Taking your children for holidays during school is illegal in the UK

It's a Catch-22. Schools can't provide a quality education without funding and they don't get the proper funding without attendance.

And the real issue is....our kids are not being educated. Cracking down on unnecessary absences may not be the best answer, but taking kids out for vacation isn't a better solution.
 
No difference, than if a child is out for any excused absence.

BTW..It's a shame, that every student is considered to be dishonest because a handful might cheat.

But that's the difference between unavoidable extra burden on the teacher & avoidable extra burden.
 
Unfortunately, rules are sometimes necessary due to just a few system abusers but have to be fairly applied to everyone.

I once had a first grade student receiving IEP language services, as well as all academic areas, and the parents took him out for a full month to vacation in Hawaii. Poor kid needed every day of school.
 
I believe the concern opponents have is they miss the in class instruction which cannot be made up.
And at least in our district, it was beginning to become a problem because parents expected teachers to give up their lunch breaks, recess breaks and planning time to catch their precious one up on what was missed. They basically were demanding that the teachers reteach their lessons to the children which then impacted all the other students because the teacher could not use their planning time to well, plan.
 

If your trip isn't approved by the school, the days are unexcused and your children are truant. That happens in the US. I imagine the number of days truant before fines and court appearances are required varies from state to state. But the linked article wasn't clear about if fines would be charged day 1 or if 10. That's why I asked.

In the U.S., the reason why this is even an issue is that states provide money on a per student / per day basis. If a child is not in school, the local school district loses money so many school districts frown on the practice. If this was just a concern about the child's education, parents and teachers could work together on making sure the child makes up the missing assignments either during or shortly after their vacation.
 
For my family it is very simple.

We are all going to die one day. I am going to have as much fun as possible until then without hurting others.

School is very important and the second my daughter has difficulty catching up after a vacation, we will stop. Until then, we are going to do our favorite thing as a family as often as possible!
 
I really don't like this growing trend of schools policing how you live with your children outside of school. I understand if they put rules into place saying you can't miss x-number of days. I get it, it's important for kids to be there. But you can't make blanket rules like this, and expect it to work for everyone.
I agree that schools shouldn't tell you that you can't take children out of school. There should not be a fine nor siccing the truancy dept on the family.

However, I do support schools fully when they have a policy that they won't do extra work to accommodate parents that do choose to take their children out of school during the days the school is in session.
 
And at least in our district, it was beginning to become a problem because parents expected teachers to give up their lunch breaks, recess breaks and planning time to catch their precious one up on what was missed. They basically were demanding that the teachers reteach their lessons to the children which then impacted all the other students because the teacher could not use their planning time to well, plan.

I agree with you about this. I don't think it is fair to ask the teacher to spend extra time with the children to help them catch up. That is my job if I take my daughter out of school.
 
For a child that is ill, many times they are well enough after a couple of days to do a little bit of homework. A parent is picking up that day's assignments, so not requiring extra work for the teacher, and is bringing the homework back to school when it is due. The so sick that you can't work for an entire week is not that common and a dr's note would already be in place. Most teachers I know are happy to do extra work for something that the student can't help, a serious illness that leaves them incapacitated for a week, but why should parents expect teachers to do extra work putting together homework packages for a parent's whim? A teacher should not be asked to teach a subject twice, a problem that has cropped up quite a bit, parents asking for Johnny to stay in for recess for a review of what was taught during the time they were gone.

I have no problem with parent's taking their children out for vacation. But there are consequences and the parents have to weigh the consequences.

Edited to add: The district my children went to is very, very strict as indicated by my posts. But they were not total monsters. If you could prove that this was the absolute only time you could possibly take a vacation, like military or you are at the bottom of a seniority thing, and that it was not because of cost or just convenience, then they would try to work with you. But it had become a problem that families were jetting off at all different times just because they felt like it and expected the teachers to bend over backwards to accommodate them.

Do parents really do that now? When I was in high school (so about 10 years ago) this was never done. If a major project was due that day a parent might drop it off but never pick up assignments.

Most of the time with the major projects it was kids that didn't get it done and the parents would let them stay home, work on the assignment and then bring it in at the end of the day (my sister did it all the time for my niece)
 
I wonder how many parents just claim the child is sick to miss a few days. Yes a few said only up to 3 can be missed without a doctors note but even so that would manage a 5 day vacation including the weekend.

Having a policy where students can only make up the work if they miss for X reason and not for Y to me just seems like telling everyone to just lie to the school on why they are out.

I know many of the times my mom took me out for a day when they called Dad would say I was sick. Now with many people not having home phones and just using cell phones that could work even when on vacation.
 
My sister is a Maths teacher in England and she hates this law. She has taught some very difficult classes (in terms of behavior and ability) in the late middle-early high school years and wishes that some of her students could go on vacation with their families (most of whom can definitely not afford to travel during the vacation weeks--don't forget, in England virtually all schools have the same schedule, unlike in the US where it varies district to district, so the fare increases are sharp and sudden with no wiggle room.) She believes that going somewhere, doing something enjoyable and getting inspired about something that they might want to do with their lives would do a lot more good for these kids than coming into school for a week. The social consequences of not having that time to spend with your family doing things out of the ordinary that stretch your horizons have a really big impact on poorer kids. I tutored in the Bronx for a while and I can't tell you how many of the middle schoolers I met barely left the borough, let alone the city. I'm not saying kids who typically have traveled 3 weeks out of the year really need that 4th week, but a kid who almost NEVER travels or goes on vacation can get a LOT out of a week vacation. It can change their entire world view and change their entire perspective on what they want to achieve for themselves.
 
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Our school district has a strict attendance policy so we took our vacation the day after school let out. I have heard of people getting letters regardless if the absence is excused or not.

Back in my school days, they used to give out perfect attendance awards. A very small handful received the award for 4 years perfect attendance in high school. I am sure it had an impact to deter families from pulling kids out for vacation.
 
Yes, but some kids miss 30 days a year...3 at a time and it's perfectly legal. 5 days for a vacation isn't allowed. Ridiculous!
Where I live, if a student missed 30 days in a year, no matter if it was done in single days or in week long blocks, they would already be in court with a court mandated attendance sentence. I know of what I speak. A relative of mine decided she did not like high school, so she ditched. A lot. I believe she had 20+ absences the first semester. Parents and school worked together to try to keep her in school, but the minute somebody wasn't watching her, she was out the door. She ended up in court with the judge ordering her back to school. She did not follow the judge's orders either and she was then sentenced to a lock down school.
 
And the real issue is....our kids are not being educated. Cracking down on unnecessary absences may not be the best answer, but taking kids out for vacation isn't a better solution.

That may very well be true, but it's a completely different discussion than whether or not schools should enforce attendance.
 
I know in my district (and surrounding city districts) the main issue are the kids missing 20, 30, 40+ days. And as a general rule these are NOT the same kids who are being pulled out for family vacations. But you can't crack down on some absences and not others. It's very difficult to hold kids back a grade these days, especially after kindergarten or first grade (this is generally based on research that it's not beneficial). So that means if the kids are missing so many days every year, their gap just widens and widens. Like I said, the kids who are missing for one family vacation a year and aren't consistently out for other reasons (or for no reason, besides parents not wanting to get out of bed...) aren't usually the ones who have issues catching up on a week's worth of work.
A lot of times parents will send a note saying they missed for "family business", knowing it won't be excused but also knowing that they'll never miss the maximum number of unexcused days allowed before it becomes a legal isssue.
 
The social consequences of not having that time to spend with your family doing things out of the ordinary that stretch your horizons have a really big impact on poorer kids. I tutored in the Bronx for a while and I can't tell you how many of the middle schoolers I met barely left the borough, let alone the city. I'm not saying kids who typically have traveled 3 weeks out of the year really need that 4th week, but a kid who almost NEVER travels or goes on vacation can get a LOT out of a week vacation. It can change their entire world view and change their entire perspective on what they want to achieve for themselves.

Truth be told, kids in poverty situations may not be able to travel regardless of whether or not they have time off from school.
 
And at least in our district, it was beginning to become a problem because parents expected teachers to give up their lunch breaks, recess breaks and planning time to catch their precious one up on what was missed. They basically were demanding that the teachers reteach their lessons to the children which then impacted all the other students because the teacher could not use their planning time to well, plan.
Ok this problem I could understand. When I was out I never expected anything but that the teacher would put aside in a folder each worksheet as they handed it out to the class and then hand us the folder when we walked back in. That was all. Anything else I missed I generally got from friends or had my sister help if I couldn't figure something out. Sometimes a note or two would get added for an assignment that wasn't on a worksheet (so the teacher wrote on the board do questions 1-10 on page 72 so I would get a note).

Tests were generally given by giving them to us while everyone else had some reading time and then having us make up the reading later. In high school I did have to take a test after school a few times but even then most of the teachers stayed after school to do planning and giving a test wasn't really stopping them from planning.
 
Truth be told, kids in poverty situations may not be able to travel regardless of whether or not they have time off from school.
In some cases, yes. But there really are a wide variety of vacation opportunities in England, in all price ranges. It's easier to get around (bus, train) and the distances aren't like in the US. Not everyone is going to Lanzarote. We spent a few days for a bargain price at Butlins with our kids some years ago. I would think they are still offering the same sorts of deals. :)
 
I'm sorry, I don't see how that is the same as taking a week's vacation unexcused.

My point is employers will generally work with you to get needed time off (those would be EXCUSED absences). However, you can't just take time off without getting permission ahead of time. Some schools don't give such permission for vacation.

Actually, I've worked for several companies that as long as you have the time to cover it then you can take time off even that same day, excused or not. The situation that they are discussing (vacation during a school year) would actually apply more to an excused absence than an unexcused absence anyway. Except they choose not to excuse those who are taking a vacation.
 













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