Texas Mommies: Will the School District really prosecute me for taking DS to WDW?

[seashoreCM]

I I have stated I do think our TX punishments for attendance violations are excessive, as our many policies on what is required for a child to be absent i.e. a doctors note for bout of 24 tummy pain, or what was my case a couple of times, a nasty asthma flare-up where he was attached to his SVN machine for the day but did not need to see the doc ...
I also think that making the doc note a requirement can cause undo hardship on some families that have high co-pays or no insurance. Think about it if they can not get a same day appointment for their child and they are forced to take them to the ER just to abide by the laws, this can mean a $100 co-pay and 8 hours in an ER exposing a probably not seriously ill child to ...

OT: You mean your primary care physician would not autograph for free a doctor's note you synthesized and printed out on your computer?

I didn't we were required to have a meeting with the truancy officer and vice principal. We were required to sign an "Attendance Intervention Plan" that states if we have another unexcused absense or tardy in the next 12 months, we will be referred to the district level. If we miss another unexcused day or have another unexcused tardy after that, we will be required to face penalties imposed by the family courts.

1) I'm furious because our policy states that 10 unexcused absenses will put promotion in jeopardy and action taken by the school system. We are only half-way there. All other absences she has are excused with a doctor's note.

2) The contract is in effective for one full year. That makes me insanely mad because the "10 unexcused days" policy is a school year thing. Not a calendar year. The contract should have been in effect for only the remainder of the school year, in my opinion.

3) If we have an alarm clock issue or my daughter has to poop just as we're leaving for school, we're up a creek. If she's got a 24-hour tummy bug, I've got to run her to the doctor for a note even if I know darn well what it is.

Now mind you, if our case got accelerated to the district level, I would walk in defending myself pretty heavily given the facts of our case. But...we're only technically half way to breaking the 10-day policy. GRRRR!.

You might be referred to the district level and you might have to face penalties but you can always appeal the dollar amounts if any (penalties) were imposed. Having not exceeded 10 unexcused absences per academic year at the time the issue was raised would be included in your appeal.

Health hints: http://www.cockam.com/health.htm

 

[Aliceacc]

II also think that making the doc note a requirement can cause undo hardship on some families that have high co-pays or no insurance. Think about it if they can not get a same day appointment for their child and they are forced to take them to the ER just to abide by the laws, this can mean a $100 co-pay and 8 hours in an ER exposing a probably not seriously ill child to an array of problems, and clogging an overburdened system with uneccesary patients. This is excessive in my opinion.

Like so many other rules, this one is most likely a reaction to something. In this case the odds are that it was kids with excessive absences that weren't medical.

I'm guessing that if districts could trust parents to keep their kids home only when they're sick, none of this would be an issue.

 

[quasar4legs]

I'm in Australia, so no help to you with regards to the education system in Texas..........................however...........
just felt you might enjoy my favourite quote.

"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire"
In our family some of our most profound educational experiences have happened outside the confines of a classroom.

Good Luck with your decision.
Trish

 

[KARAJ]

OT: You mean your primary care physician would not autograph for free a doctor's note you synthesized and printed out on your computer?


You might be referred to the district level and you might have to face penalties but you can always appeal the dollar amounts if any (penalties) were imposed. Having not exceeded 10 unexcused absences per academic year at the time the issue was raised would be included in your appeal.

Health hints: http://www.cockam.com/health.htm

I have had both types of Dr., those that would sign with no appointment (just a wait to catch them between appt) and those that would not. I appreciated the one that would, but absolutely understand the ones that would not as that could leave them open to liability in our lawsuit crazy world.
i.e. parent says Bobby Smith is sick with a cold/upper respiratory infection, makes up a letter and then a DR. with NO EXAM signs off, and it turns out Bobby has pneumonia and must be hospitalized or worse. That could be a serious liability issue.

And just an FYI I may feel the rules are excessive and do create one more example of the state taking over some parental decision making and discretion. But I also do believe that if you enroll your child in a public school than it is your job as a responsible parent to teach your child by example and abide by those rules, or to fight the system in a mature and respectful way. I do not think you should teach your child just because we don't like a rule means we can break it after you sign the contract (enrollment papers), You could teach them to try and make changes though by being active in PTA and running for school board etc.

 

[Ohana90]

I live in TX and I wrote a letter stating that her education would continue while in Disneyworld. I broke the letter down to how each subject would be covered education wise and it was accepted. For example.....

Math: Disney Dollars and she would be learning counting and money denominations

English: Reading all the introductions at all the different parks as well as map reading

History: Epcot.....Visiting all the different countries will cover geography as well as us history.

Spelling: Had her write in her journal each night of her adventure

Art: KIDCOT FUN STATIONS......NUFF SAID

fitness....walking the parks and swimming is fitness

They stated as long as she turned in her journal it would be accepted. Worked for her should work for you.

 

[Mad4Mickey]

We take my Neice and Nephew out of school every year and take them to WDW. My DH has a 2nd job as a Truancy Officer and yet we do it every year

We did get a letter this year saying that they had missed 8 days ( yeah it was for our trip ) and that they would need a note from a Doctor to miss anymore days . They also threaten to fine us 500 bucks . They go to a Arlington school , so I dont know how far they would really take it . We are a big school but not huge

 

[ekatiel]

I'm in Australia, so no help to you with regards to the education system in Texas..........................however...........
just felt you might enjoy my favourite quote.

"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire"
In our family some of our most profound educational experiences have happened outside the confines of a classroom.

Good Luck with your decision.
Trish

LOVE the quote !

We take my Neice and Nephew out of school every year and take them to WDW. My DH has a 2nd job as a Truancy Officer and yet we do it every year

-- that's too funny!

I will definitely call the school before we book and make sure it will be ok to take DS out. I'm guessing they won't have a problem with it. We are insistant upon telling the truth around here, so if we are going to Disney, the school will know. It urks me when parents teach their kids to lie about stuff like that . Hopefully, we can still go for a full week, if not, we'll have to settle for a 5 day trip (a weekend plus three days out of school)-- if we end up going that route, I'll just get to book us in a nicer resort , so I guess it's a win-win situation. --Katie

 

[npmommie]

I am going to assume your child will be 5 yo in the fall that year? I wouldn't worry about it, compulsory school age begins at age 6 in texas.
he legally doesn't even have to go to school at all
take him out and have fun!

 

[jamstew]

I am going to assume your child will be 5 yo in the fall that year? I wouldn't worry about it, compulsory school age begins at age 6 in texas.

That's only correct if the 5-year-old is not enrolled. Once enrolled, a 5-year-old becomes subject to mandatory attendance laws.

 

[disneymomof2boyz]

I'm not here to moan and groan about funding and how bad it is, bit I also believe that it is the parent's right to take children out of school for whatever reason they choose. Being a vacation or whatever. But I think that it is disgraceful how the government is having more and more control as to what parents choose to do and not do with their own children.

My kids aren't school-aged yet, but we are seriously looking into putting our kids in a private school, simply because I believe that the parents have more control over their child's education.

 

[jodifla]

Well, since Florida has compulsory attendance laws, too, you might want to reconsider. http://www.fldoe.org/faq/default.asp?Dept=107&ID=503 Since local districts are required by Florida state law to adopt policies regarding attendance, the fact that you can't find such a policy clearly doesn't mean there isn't one.

Frankly, I don't need to reconsider anything.

Currently, my DS goes to school in Michigan. And my school doesn't have an attendance policy of X amount of days and you're in trouble.

My son will have missed about 11 days of school this year. 3 were for a WDW trip, 1 for a medical evaluation, and the rest he was sick. We don't even need doctor's notes here when they are sick.

But in most districts in Florida, missing a few days isn't a huge deal. None of my many So. Fla. friends have had trouble like the kind they report in Texas routinely.

Texas, however, routinely comes up on this board as being pretty draconian with regards to school absences.

 

[jodifla]

I believe most (if not all) states have compulsory attendance laws. I just think she was saying that this one is excessive. To use the speeding ticket that people keep going back to......All states have laws against speeding but if one was $50.00 fine for going 10 over and another was a $1,000 fine I would think that the second state was EXCESSIVE in it's punishment. And as I have stated I do think our TX punishments for attendance violations are excessive, as our many policies on what is required for a child to be absent i.e. a doctors note for bout of 24 tummy pain, or what was my case a couple of times, a nasty asthma flare-up where he was attached to his SVN machine for the day but did not need to see the doc (we even have steroids on call at the pharmacy that the pulmo doc has as an ongoing script so that we do not need to come in even every time he need a steroid burst. I have enough experiance with him to know when he needs the doc and when he does not, just like I can tell if he can go spend the day sitting in a class or not.

I also think that making the doc note a requirement can cause undo hardship on some families that have high co-pays or no insurance. Think about it if they can not get a same day appointment for their child and they are forced to take them to the ER just to abide by the laws, this can mean a $100 co-pay and 8 hours in an ER exposing a probably not seriously ill child to an array of problems, and clogging an overburdened system with uneccesary patients. This is excessive in my opinion.

Exactly! Texas is massively overplaying its hand. What's amazing is that parents let them get away with it.

 

[jodifla]

Well, since Florida has compulsory attendance laws, too, you might want to reconsider. http://www.fldoe.org/faq/default.asp?Dept=107&ID=503 Since local districts are required by Florida state law to adopt policies regarding attendance, the fact that you can't find such a policy clearly doesn't mean there isn't one.

Also, if you bothered to click through to that those attendance laws are at the Florida state level, they are pretty laid back.

A child is habitually truant if they have 15 absences in 90 calendar days.

Nothing like heavyhanded Texas laws.

 

[cruizie]

My dd attends elementary in Cy-Fair, outside of Houston. Last yr (kinder), we pulled her out for a cruise for 1 wk. I informed her teacher, sent a note to the school and dd had to complete her homework and also keep a journal of our travels. It was a non-issue. This yr, she missed 3 days for a trip that I won from work. I felt less confident about taking her out in 1st grade but it was fine. Again, a non-issue.

I think a lot of the absence issues people encounter is based on federally funded tax dollars. If your dd does not miss much school, hopefully it won't be an issue.

 

[lostatdisney]

Yes, the reason that Texas schools are picky about attendance is that they are basically "paid" for the number of children that are in the school that day. Low attendance means less funding.

And as a teacher, it does get challenging if you have kids out all the time!

 

[jodifla]

My dd attends elementary in Cy-Fair, outside of Houston. Last yr (kinder), we pulled her out for a cruise for 1 wk. I informed her teacher, sent a note to the school and dd had to complete her homework and also keep a journal of our travels. It was a non-issue. This yr, she missed 3 days for a trip that I won from work. I felt less confident about taking her out in 1st grade but it was fine. Again, a non-issue.

I think a lot of the absence issues people encounter is based on federally funded tax dollars. If your dd does not miss much school, hopefully it won't be an issue.

And that's the thing: Same state law, but local districts enforcing it really differently.

 

[floydfamily4]

I'm not here to moan and groan about funding and how bad it is, bit I also believe that it is the parent's right to take children out of school for whatever reason they choose. Being a vacation or whatever. But I think that it is disgraceful how the government is having more and more control as to what parents choose to do and not do with their own children. QUOTE]

I think it is a blessing that you can take your kids on vacation. And while I TOTALLY AGREE that parents should have the right to make responsible decisions for their kids, I understand that some parents aren't responsible. I remember in middle school getting suspended for being late too many times. It wasn't our (me and db) fault but that was the rule and that was our punishment. Didn't make sense to me Nonetheless as a very responsible parent I would like to believe that if I spoke honestly to the teacher and admin at the school that I shouldn't be fearful of taking my family on a vacation. I know people can go during the non-school times but for some the additional cost, crowds, etc. don't make that a good choice. I think all parents owe it to the teacher to let him/her know and ask or suggest what the child can do while absent. As long as you've done what you believe was best for your kids then you just have to work through the consequences, if any.

 

[chigirl]

This thread hits home because when my DS was in 7th grade and on the high honor roll and had NEVER MISSED A SINGLE DAY of school, we took her out for 5 days for WDW...we followed the (Illinois) school's rules and called her in and did not ask for her homework ahead of the trip, which was their rule. It was outlined clearly in their handbook. Yet, we got yelled at by one of her teachers at the parent/teacher conference; the teacher who asked my husband and I "why don't you go on vacation in summer, when NORMAL people do?" Now, this kid had a straight A report card! I told the teacher due to my and my husband's jobs, we had limited windows when we could take vacations and she said "Yeah, right"...I was so mad!!! We did so much educational stuff on the trip, it was a joke....she ended up getting the homework done right away and still pulled straight A's. Sorry I am not a tacher and get the summers off! Before you flame me, 6 of my best friends are teachers, one friend is a Principal and I used to teach. I respect teachers, but my kids are my kids, period. As far as "public education" goes, I pay $2100 of my $7100 tax bill to the school, shouldn't I have some rights???

The funny thing is, DS is a professional actor who has missed 9 days this year to film a tv show and commercials, but he gets a set tutor, so they've never said a word! He is also missing the last, extra day of school (snow day addition) for WDW!!!

 

[Disnewbie76]

I am in the southwest part of houston (sugar land)...so fort bend ISD. We are in this same dilemma at the moment. My wife is currently pregnant at 7 months and we will not be able to go to WDW during the summer because of her pregnancy, the extra cost, etc. This would be my children's first trip to the world, and in fact our very first vacation in 8 years. We were planning on going in september so the crowds would be better, my wife will have given birth, and it is cheaper with the free dining. Anyway, my wife called the middle school that my oldest daughter will start 6th grade next year and they told her that if we pulled her out for a week in september it would be unexcused, she would receive 0's for the whole week, and we could face litigation for truancy. She also called the elementary school where my other two daughters go and they said they would speak with the principle and get back with her. NOW, I am trying to decide what to do....very very frustrating. My kids hardly ever miss school unless they are very sick. My wife is so upset she is now thinking of keeping them all home and homeschooling them.

 

[MiniGirl]

I think it is a blessing that you can take your kids on vacation. And while I TOTALLY AGREE that parents should have the right to make responsible decisions for their kids, I understand that some parents aren't responsible. I remember in middle school getting suspended for being late too many times. It wasn't our (me and db) fault but that was the rule and that was our punishment. Didn't make sense to me Nonetheless as a very responsible parent I would like to believe that if I spoke honestly to the teacher and admin at the school that I shouldn't be fearful of taking my family on a vacation. I know people can go during the non-school times but for some the additional cost, crowds, etc. don't make that a good choice. I think all parents owe it to the teacher to let him/her know and ask or suggest what the child can do while absent. As long as you've done what you believe was best for your kids then you just have to work through the consequences, if any.[/QUOTE]

You'd think so, huh? I live in one of those strict districts. What I am learning though is that even within the district some schools enforce the rules more strictly than others. Last school year I had 2 dds in public school. I was at school at least twice a week. I volunteered 1 day a week in each classroom. I also helped with some of the major fundraisers, etc, so I was known at the school as a responsible parent. However, when one of my dds got close to the maximum amount of days she could be absent, we were warned she would have to repeat 2nd grade. Now, my dd was at the top of her class and test scores even placed her in the top 3% of her grade. Obviously, the days she missed weren't hurting her academically. When I questioned the school about this, I was told those are the rules and they are what they are. A friend who works at the district office told me that was not the case. The policy is what it is, but the school's principal has the ability to decide things on a case by case basis. At most schools my dd's missed days would not be a problem. However, our principal has a reputation for not doing anything more than she has to. She is simply biding time until she can retire.

We homeschooled her this year and will bring our youngest home next year as well. Only 7 school days left, and we will be done with the schools -- for now anyway.

BTW, I think it is ironic that TX is so strict. They are one of the easiest states (if not THE easiest) to homeschool your children.