I don't understand why its such a big deal to take your children out of school..

[ThreeMusketeers]

For vacation. My daughter is only 3.5 so we don't yet have this problem. But I see that alot of people post it on the boards..Like it is a problem and the school gives them a hard time about it. Now I see not taking your children out during Finals, or another cruicial time of the year..But they are YOUR children..why is it up to the school to decide if they can or cannot go on vacation. Or give them Extra homework..b/c they are on vacation. I can see them making up what they missed..but not extra reports and such.
Am I wrong? Is this not what is happening? I am now dreading the day I will have to write our dd an excuse for missing a week of school b/c we are at Disney World having a good time! lol I remember my parents taking us out of school for a week or two to go to Disney WOrld when we were kids. The teachers just had us make up the homework. I guess this has changed.

What are your facts, thoughts and opinions??

 

[RoyalCanadian]

My mother was a teacher and never had a problem taking us out of school to begin our spring break early -- she never had a problem taking those extra days off work herself to begin her spring break early either!

My father's philosophy was priceless -- "it just lets the other kids in the class catch up."

I miss them both dearly -- but now because of their philosophies on life and finances we have a DVC membership and DD will have many years of Disney holidays courtesy of grandma (whom she loved dearly) and grandpa (whom she never met.)

 

[daisyduck123]

I'm a 1st grade teacher & I do not have any problem with it. In fact, I pull out DD11 & DS7 every year & they miss 5 or 6 days. School will always be there when we get back. Family time is so important & I don't want to spend our vacation waiting in long lines & struggling through huge crowds. That's why we go in the off season. Also....I look at it this way....they are not going to be excluded from the college of their choice because they went to Disney & missed some school. Mine are Honor Roll kids though & can "afford" to miss some instruction. I might think otherwise if I had a struggling student.

 

[mc'smommy]

Your right it does happen, I have friends in the Philly area and they have to get permission if they can take thier kids out of school.
they basically witre a letter and see if it gets approved !

I on the other hand book last minute and just let the school kow the day I am leaving. I don't take home work or anything.. To me there is no time. Maybe I am selfish but vacation is also a learning experience.

 

[momx2]

Well, here in KY if you miss 3 days unexcused (the only excuses are sick or death in the family) you are truant, well this year if you miss 6 you can get hauled into court and fined, etc. It is crazy! IMHO, its all about money because the schools lose money if a child is not there, never understood that. Also, this year if your child is late for school or leaves early (unexcused) then it is counted just like an absence. I'm so mad about this. The state is now telling me how to parent. I realize there needs to be rules, but this is ridiculous!

 

[NCombs]

Well, for me personally, I wouldn't take my kids out of school for vacation and I agree with the schools emphasizing attendance as being important. (Not that anyone who does take their kids out for a week doesn't think it is important.) Besides, it would be a struggle for my 7th grader to keep up while missing school.

But, this is my opinion for my family and everyone has to form their own about their families.

Whatever everyone decides is best, have a great time doing it.

 

[jodifla]

Well, here in KY if you miss 3 days unexcused (the only excuses are sick or death in the family) you are truant, well this year if you miss 6 you can get hauled into court and fined, etc. It is crazy! IMHO, its all about money because the schools lose money if a child is not there, never understood that. Also, this year if your child is late for school or leaves early (unexcused) then it is counted just like an absence. I'm so mad about this. The state is now telling me how to parent. I realize there needs to be rules, but this is ridiculous!

This is an outrage. I'd consider pulling my kids out of the public school system with rules like this.

 

[cheerbop]

Well, here in KY if you miss 3 days unexcused (the only excuses are sick or death in the family) you are truant, well this year if you miss 6 you can get hauled into court and fined, etc. It is crazy! IMHO, its all about money because the schools lose money if a child is not there, never understood that. Also, this year if your child is late for school or leaves early (unexcused) then it is counted just like an absence. I'm so mad about this. The state is now telling me how to parent. I realize there needs to be rules, but this is ridiculous!

I agree that this is ridiculous! We are also getting unexcused days for going on a vacation! My husband NEVER has vacation time when the DS is out of school! So, are they telling us that we can NEVER take a fanily vacation?!

What I think is totally ridiculous is that there are parents who FREQUENTLY lie about their child being sick. They miss SO many days it is emberassing, but they have an excuse, so it is ok...then there are families like mine where in the past 3 years the only day my DS has missed is for a funeral! And, now that we are going on a vacation he gets UNexcused days?! What?!?!

 

[cheerbop]

Well, for me personally, I wouldn't take my kids out of school for vacation and I agree with the schools emphasizing attendance as being important.

But, this is my opinion for my family and everyone has to form their own about their families.

I understand why some people feel as you do ...and I WOULD feel that way if my husband got ANY vacation time in the summer or over a school break, but he does not. His vacation times are during while school is in session, so either we have DS miss some school or we never take a vacation for all the years our children are in school...hmmm...
it is a difficult decision...we haven't been on a family vacation in 4 years and are finally going again in early Dec.

 

[NCombs]

I understand why some people feel as you do ...and I WOULD feel that way if my husband got ANY vacation time in the summer or over a school break, but he does not. His vacation times are during while school is in session, so either we have DS miss some school or we never take a vacation for all the years our children are in school...hmmm...
it is a difficult decision...we haven't been on a family vacation in 4 years and are finally going again in early Dec.

That would make it really hard. And I agree that is when you do need to make that time with your family. It's so hard to work around everyone's schedule. I can't take any vacation in July or August so June is vacation time for us. Luckily, we are able to do it during that time. At least for now.

My husband and I will also be there in early December. It's our first trip without the kids in over 10 years. I'm so looking forward to it.

Have a great time with your family. I hear it is a beautiful time to be there.

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

Well, here in KY if you miss 3 days unexcused (the only excuses are sick or death in the family) you are truant, well this year if you miss 6 you can get hauled into court and fined, etc. It is crazy! IMHO, its all about money because the schools lose money if a child is not there, never understood that. Also, this year if your child is late for school or leaves early (unexcused) then it is counted just like an absence. I'm so mad about this. The state is now telling me how to parent. I realize there needs to be rules, but this is ridiculous!

See..OMG< this is exactly what I was talking about! Thats crazy!!!! I too would consider pulling my child from that school. I guess that will ahve to be something we ask about when we are enrolling DD.

 

[jenimay]

What's everyone's maximum that they will take their kids out for? Last year, our kids missed 3 days for Hawaii, and 4 days this year for WDW. We time it so we take off when the school already has days off. I think my max. would be 5 days. I noticed some posts where people are taking their kids out for 2-3 weeks. I wouldn't be comfortable with taking them out that long. Not bashing though, Just curious really

Jeni

 

[kellyg403]

I think our max is probably 3 also...I try to shoot for 0 but not always successful. Unfortunately for us, we also have to factor competition gymnastics and cheerleading and other outside school activities. So we actually have gone 4 years without a vacation. Our last scheduled vacation in June was for the family...NC State Games happened and it turned into a girls only weekend for competition instead!

Kelly

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

It's all dumb--most often it is tied to the money the schools receive..if your children are not there, they do not get credit finanically for that day for your student.

However--it is your student! Ultimately--you are their parent and not the school district.

I understand the reasons for the rules. However, I think they lost sight of the "good" reasons to have the rules and are more concerned with the money they will not get when your student is not there.

 

[mommytobug]

Our dd attends private school so we do not have this problem but I know the public school here sent the chief of police's nephew a note about not attending one week (he had him on a vacation) THAT IS CRAZY!!!! Now I can see if you miss over and over and over...........................GEEZ!! I am thankful not to have to worry about it.

 

[Mommy Poppins]

We are actually pulling our kids out of school for 10 days in April/May. Our school district only allows 5 days absence for an educational experience (for which Disney obviously qualifies), so 5 days of our trip will be unexcused. We are going anyway. My husband is currently on an 18 month deployment and will return in spring, 2006. So we are taking a two week vacation with him, renewing our wedding vows and spending some really, really important quality family time together. I don't think we will get fined, but if we did, I would still take the vacation. My kids and I need this time to get reacquainted with Dh/daddy.

We have conferences mid-November and I will discuss the trip with my kids' teachers at that time. I am not at all worried about my 1st grader. My 4th grader will have some work to make up, but she too will be fine. They are both A students and making up their work and catching up will not be a problem.

 

[mjh8955]

We took our kids out of school last fall for 3 days and next week we will be heading down and they will miss 3 days. My approach seems to have worked pretty well. I go directly to the administrators and they help me with planning our trip around the school calendar, even before it's published. I met with our principals last spring and we picked a week where one day they were off anyway, and it was right after the first grading period ended. They wanted to make sure my son didn't miss the high school retreat and that my daughter didn't miss the school spelling bee (they scheduled it for after we return). Then, the first week of school I made it a point to talk personally with each of my 6th grade daughter's teachers explaining what we were doing and that the principal had helped us pick the dates. This year our son is in high school so I talked with all 6 of his teachers personally as well. Every single teacher was fine with the whole idea. Two weeks ago I sent ALL of the principals and each teacher a nice letter and attached a form for them to fill out with homework, and quizzes and tests that need to be taken in advance. I found that the brand new teachers don't plan more than one week in advance, but the more experienced teachers could give us their assignments well in advance. We don't leave until next Saturday and already my daughter has all her homework done and ready to hand in except for one subject, and she has to schedule her tests and quizzes. Our son is all finished with science and math, hopefully tomorrow he will get his Spanish, Bible, English and History assignments. He'll have a hard week of homework but fortunately doesn't have much in the way of homework normally. Our kids are A and A/B students. I make them get all their work done and handed in before we leave, that way they can relax and have fun. I would think long and hard about taking them out of school if they were struggling at all. I think the stress would be detrimental to them. The other day I got a call from our chief administrator telling me he hoped we all had a great time on our trip and thanked me profusely for my planning efforts. He said he wished all parents planned as well as I do. I think if you just make an effort to cooperate with your teachers and ask for their input, it puts a whole different spin on things.

 

[crisi]

Its a big deal because many people believe our schools are somehow failing us. Kids graduating who can't read or do simple math make headlines. And we pour more and more money into our schools and can't seem to change the results. So we try and find ways to change the results - one possibility is mandatory attendance laws. After all, when you look at "Johnny can't read" and discover Johnny had an absentee problem since kindergarten, you start to wonder. The link between absenteeism and school performance is pretty strong. But mandatory attendance laws can't be discrimnatorially applied - they need to be the same for everyone. i.e. a law that says "miss more than three days unexcused and we will report you" will stand up in court. One that says "miss more than three days if you have less than a B average" won't because of the 14th Amendment.

Of course, there are problems with this cause and effect - absenteeism being just one variable in why so many kids score so lowly on tests despite more money being put towards the system. One big problem is because education is a social service, its costs for the same level of quality will always outpace inflation (Economists call this the "cost disease of the service sector"). Another is the additional variables - increases in English as a second language students in many districts, mainstreaming handicapped kids (great for the disabled kids, but really expensive for the district), etc. But most people aren't interested in the depth of the problems facing education today, they just want a simple solution to why they believe we have so many "failing schools." So its a big deal because we've demanded our schools and our elected representatives do something about what some people believe to be a crisis in education.

 

[Banshee]

I understand why some people feel as you do ...and I WOULD feel that way if my husband got ANY vacation time in the summer or over a school break, but he does not.

I am in the same position. The only time we have for vacations is in the fall and winter. Our time as a family is very very very important to us. My kids have a grandpa and a uncle with cancer and a cousin with a serious heart problem and a mom that almost died 3 years ago from a very bad head injury and a grandma that overcame the odds and survived a gun shot wound!!. We have all come to learn that life is waaaaaaay toooooo short and you never ever know what is going to happen!!! So we are gonna LIVE IT!! and enjoy every step of the way!!! And if school doesnt like it.....then tough!! My oldest DS works his butt off in school and he very rarely misses any days unless he is really sick, our summer break got cut down so he deserves a little away time. So far we havent had any major problems with school or teachers except his 2nd grade teacher who refused to give him the work he would miss and would not let him make it up at all

 

[ChrisLei]

My daughter is in 1st grade. She will be missing 5 days of school for our trip. Lucky thing that it falls around Thanksgiving week. So she will miss 2 days the week prior and the 3 days before Thanksgiving. I spoke to her teacher the first week of school and again last week andshe said that it was just fine. What she does is that she makes a cute book for them with a pretty Mickey cover and inside are sheets of paper with questions she needs to answer throughout her trip. The questions pertain to the trip (for example: How did you get to FLorida? Who went on vacation with you? since she knows she is going to Disney, how many times did you see Mickey mouse? How many times did you see the princesses? Did you see Mickey or Minnie more?) Each sheet she needs to draw a picture of her favorite thing. She will take it in the first day back and have a show and tell, and then she gets it back as a memento.