the fear of missing school?

[Honeybehr1]

I tool my son out for 5 school days last October and was paniced that I would be in "trouble" with school. The teacher sent only a small amount of work to be done but I had him do some extra projects - a journal and such. When he got home, he had to do a presentation in front of the class. He actually did two presentations. The teacher said that even though EPCOT is educational, the time spent with family is as important.

He did get much better reading maps on that trip

Oh and at the end of the school year, he ended up only missing those 5 days. So I am not worried at all if we decide to do it again.

 

[Brooknwdw]

There is a subculture on the DIS that believes that if thier kids are EVER punished for going to Disney they are going to scream, throw hissy fits, homeschool etc. It's an interesting theory, but....the law is the law.

It may be a law, but only if you choose to have your child enrolled in a public school does it apply to you. If you don't like, yes you can take them out and homeschool, private school, whatever.

I don't consider myself a "subculture" member or anything, as this will be my first time to take my kids out for a vacation. However, yes, it is my child and I would take them out if no other reasonable solution could be arrived at. I am homeschooling them starting next year anyway.

Thankfully, my school district can see the difference between a child who rarely misses school for frivolous reasons..and a child who misses days upon days of school because their parents can't get out of bed.

 

[Brooknwdw]

I can't imagine planning a big trip and paying mega $$$ without checking out the rules of my school district first. Also, most people could travel at a time (one third of the year!) when school is out!!

I agree you are responsible for checking your districts policy before planning a trip.


However the second point...while its a nice idea, it doesn't always work that way. Some people have jobs (like my DH) where it is impossible to get off during peak times.

As a Hotel Manager, he would be laughed out of the building if he tried to take his vacation during the summer, or any holidays! That is the busiest time at his job.

Should people with jobs like this never get to take a vacation? I don't think so.

 

[Moonpie]

Speaking as a teacher, honestly, if you are going on vacation, there is nothing the school can do about you going. I say, go and have a great time! Heck...I'm going to miss 4 days this year when I go to WDW! The strict rules...and talk of arrests are there to protect children who come from families that really neglect their children's academic needs (or neglect their children in general), and keep them from school excessively. Trust me, I've met some of these families, and clearly you're not in that category, so don't worry. Have a great time!

 

[4EverFigment]

He's in the second grade; I'm not as worried at this age for missing, but what really gets to me is the feeling of being told how to manage my own child's time by people who place themselves into a position of authority over us without my consent. And please, just because he's in public school doesn't mean I agree with all the policies. (They sent a contract home and I refused to sign it unaltered...I changed the wording first.)

That said, I was a problem child and I project backwards; my teacher issues are mine, not my kid's. I'm sure that his teacher will work with me to get some 'homework' to keep him up with his class.

I really do think it should be up to the parents and their good judgement. Of course I also believe in fairies, Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny...

peace
figgy

 

[Lauralee131]

You are all making me think now!! Our DS is in Kindergarten this year and it never even occurred to me to consider school policies for absences, etc...I guess I figured since it was time away from school with his family that it was ok...Hmmmm...guess I better get in touch with his teachers and run this by them. We're not going till the first week in December, but he'll miss 6 days...

I was also planning on a week in May at SSR - better check on this too!! I'm not smart enought to home school - what will I do??? I hate the thought of having vacations having to be when everyone else gets them...

Things that make you go HMMMMMMMMMMMM

 

[rstamm]

It depends on the school district.
My wife is a teacher and we take our son out for 1 wk each yr.
Their policy is you can miss 1wk for vaction each year, if you take another week you will get zeros for your classes that week.
If your child misses a lot they they can give you a hard time for approval.
We have not had problem so far.

 

[JenC025]

My son will miss 4 days first week of October. The first day of school I sent all paperwork with a note explaining the days he'd be absent. She seemed fine with it, but in our district (NJ) they are NOT allowed to give homework in advance. All work will have to be made up when he gets back. If he is sick we can pick up the work after school Kind of silly though, I wouldn't make a sick child do schoolwork.
Not everyone can take a vacation in summer. Go when you can go and have fun

 

[seashoreCM]

(copied from another post)

If you have difficulty getting homework in advance, extrapolate what you believe the subject matter to be covered during your kids' absence will be and have your kids get a head start on that.

When you get back, keep tabs on how well you kids catch up. If they don't catch up within two weeks then don't do it (a Disney vacation during school time) again.

Having your kids complete at least half of the projected work prior to the start of vacation is actually a good test of whether the vacation is an unwise idea. Should minimal work be completed in advance you would do well to bring the family back to the resort for a few hours every afternoon to do school work.

 

[maelstrom]

Some parents have had thier kids withdrawn from the gifted program in response, but.....

I wish I *had* a gifted program when I was in school. A zillion programs for the kids who needed more help (which, you know, there should be programs for, but maybe not so many, we probably had 6 or 7) and NO gifted program. None. Zip. Nada.

This is a big topic for me. I am very anti- public school. I dropped out of high school after 10th grade so I could homeschool and I want to homeschool any children I may eventually have. Nobody will be telling me when I can take MY children on vacation.

I hope, for you, that a quick word with the teacher or principal will result in a non-confrontational go-ahead for you to take your vacation.

 

[shellybaxter]

I always think these are interesting threads. I don't have children but will take my niece out of school for two weeks in January. She is in first grade. I've checked into all of the policies and as long as we sign her out on indepenant study everything will be fine.

I am a preschool administrator and in talking to the principles and superintendents in my district the problem isn't really that the schools are on a power trip and want to control your family, its that when you take you kids out of school they lose money.

Schools here don't have enough money as it is and having even 10% of the children out on vacation everyone week costs a lot. The schools have enough teachers and staff for the amount of children enrolled but when kids are out they don't get paid even though they are providing the services. I wish our law makers would change the way schools are paid and provide them with base funding that covers the amount of kids enrolled, not the amount of kids in attendence.

 

[cybrkitn]

I've only read the first few posts and felt the need to reply. Since when does the state (or government) own our children? I can understand if it's a constant problem with the kids where they have repeatedly missed out on school. But for a vacation that is not done all the time? Come on!

When my DH was 7, his parents took him for about a month out of school for a trip to Spain to visit family. He just got the work they would be doing so he can be up-to-date with the rest of the class. My DH was in public school and the school had no problem with it. Of course, that was back in the late 70's, where our schools weren't as secular as they are now.

Our DS4 just started pre-school in a private school. We have our Disney vacation scheduled for next month and they have no problem with it. Sure it's only pre-school, but I don't believe the school would have a problem with it even if he was in in higher grade.

 

[kaysmommie]

my DW thinks that if for some reason they dont approve the planned vacation slip for 8 school days in october and we go anyway, which we will cause we already have over 3 grand non refundable into it, that when we get back we can be arrested. i say that they cannot do anything of the sort. she seems to think the school system is a totalitarian government in and of itself and i say they cannot tell you when and where you can go. anyone have any experience with this situation?

Someone told me that with my DD's school. It is absolutely not true. In fact they said my DD hardly misses school and is never late and have a good time. They said no problem and they would take me off the arrest list. My DD is only in first grade but we took her out only a month into school for a week. Also our school only allows 5 missed days per school year, with a parent note! After that you have to have a Dr's excuse. Don't worry and enjoy your family time together.

The problem with this ridiculous absentee policy is the parents keep sending there sick kids to school! Also they have a kid with the stomach virus give them some anti vomiting meds and send them fully contagious Some people are so selfish. I'm tired of having sick kids because of this. All the handwashing and Purrell don't help much.

 

[disney junky]

I've only read the first few posts and felt the need to reply. Since when does the state (or government) own our children? I can understand if it's a constant problem with the kids where they have repeatedly missed out on school. But for a vacation that is not done all the time? Come on!

When my DH was 7, his parents took him for about a month out of school for a trip to Spain to visit family. He just got the work they would be doing so he can be up-to-date with the rest of the class. My DH was in public school and the school had no problem with it. Of course, that was back in the late 70's, where our schools weren't as secular as they are now.

Our DS4 just started pre-school in a private school. We have our Disney vacation scheduled for next month and they have no problem with it. Sure it's only pre-school, but I don't believe the school would have a problem with it even if he was in in higher grade.

No one is suggesting that the schools own your children. They are responsible, however, to provide an education for them. And as citizens, we are subject to the laws of the land.

If you are called for jury duty, you must report. It's the law of the land.

 

[brbenoit]

I grew up with parents who took me out of school for vacations and we have done the same with our daughter, she will be missing a total of 6 days in the next two weeks.

It seems that many of these rules, just like air travel, are in place because of a problem minority. Unfortunately that forces changed behavior.

I guess I am just ignorant of how shcools manage money, but I don't quite get how and abscent child affects the money that a school receives. I had never heard of this, I know my property taxes don't adjust based on attendence so they get the same amount of money.

One thing that I was thinking about is whether the rules apply the other way around. What about a teacher who gets pregnant and has to miss some of the school year. Is there a penalty to them?

 

[JzeroT1437]

There are laws in effect in many school districts that state that if a student misses so much school, the parents can and will be held accountable, and may be punished for neglect/other. I don't know too much about it, but I do remember that my friend ran into this problem while we were both in high school; he had missed several days (about 20 or so) and didn't have doctor's excuses for any of them, and the schoolboard was calling his mom, threatening to suspend him for the year and to call the authorities on his mother.

I'm all for Disney, and to be honest, I think you learn a lot more through experiences than through institutionalized education (which makes me wonder why I'm in college,) but you may want to check with your regional school codes and laws before you take your kids out of school for 8 days (mostly just to cover yourselves.) It's also useful to alert the school ahead of time; often, if teachers know that a student is going to be missing class, they'll go ahead and provide the assignments to the family ahead of time, and sometimes won't even count them absent. I would suggest alerting the school, and perhaps using a better excuse like a Family Reunion.

Hope that helped some.

 

[MassMom94]

I am a preschool administrator and in talking to the principles and superintendents in my district the problem isn't really that the schools are on a power trip and want to control your family, its that when you take you kids out of school they lose money.

Schools here don't have enough money as it is and having even 10% of the children out on vacation everyone week costs a lot. The schools have enough teachers and staff for the amount of children enrolled but when kids are out they don't get paid even though they are providing the services. I wish our law makers would change the way schools are paid and provide them with base funding that covers the amount of kids enrolled, not the amount of kids in attendence.

I notice you live in California and maybe that is the rule there, but I know that public schools in MA and MI (two states where I have lived) do NOT have their state aid based on daily attendance. It's actually based on one particular count day, IIRC in late September or early October. Federal aid is also independent of daily attendance records.

I think one of the earlier posters - a teacher - made a good point in that school curricula today is very different than it was when most of us were in elementary school, or at least when I was (back in the dark ages, er, the '60s.) There's a lot more group work and experiential learning, a lot less lecturing, drilling, worksheets, and workbooks. This is true of all subjects, but particularly with science - my kids have had units on butterflies, plants, and fish where if you miss a week, you miss a lot of the lessons and they can't be made up - i.e., you can't retroactively measure a growing plant or write your observations of how an aquarium is changing over a period of time.

In the scheme of life, it's not a big deal if a child misses one of these units, but it's not as simple as saying oh, they'll just make up the work.

 

[disney junky]

I grew up with parents who took me out of school for vacations and we have done the same with our daughter, she will be missing a total of 6 days in the next two weeks.

It seems that many of these rules, just like air travel, are in place because of a problem minority. Unfortunately that forces changed behavior.

I guess I am just ignorant of how shcools manage money, but I don't quite get how and abscent child affects the money that a school receives. I had never heard of this, I know my property taxes don't adjust based on attendence so they get the same amount of money.

One thing that I was thinking about is whether the rules apply the other way around. What about a teacher who gets pregnant and has to miss some of the school year. Is there a penalty to them?

If you lived in PA, your property taxes contribute a portion of school taxes. The remainder comes from the state. So if 1000 kids are present in school today, that gets reported to the state and we get $25 per kid that day. I'm just making up numbers for the sake of my example. If 100 kids are absent that day (whether they are on the rolls or not) the subsity for that day is reduced by $2500. Everything gets reported to the state, daily attendance, the number of unexcused or illegal absences, suspensions, everything. Auditors come into the schools every year to verify that the school is keeping accurate records. If the school fails to provide accurate information, it is fined by the state in a reduction of money. None of this has anything to do with vacations other than the fact that, yes, in some states, schools do lose money for the students who are absent on a particular day.

I have no objection to students being taken on short vacations, missions trips, college visits, funerals, weddings, over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go; I was simply trying to answer the OP's question about the legality of the situation. Someone suggested withdrawing a child from the school system for the duration of a vacation. That is perfectly legal. Seems a bit extreme though.

I would love to take vacations during the school year but I don't. I hate leaving my students in another's hands for that length of time because invariably I have twice as much work when I get back. I've heard WDW is a wonderful place to visit in the off season, and some day I'll see you all there with your kids that have been taken out of school for the occasion, and we'll smile and nod to each other, knowing that they are being educated just fine.

 

[ocd4disney]

I took my dd out of school for 4 days last year for a mother daughter trip. I had sent a note to the school ahead of time and had discussed it in person with her teacher. She was in the second grade at the time. Her teacher was wonderful about it. She told us how lucky we were and to have a great time. The school allowed us to go, but that the absences were going to be unexcused. The districts policy allows only 10 absences each semester. Her teacher didn't send very much work with us, but she did send a spelling list and a couple of workbooks. We were able to work in the books on the plane and I carried the spelling list to the parks to go over while we waited in line. My dd is a straight A student. However, when we returned home I still received a threatening letter about her absences.

This year we have moved and dd is in a different school and is now in 3rd grade so I elected not to take her out of school. In a way, I am really glad I am not taking her out....sort of. Last week she was home all week because of chicken pox, in spite of having had the immunization. I picked up her work to do at home so she went back today and is not behind. The reason I am telling this story is because I was shocked by how little homework she actually had!! I think if I were to go for a week to the World she would be just fine. Like I said, she is a straight A student. I am also involved in her education. I read to her and listen to her read to me. We go over math facts together and I like to listen to what she has done in school.

Anyway...that's my story and I'm sticking to it

I say go and have fun.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

My Senior year in HS I was almost not allowed to graduate with my class because of unexcused absenses that year (you could have 10 per semester I had 11). I was 3rd in my class graduating with over a 4.0 cumulative average (I only received one B and that was in drivers ed when I was a Freshman, I failed parallel parking). I was eventually allowed to walk with my class but, I was not allowed to be on the prom court. So to tell you the truth, I don't think I would recommend racking up too many unexcused absenses. This was 14 years ago and I'm still kind of bitter about it. Silly I know.