taking kids out of school

[olivejuice]

ok so we are going in october. i am planning on just leting my sons school know ahead of time. he is only in 1st grade. i was wandering what other people do. do you tell them now or do you just call them in? my sis in law told her sons school and they said they would call truency if she took him out for a week vacation. thats why im afraid to let the school know now. what do you think? i think its would be really dumb if they called truency. not every family can take a vacaition on sping break. what should i do?
oh and my son last year didn't miss hardly any days.

 

[abby]

My dd starts third grade this year, and I intend to take her out for 4 days to go to DL in early December. I have taken her out each year so far for a time for a vacation. I find the teachers are fine with it, if I tell them in advance, if she is doing well in class and if we make up all the work.

This will, however, likley be the last year I do this, as school gets harder each year.

 

[janc]

My school district is pretty good about letting the kids out for a vacation.

I let them know about 2 weeks in advance. I send in note with the kids.

I have a first grader and a senior, they both will be missing 5 days of school for this trip. It is not something we do every year.

The last time I pulled DD out for a vacation was 05 and there was no problem then. She is on track to graduate, didn't have excessive absences last year so I don't think it will be a problem this year.

DS the first grader, I am sure will be assigned work to to while we are gone or when we get back.

 

[Mycutekitties]

Some teachers (if they know in advance) will let you take work home so the child is not behind. I would tell them in advance.

 

[Disneyanajc]

When we went to WDW last year with our family…Our DS & DDIL talked to our GS teacher and principal…letting them know what days he would miss…The teacher sent ‘vacation work' and every afternoon on the trip mom or dad and GS would do a little schooling…When GS turned in his vacation work…the school only marked him absent for two out of the 11 days he missed…Was not a problem at all...GS was in a split first/second grade…This was the schools stand on vacations…not all families can take summer vacations the school understands and will work with the families to help the child stay up with his class … Ask your school what their policy is…JC

 

[BramsKT]

Our schools will put the children on an independent study contract if they are gone more than 4 days in a row - that way the child doesn't get behind in their school work and the school still claims the ADA as if the child is in the classroom - a win win situation.
I will pull my 7th grader out of school for 2 days in November for DL - she's a straight A student so i don't expect this will be hard on her. She will talk to all seven of her teachers in advance and either work ahead before the trip or catch up when she gets back. Our schools are pretty tollerant of this unless you abuse it.

 

[kelmac284]

At my child's school if you let them know about 2 weeks in advance you can do a homework contract and they can get their school work and it is an "excused" absence if they do the contract. We have done this in the past. It is like they didn't miss and when they got their report card it didn't even show the absence. Now I don't know if I necessarily agree with that I mean they WERE absent but I also don't think they should be considered truant either.

I think some schools go overboard. I think kids SHOULD be able to miss on occasion for vacations as long as it is not extreme. I also think that they should be able to be excused for things such as funerals or other things. If they are able to be excused for being ill then things such as funerals should be excused as well. Don't get me started though on the schools! LOL.

My kids VERY rarely miss and are good students and them being in school is VERY important to me. IF we take them out at all we try to schedule it around a weekend so that they only miss 1 or 2 days at most although once every 3 years we take our big trip to Florida. We USED to go for 1 to 2 weeks and take them out the entire time. My older one had no problems missing an entire week and I even took my kindergartener out for 2 whole weeks and was given homework for the ENTIRE 2 weeks which I thought was a bit extreme for a 5 year old but we did it no problem.

But now that I have one in high school and the little ones are in 2nd and 3rd grade and their teachers and more strict I won't do it.

We are now going over thanksgiving week and my older one is not going to miss at all.

My younger ones get the Friday before Thanksgiving off anyway and they are only going to miss that Thursday as that is the day we leave. Then they get Friday off and the whole week of Thanksgiving and then they will miss the Monday and Tuesday after. So they will miss 3 total days of school which we will do a homework contract for. That is the most total days of school that they will have missed. My High schooler will not come till the Saturday before Thanksgiving and will leave the Saturday after so she doesn't have to miss ANY school.

That way there is NO problems.

She could probably miss one day but it is not even worth it for her. She is a JR. this year and it is too hard for her to make up days.

I think it all depends on the indiv child and the indiv schools.

If your child is a good student and has good teachers that will work with you I say go for it!

 

[Queenbillabong]

I have always just sent a note for my DS and picked up homework. I think the schools are different in Canada though.....

 

[olivejuice]

thanks for the advice. i will just talk to his teach i guess. and make sure he is all caught up. which i usually is.

 

[koalababy]

Check your school's handbook, they probably have a policy on this. I know some schools are ok with it and others are not. We took my son out last year (in 1st grade too) for 3-1/2 days. Our handbook said something about allowing 5 days (per school year) for travel, providing you notify the school ahead of time. I waited a few weeks after school started and just emailed his teacher to let him know. Then about a month before, I emailed the teacher again and notified the office. It was fine with everyone. His teacher even gave some homework to do on our trip (and he willingly did it). He had a little bit to make-up after we got back, but not much at all.

Whatever you do though, don't try to play it off as an "educational experience". You lose all credibility that way.


And I know some people who were reported for truency (for illnesses) and it's no big deal really. The schools have to do what they're supposed to in regards to attendence.

 

[Welivefordisney]

We have done this on two separate occasions and have not had any problems. I have kids in high school, middle school and elementary. We let the teachers and schools know at least 2 weeks in advance and arranged for extra work and missed school work.

 

[moniquem]

At my kids' school (here in California) if you take the kids' out for 5 days or more, you can apply for independent study. I usually apply for it a few weeks before hand so that the teacher has enough time to prepare a weeks worth of work for them.

Now that my oldest is starting junior high so I probably won't be taking them out anymore if I can help it, since she'll have so many different classes. I think you should be fine since he is in Elementary school. Maybe your school has an independant study program for them at that age? They usually give the kids at that age, the classwork papers for the week to work on, and they have them keep a picture journal of their trip. It's kinda nice when the kids are required to do travel journals at any age. It's a good keepsake.

Hope this helps!

 

[Leofoenget]

ok so we are going in october. i am planning on just leting my sons school know ahead of time. he is only in 1st grade. i was wandering what other people do. do you tell them now or do you just call them in? my sis in law told her sons school and they said they would call truency if she took him out for a week vacation. thats why im afraid to let the school know now. what do you think? i think its would be really dumb if they called truency. not every family can take a vacaition on sping break. what should i do?
oh and my son last year didn't miss hardly any days.

You are probably only allowed so many UN Excused absences. If you go over that they will note it as truent. If only for 1 day or 2 probably won't be an issue. If you plan to be gone for the entire week, I suggest asking for independant study so it would not count as unexcused. I always try to take my son out of school close to the weekend. We are going in Dec (hopefully $$) and we will send him Wed and check him out at lunch. Becasue he was there most of the day that day is excused. As for Thurs/Friday he can either be suddenly sick or I may just take the 2 unexcused days and let it go. In second grade, he was out 2 days at Thanksgiving. Then ALL THE WAY IN MAY, we took 2 days off for DL for a total of 4 days off the WHOLE YEAR. About a month after school was out, I got a nasty letter saying he was truant! Schools out DUH! Anyway IMO a week is pushing it do independant study

I just read the above post, we too are in NoCAl. Cupertino district. Only allowed 3 days not 5. Lucky!!

 

[jlparedes]

We are taking my nephew out of class for the week we go to DL. He is an above average student so my borther said it would be ok. He will tell the school ahead of time and bring homework with him. I will have him work on it on the way down there (5 hour drive) and on the way home, and maybe some evenings to make sure it gets done. He did this in march also when we went to Kauai and the teacher's were really cool about it.

 

[dalepool]

Federal law reguires a child attend structured educational program from grade3- grade8. School budgets are funded by the proposed student count each school year. There are aslo a set number of days that a child needs to attend if enrolled in the private and public school systems.

Home schooling has advantages -- I never took that task but my sister did and her family made a lot of field trips.

I did take my child out of school for trips to Hawaii every year. She was good student and did jsut fine. When she was a Jr and Sr in High school and that she did running start ( program where jr. and sr. attend college while in high school) she was not going to miss classes for hawaii. She also did make some good choices about school.

Bottom line when your kids are younger -- best education they can get is spending time on "Field Trips" with the family. A good treacher knows that.

Now go have fun -- take me with you

 

[bethy]

We do it every year in early May because that's when my DH can vacation. I plan to do it every year indefinitely. Family bonding time is far, FAR, more important and has more long term value and impact on a person's life than anything that could be going on at school for a week. There is no doubt in my mind.

 

[Mililani Mouser]

my children attend private school, and for the elementary grades, we let the teachers know ahead of time, and they are pretty cool about giving out homework assignments.

as for my upper school child, we actually have to write out a page (almost like an essay) about why we're taking the child out of school. then we have to wait to see if the principal approves it or not. the handbook states if the kids miss more than 5 days of school, they can get an F for the quarter. this is a college prep school.

 

[silence]

We have always let the school know in advance for our weeklong trips and we do the homework contract. DS does the homework either on the way there or way home, its about a 7.5 hour drive each way.

One time, the office didn't process the note because she was "too busy". Let me tell you, when we came home to truant notices from the district we were not too happy. Since it had been 5 days, they were telling us we could be arrested even. The office "knew", but continued to mark him absent anyways. It was a mess.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We homeschool, so it's never an issue for us. We vacation whenever we please!

However when DS was in public school we did pull him out a few times. At most he missed 2 days though. Even then they weren't happy about it. Here they are even strict about sick days. For a while you could only have so many of those even, without failing (had to be in class 90% or more no matter what). So obviously vacation were frowned apon.

 

[FourM's]

We also pull or children out of school every year for a disney vacation. They are 9 and 12 now. We are in washington state. We provide the teachers with notice and they provide a homework packet if needed. Some years the teachers have just caught them up when they return. We have never had a problem.Good luck!
I figure they are my children, I will take them where I please, as long as their grades don't suffer I don't see a problem.