there have been posts on the DIS about summer attendance being lower in recent years. I will say, the past two times we went in September it was a lot more crowded than we anticipated.

 

[Colleen27]

I know my sister has had issues when she had to take her high school students out of school because of all the state testing and athletics they're involved in.

Athletics at the HS level make traveling next to impossible! Sports don,t stop just because the school has a break. DS played football - that was an almost-daily commitment from the Monday after the school year ended in June until the season ended around Thanksgiving. Sure, the June & July practices were "optional", in keeping with athletic association rules, but kids who didn't come to them didn't play. DD played volleyball her freshman year and it wasn't as bad, but only because she was at the JV level. Her practices "only" started a month before school, but varsity practices all summer. And she plays softball, which runs from January until the end of the school year with several games over spring break (against public schools, who are in session that week - they get "spring break" based on state testing schedules, we get Easter week). Even fitting in college visits has been a pain at times!

 

[tarak]

Athletics at the HS level make traveling next to impossible! Sports don,t stop just because the school has a break. DS played football - that was an almost-daily commitment from the Monday after the school year ended in June until the season ended around Thanksgiving. Sure, the June & July practices were "optional", in keeping with athletic association rules, but kids who didn't come to them didn't play. DD played volleyball her freshman year and it wasn't as bad, but only because she was at the JV level. Her practices "only" started a month before school, but varsity practices all summer. And she plays softball, which runs from January until the end of the school year with several games over spring break (against public schools, who are in session that week - they get "spring break" based on state testing schedules, we get Easter week). Even fitting in college visits has been a pain at times!

So true. We went the week before school started for two summers because the crowds were lower. Now that my oldest plays high school field hockey, we're looking at the first week after school ends in June. They have two-a-days for two solid weeks, plus lifting MWF. That's before school even starts.

I hope you have a great time, OP. We took our kids out of school for a week for several years, until my oldest was in 7th grade. I don't regret it one bit.

 

[jeepnjudy]

This decision is personal and as I have posted in the past, it depends on your state and school district policies. GA has "Right to Education" laws and any absences for vacation are unexcused. After so many, the family can be fined via the court system and if I remember accurately even potential jail time!

 

[Sepo]

... and if I remember accurately even potential jail time!

Amnesty International would likely fight on our behalf if we were jailed for our Disney beliefs to take kids out of school.

 

[Momoftwins+1]

Up until early Jr High, if children are strong in academics, then I think a shorter vacation is ok (although a lot of school districts don't) . I do think that one should accept any consequences that go with it ( IE. refusal to give homework, as the teacher should not have to do future planning just because a child is going to be absent, or drop in grade due to missed work that will be late etc). We have had our kids miss a few days in earlier grades ourselves.
That being said, absolutely not in high school! There is no way, especially for those in AP classes. The classes move too quickly, and in those classes with labs it may be impossible to re-do what has already passed by from a week vacation. Also, who wants to do 4+ hours of homework a day on vacation to keep up with classes so when they get back they aren't miles behind everyone else? There is no way, even though our son is an advanced sophmore, that he could keep up with his 3 AP classes, plus an honors class and several electives while on vacation. In his AP Chem syllabus it states that even missing 1 day is detrimental and that one needs to choose whether they want to do well in the class, or be away on school trips, vacations, sports etc. as there is no time to slow down while meeting the needs for the course.
Every parent has to make that call themselves though, weighing all the options and then accept what comes down the line without complaint.

 

[Rachel L]

I agree with those that have said it varies by school and even by teacher. I thought I would never take my kids out of school for a vacation, but two years ago I did. When I started looking at possible dates, I talked to my child's teacher to ask if she would miss too much to comfortably catch up (she was in 1st grade then, I think). I told her I was not sure I wanted to do it. The teacher actually talked me into doing it. She had 3 kids of her own and had taken them out of school in elementary school for the same thing. She said it's worth it and the kids won't miss that much. I tried to pick a week that they already had a teacher work day or something one day so it was only missing 4 days really. I'm doing it again this year (my kids are now in 4th and 2nd grade) for a week and that will probably be the last time we do it. I think in MS and HS they would miss too much but at least in my experience the teachers at our school have been encouraging of it and very helpful. I will talk to the teachers soon (they just started last week so want to give them time to settle in) and I hope they are as accepting as the last teacher.

 

[jjjones325]

To me, there is no debate. Disney every time. We are going in December for our 6th trip. The only one my DS didn't miss school was for his first trip, when he wasn't yet in school. Granted, he's only now in 6th grade, so my attitude may change as he moves up the grades. We are going the 2nd week of December, so he'll go back to school on Monday, then be off half day that Wednesday for Christmas. So, the timing isn't great as I'm sure his class will be doing end of year stuff the week we are gone, but I can't imagine his overall education will be impaired.

 

[BLAZEY]

We go on holidays when work says we can go. April-the beginning of October are not available to DH and I combined. We went in November DD had 2 Pro D days that backed onto the November 11 stat so she missed 2 days of school for 9 day holiday. Then this past March I took her out for 2.5 before spring break for a longer trip. Thankfully pulling kids from school isn't an issue in Canada.

DD has had classmates miss weeks of school for vacations to visit family in other countries without issues. Mind you if this happened in secondary school there may be a problem, but not elementary school.

 

[Dakota731]

Maybe speak to the teacher. We did it twice while the kids were very young and one teacher was great about and one was very negative.

 

[JoCoSelma]

We are pulling our kids out for a week in October and have no second thoughts...memories made now will last a lifetime!