The school denied our vacation request

[gonga]

I am quite honestly shocked at the reactions of the posters on this thread. Our school district is very strict on absences. It is my child that will suffer if they are out of school. Even if the teacher wanted to, no homework can be made up . . .period. They will not make you up packets, you cannot write a paper. If you miss a test, a quiz, its a zero for your child. If they miss an explanation of a concept, you can't just stay after and learn it. You as the parent must teach it, or find a tutor that can. All that said, I don't disagree with them.

School is my childs only job. They provide them with 3 major and 4 mini (long weekends) per school year. They receive 9 weeks off every summer. This is when vacations should be taken. I have a job. There is a boss, who can say "yes" or "no" to my vacation. The principal is your childs boss at school. In my personal opinion, taking a child out of school for a disney trip teaches them that rules are made to be broken, that they do not have to live up to there part in their education(the part that states they will try to be there all 180 days), that other people should go out of their way to accomodate you (by preparing homework and catching them up on concepts). I guess this is not a popular opinion, but I truly believe it.

You got one point right...not a popular opinion! My DH and Inow have our own business, but when we were employed neither one of us "asked" for vacation time. We chose our time and we told the boss when we will be out. We even took vacation time that we did not even have...and guess what, not only did we still have our jobs, but we got paid for it too. You may have a boss, but the boss does not rule your life. I would never let anyone ...a boss, employee, principal tell me when or where I or my family can take time off. You are an employers dream...sometimes you have to think outside the box and not allow anyone to write the outline of your life. Life is too short you can't take life all that seriously. I look at it this way, there are people that follow the "rules" and people that make them....I like to make them, well for me anyway.

I think the Principal needs a souviner...maybe a golden mickey hat

 

[SleepyatDVC]

From preschool, we've been trained to keep our DD home from school if she is sick so as to not get the other kids sick.

When DD6 started kindergarten, not only did we take her out of school an extra week after spring break (informed the teacher), she missed a lot of school due to illness. I seemed she picked out every germ going around. I would always let the teacher know when she went back that I kept her home because she was sick or had a fever, etc. She ALWAYS said "oh yes, thank you for doing that."

A lot of working parents have no choice but to send their kids to school sick sometimes. There are a lot of germs going around. There was 2 weeks in February where 3/4 of the kids in her class was home sick for at least a week! The teacher does prefer us to keep sick kids home because the kids love to share their germs with her too!

The funny thing is that we live in the inner city of NYC where the schools definitely need funding.
I'm glad that the teacher did not give us a hard time for vacation and sick days. I know this will all change as DD gets into the older grades because of the school load. But hopefully by then the kids' immune system will be toughened and they don't get sick as much too.

 

[dudedisney]

Your principal cannot 'okay' a vacation because he would be in hot water if he did. He'd have to approve everything that came in. WDW is NOT educational so why try to justify that it is?

Having said that, I take my child out of school whenever and as often as I think it is necessary. I have gotten a letter from the Board of Education (it was actually a mistake in the office but still...) before and they world didn't end. If they make an issue out of it, you always have the option of home-schooling your child and then they can't say a darn thing and believe in the last two years, we have had three 'neighborhood' homeschools start up and enrollment is getting larger all the time.

Do what you think best for your FAMILY.

 

[dzneprincess]

Just put of curiosity (and maybe for further use LOL) is it that easy to just decide on the spot to start homeschooling your kids? Is there some type a process that must be done that takes time or can you wake up one morning, and decide no more public school for us from this moment on we are homeschooling?

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Regardless of the absentee policy, I would never tell the school anything. Just call them in without explanation. In my district, you have to provide an explanation after 5 days. Just go.

jeannej

I see you are from So FL... what district is that? I thought every district required a reason. When you called in without one here, it was always unexcused. For it to be (and I will quote from her sheet) an excused absence it must be.....

"death in family, illness or doctor's appointment verified by a doctor note, court appearances verified by court document. All other are considered unexcused. A phone call on the day of absence and a follow up note explaining the absence upon the students return. Failure to bring a note will result in an unexcused absence."

In previous years if the student was out sick for more than 3 days in a row, they needed the dr's note for it to be excused (always needed a note from the parent for under 3 days). This year they are asking for doctor note on just one! Honestly...how many of us bring or call the doctor the first day our child is sick??? Maybe as an infant, but not as a teen.

 

[cancilla]

A few thoughts that this thread has brought to mind:

1) When I was in public-school third grade, my family and I took a three-week cruise. I brought homework with me, and kept up with the class while I was away. It sounds like these days that would be much harder to get permission to do.

2) My wife homeschools our son, and we treat education as something that constantly happens, not something that occurs only during certain hours of certain days. When we go to WDW next year, we will continue homeschooling all through the trip. There really are plenty of opportunities to do this at the parks.

3) Regarding homeschooling -- before you consider it, make sure that you research the laws in your state. They vary like crazy. I believe that there are some states where you can essentially just sign a form and homeschool, and others where you can't homeschool at all unless you can give a religion-based reason for doing so. Also, even if your state has reasonable homeschooling laws, there can be situations where someone in office is anti-homeschooling and makes it VERY difficult for you to take advantage of those laws (this is precisely what happened in California some years ago).

Just my two cents.

--Dominick

 

[A Mickeyfan]

You got one point right...not a popular opinion! My DH and Inow have our own business, but when we were employed neither one of us "asked" for vacation time. We chose our time and we told the boss when we will be out. We even took vacation time that we did not even have...and guess what, not only did we still have our jobs, but we got paid for it too. You may have a boss, but the boss does not rule your life. I would never let anyone ...a boss, employee, principal tell me when or where I or my family can take time off. You are an employers dream...sometimes you have to think outside the box and not allow anyone to write the outline of your life. Life is too short you can't take life all that seriously. I look at it this way, there are people that follow the "rules" and people that make them....I like to make them, well for me anyway.

I think the Principal needs a souviner...maybe a golden mickey hat

Now that you have your own business can I come work for you & take time that I didn't have coming to me & still get paid by you?
One may have a boss & the boss doesn't rule ones life but does rule the company. Taking vacaton time that you don't have & getting paid for it...that is actually stealing... you didn't earn that money. I am not starting an argument here, but think of what you have just posted??? One can think outside the box but taking money for time not due you can get you put in a box with metal bars on.....

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Now that you have your own business can I come work for you & take time that I didn't have coming to me & still get paid by you?
One may have a boss & the boss doesn't rule ones life but does rule the company. Taking vacaton time that you don't have & getting paid for it...that is actually stealing... you didn't earn that money. I am not starting an argument here, but think of what you have just posted??? One can think outside the box but taking money for time not due you can get you put in a box with metal bars on.....

Sorry that part was off topic... however I do agree the principle needs a nice souvie... the Golden Mickey Ears should do

 

[CarolynNC]

My son is 11 years old. He will be in grade 6 this year. We will be missing 5-1/2 days. Our plane leaves on a Friday afternoon at 2:30, so we'll take him out of school at 11:30am take him to the airport (school starts at 7:30am). We had planned to go on a Sat, but the Fri trip was MUCH cheaper.
Last year you didn't need permission.
This year is different. You have to have approval for being out of school more than 3 straight days.
My husband's friend is on the school board. The first meeting isn't until the 2nd Tuesday of Sept. We are leaving on the 30th of Sept.

I think you need to get the principal's response in writing, research the consequences, figure out the worst case scenario, take into account the impact on your son and family, then make your decision based on all the factors. We can all say what we'd do in your situation but we aren't going to stand next to you when you face the music.

My son's high school has a similar policy regarding absences. After a certain number it's an automatic fail regardless of excused or unexcused. This policy went into effect when he entered high school. That's when we had to stop taking our off season trips. I was always afraid if I used days up he might get sick later in the semester. Prior to high school my son missed school every year for our annual trip. As important as I think school and getting an education is I hardly think missing 5 and 1/2 days of 6th grade is that important in the grand scheme of things even if he isn't allowed to make up his work. Like an earlier poster mentioned, it will hardly keep him out of Harvard.

 

[Baloo]

This subject has been throughly covered and then some.