Gambling with snow days - booking day after school ends?

[scrapquitler]

Hi -

For those of you who live in colder climates - have you ever booked a trip immediately after school ends? Did you luck out and not have any snow days?

We are only two years into our school years - 1st year = 0 snow days, 2nd year = 1 snow day. Not a lot of history to go off of.

Trying to determine our 2019 dates and would like some experience/words of wisdom.

**I should add - because of our work schedules, we need to go as early in June as possible. If not June our only other choices are mid-August (HOT) or taking our child out of school.

Thank you!

For kids in the early elementary years, yes, I'd likely do it, if I were okay with my child possibly missing out on some of the end of year activities at school. We did it when my daughter was in 4th grade, and she missed out on Field Day, which is a big deal here.

For older kids, I would not, because if days get added on to the end, those are the days when final exams are held, as well as those end of year activites, which are an even bigger deal for the older kids, esp. if they are receiving awards.

In our area, snow days typically add 4-10 days onto the end of the year. This year, we had 8 snow days to make up.

 

[pezaddict231]

I wouldn't risk it, this winter we used up all our snow days and they added days at the end of the year. I would be so stressed and it's not like you can control the weather. We also had a number of snow days where it was expected to snow a lot and then it just didn't, that would make me crazy. I also wouldn't want my DD to miss the end of the year activities. I wouldn't want to shorten my trip either, so I would book for a time you know you can go.

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

I might book the package or hotel (things that are changeable without penalty), but not the airfare. Once you get to March, you'll know how many snow days you've had and if there is a chance of make up days getting added on.

 

[rlk]

So missing a day or two in third grade would effect their ability to get into a middle school or high school? Where do you live?? Never heard of such a thing.

No, missing a few days in the lower elementary grades isn't a problem. The number of unexcused absences becomes more of an issue starting in 4th grade. Actually 4th and 7th grade are the two years that are the main focus. Those are the years were, not just their grades, but also attendance, number of latenesses and performance on state tests are used to determine where the student will go to middle school (4th grade) and high school (7th grade). Bot for middle and high schools, students have to submit a form with their list of schools in order of preference. It's a stressful process for all involved and will always result in lots of students being very upset when they find out they didn't get into their first choice school. For the high school process, it is possible for a student to not get matched to any of their choices and then have to apply for the second round of school choices. This is the New York City Public School system.

 

[Spencer Wright]

... we need to go as early in June as possible. If not June our only other choices are mid-August (HOT) or taking our child out of school....

I know nothing about children, but I have mostly gone in early June and mid-August. If you are writing off mid-August due to weather, I will tell that mid-August is slightly hotter, but not much better than early June. From my experience the humidity/heat factor is a not much more.

Just my two cents!

 

[NYCgrrl]

No, missing a few days in the lower elementary grades isn't a problem. The number of unexcused absences becomes more of an issue starting in 4th grade. Actually 4th and 7th grade are the two years that are the main focus. Those are the years were, not just their grades, but also attendance, number of latenesses and performance on state tests are used to determine where the student will go to middle school (4th grade) and high school (7th grade). Bot for middle and high schools, students have to submit a form with their list of schools in order of preference. It's a stressful process for all involved and will always result in lots of students being very upset when they find out they didn't get into their first choice school. For the high school process, it is possible for a student to not get matched to any of their choices and then have to apply for the second round of school choices. This is the New York City Public School system.

DGD is not a student of the NYC public school system but at least one of my children was and back then they took school attendance seriously. Nice to see that's still happening.

 

[pjacobi]

Massachusetts catholic schools are exempt from adding additional snow days to the end of the school year resulting in a fixed end-of-school date. I believe this was by state law.

-Paul

 

[QueenIsabella]

Massachusetts catholic schools are exempt from adding additional snow days to the end of the school year resulting in a fixed end-of-school date. I believe this was by state law.

-Paul

This was true at my Catholic HS in CT, as well. But, it's been ages, so who knows what they do now.

Right now, I have DS21 in his summer class--regular spring semester of college ended a few weeks ago. School officially ends 6/8, but DD15 was done last Friday. However, some of her friends have exams this week. DS12 is miffed that we're making him go all this week--even a teacher told him he could skip, and he's mad that I'm actually forcing him to go. But, he did have Field Day yesterday--had a water balloon fight and won the school trivia contest, so I'm not sorry he's there.

Meanwhile, we have DD22, who's a teacher in the Boston area. Her last day of classes is 6/21, and last day she has to be there is 6/22. This is significant because she's going on a family trip to Europe with us. We Southerners are leaving 6/21 to fly to London, and she's joining us the next day. Boston got hit with a TON of snow this winter, so we didn't book her flights until the last minute. And we have travel insurance so that, if she had to cancel due to work, we'd be covered. Our tour doesn't actually start until 6/23, so it's all good--I just wanted to fly out a day early to counteract the jet lag, which she no longer can, but she's young and healthy and she'll probably still run rings around her aging, decrepit parents.

The good news for the OP is that her kids are young, so missing a day or two is probably harmless (with the exception of the PP with the school selection issues). But, as the kids get older, it does get trickier. In the case of my DD15, she only found on last Friday that she didn't have to take the Orchestra final. Regular sports seasons typically wrap up prior to year's-end, but if you have a high-level athlete, state and national contests can stretch out beyond graduation. (I don't have this specific problem, but I do have a dance performance this coming weekend--after school's out.)

 

[DisneyOma]

As a teacher, I say just book it. The last week of school is hold onto your britches time. As hard as we may try, not a whole lot of meaningful, lifelong learning goes on then.
Your child will forgive you for missing field trips and activities as long as it is because you are going to Disney.

Exactly. Who cares, it's the last day or two of school. It's meaningless.

Elementary school, yeah. High School? You'd be missing exams. And then flunking classes.

Massachusetts catholic schools are exempt from adding additional snow days to the end of the school year resulting in a fixed end-of-school date. I believe this was by state law.

-Paul

Well, yeah, who cares, it's Catholic education, right?

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

I wouldn't have any hesitation going right after school gets out. If my kids had to miss a couple of days in elementary, it wouldn't be a big deal because the last week is spent mostly helping the teacher clean and pack her classroom. I also wouldn't hesitate to go in mid-august though. We did last year, and yes it was hot, but we still had a blast. The discounts that time of year are what determined when we would go.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Elementary school, yeah. High School? You'd be missing exams. And then flunking classes.



Well, yeah, who cares, it's Catholic education, right?

That's pretty rude. When I was growing up, many non-Catholics sent their kids to the Catholic HS, because they could get a better education than the public school, for way cheaper than a typical private HS. You might want to try educating yourself, your ignorance is showing.

 

[Bamaclan4]

Elementary school, yeah. High School? You'd be missing exams. And then flunking classes.



Well, yeah, who cares, it's Catholic education, right?

That comment is unbelieably rude. I'm Baptist and a public school teacher and I'm offended. I can only imagine how the poster as well as others feel. You really should consider other's feelings when posting. People come here for advice and to converse with others, not to be insulted.

 

[Nancyg56]

Where I am they cut spring break short if they need more then the 2/3 days built in. They don’t extend the year.

This year two days were taken away from spring break, lots of kids missed because of planned vacations.

Our town does this as well, however there have been years that have had days added to the end to the year as well. I guess it all depends on how the kids will react to missing the last days is there are more added on if you choose to chance it.

Well, yeah, who cares, it's Catholic education, right?

Is this kind of comment really necessary?

 

[Ben E N]

Is this kind of comment really necessary?

Obviously, no. The LA teacher on my team is a former Catholic high school teacher, teaching 6th grade now. Better than any LA teacher I had when I was growing up in public schools. After helping her students with homework, I now know what a verb is!

The only way I could think that this statement was being made respectfully is perhaps it meant "who cares to count school days at those schools, because they do not depend on state funding that demands a certain number of school days be attended", but I may be giving too much credit there.

 

[Nancyg56]

Obviously, no. The LA teacher on my team is a former Catholic high school teacher, teaching 6th grade now. Better than any LA teacher I had when I was growing up in public schools. After helping her students with homework, I now know what a verb is!

The only way I could think that this statement was being made respectfully is perhaps it meant "who cares to count school days at those schools, because they do not depend on state funding that demands a certain number of school days be attended", but I may be giving too much credit there.

I think you are kinder than I.

 

[Ben E N]

I think you are kinder than I.

Just trying to keep things positive as much as possible!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I almost got burned with this for DS's graduation party. We have two snow days built into the schedule but used 4. In the past they've used spring break days as makeup if they went over 2 days but not this year. They took one half day and extended the year by one day. And then we had a snowstorm in March and we ALMOST had to extend the year one more day which would have made his graduation for the actual day of his party. I was pooping bricks during that snowstorm but thankfully we had a delayed opening. If not I would've been royally screwed since deposits were made and everything was booked for a 7 pm party and graduation starts at 6:30.

If it were for a vacation I wouldn't even think twice and book accordingly. In our district if you have a vacation booked and they change the calendar the days are excused if you show your travel documentation. This happened once when we went over our snow days and they took away a 4 day President's Day Weekend.

 

[NJlauren]

Our town does this as well, however there have been years that have had days added to the end to the year as well. I guess it all depends on how the kids will react to missing the last days is there are more added on if you choose to chance it.

Agreed, but they would need to have 7/8 snow days to add on at the end of the year. It’s possible for sure but unlikely.

 

[Nancyg56]

Agreed, but they would need to have 7/8 snow days to add on at the end of the year. It’s possible for sure but unlikely.

I think it happened last year. Or it was the year before. It felt like my DGD went to school until the end of June!!! LOL!

 

[DisneyOma]

Oh crap - I forgot to put the winkie smilie after my catholic school post, sorry! Was meant as a joke, mainly because the catholic schools around here suck, and the kids that come from them into public education have very poor skills and usually need at least one repeat year to catch up to state standards. So in this area, it doesn't matter how many days they have, they still don't give the kids a good education. Should have put that explanation in as well. Sorry!