School and Unexcused Absence!

[ktlm]

Depends on your school and their policy. DD is in third grade and we have taken her out a few days every year for WDW. The absences are marked as unexcused, but that means nothing. DD still gets to make up all work and get her full grade on it (actually 3rd grade was the first year they even made her make up all the work- a prior teacher gave her an alternate assignment to write a journal entry about each day of her trip). Technically if you have more than a certain amount of unexcused absences they can report you to a truant officer in our district, but unless these are "problem" type absences such as a negligent parent just not bringing their kid to school regularly and their kid flunking as a result, as opposed to a child who is on a family vacation or who is sick, but had no doctor's note, they don't report anything. I would just be sure you know your school's policy. Frankly for a kindergartner who is doing okay in school, I wouldn't even hesitate to pull them- even if they can't make up "unexcused" work in your district- I'm pretty sure a kindergarten grade isn't going to affect what college they go to, and I'm pretty sure if your child has done well all year they are not going to hold them back because they have a couple of unexcused absences which affected a grade. But, I will say that at least around here, the last 2 weeks of school are filled with lots of fun activities that DD would not want to miss. They have a school fun day, parties and often a field trip in that time period. But, since you have already booked it, I wouldn't think twice about that. Plus, since your child is just in kindergarten, they don't know what they are missing those last couple of weeks.

 

[dbramer]

We booked a short trip for Star Wars weekends. My kindergartner would miss the first two days in June. (We thought this would be good because there are only two weeks of school left and he wouldn't miss much.) However, since the two days fall in last two weeks of school, it's school board policy is to deny the absence.

My questions is, has anyone gone to Disney and their children's absence was unexcused?? What happens? Is anything held against them? Is it a big deal??

We thought about trying to reschedule during the Star Wars weekends time frame, however, my husband and I have work commitments that do not allow us to reschedule.

Thanks in advance!!

My school's policy is no make up work for an unexcused absence...

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

Go, enjoy yourself. Our school deosn't even assign grades until 3rd, so getting a zero is nothing to be worried about (here). We always miss school for our trips and I stopped telling school in advance. We're going regardless.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

How much can he possibly miss? Sing the ABC ' S in Spanish on the way down, count to 50, talk about the shapes and colors of things around you, read a fee easy bedtime books and sound out some of the words.

 

[jhoannam]

Our school doesn't care if it's excused or unexcused and absence is an absence. My kid has missed 12 days of school, only 1.5 of those were for our Disney vacation. I got a letter from the school saying if they miss more than 15 days the school would have to take legal action, whatever that means. If they want to punish us for keeping my kid home for being sick then I will start sending her to school sick so she can share those germs. She's a good student, has all As even though she's missed "so much" school. I plan to take her out 5 days next year to go to Disney. I don't care what the school says anymore.

 

[ajwolfe]

I'm curious about those who talk about getting 0s (or the highest grade being allowed on makeup work is 70)...is that really an issue in elementary school? My oldest is only in 2nd grade and she doesn't get actual letter grades yet, and no scores on homework. I'm just curious when that typically starts.

Our school starts issuing letter grades and scores in 1st grade. In our area that is how most schools handle it.

 

[richmo]

I'm all for leaving kids in school, but its kindergarten! You shouldn't even be worried about grades.

Now once he/she gets older and the work is a lot more complicated, that might be a different story...but not now.

 

[DaniMoon]

So far our school has never had a problem with me taking my kids out. I've taken them out for Disney anywhere from 5-8 days. A lot of the time, they don't even give them work to make up. I do remember one year, a third grade teacher asked my son to journal every day, that was the extent of his makeup work. A lot has to do with the teacher and the kids. So far my kids have always been ahead of grade-level, I'm not sure how much harder it would be if they had a harder time with school.

Our school no longer does grades, you either know the curriculum or you don't. So not sure if zeros would even have an effect at the end of the marking period. I know people hate common core, but I don't miss letter grades in elementary school.

 

[cariann77]

I wouldn't mention it any further and would call in sick days. They can't be unexcused if your child is sick.

I'm pulling my kids out for 4 days. I intentionally planned our trip over a short week. I haven't told the school yet, but I am not anticipating any issues. My 16-year old nephew lives with us. I am most worried about him missing and making up the days for high school.

 

[Ruthy_B]

Wow! I had no idea about excused/unexcused absences at school boards. DH stresses the importance of school, but I let my Junior Kindergartner stay home every once in a while for downtime. We're booked for vacation in November and although we have scheduled breaks in the school year, it's quite common for families to miss additional time at school in the winter months. One of my daughter's classmates traveled to a different country for a month. A couple days to go to Disney? I wouldn't sweat it Make sure to bring back something nice for the teacher though!

 

[HCinKC]

I hadn't thought about this either. My kindergartener will also be missing a few days at the end of the year. I just looked up our district's policy. They are considered unexcused UNLESS you fill out a pre-approval form from your specific school and the administrator approves it. I guess I will be doing this! Even if they don't approve it (which I doubt since he has excellent attendance), at least I will have followed protocol. I am not concerned about him missing because his teacher will be out for maternity leave anyway. I foresee his last weeks of school being rather uneventful because of that.

 

[pinkprincess30]

where I teach its unexcused and all grades go in as a zero and no make up work is allowed

Wow. That policy seems a bit harsh.

 

[philschrek]

Our kids go to private school and grading starts at 3rd grade. Luckily for us they encourage vacations and work is given ahead of time to be completed for full credit. I've never heard anything about excused vs. unexcused absences for us.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I wouldn't worry about missing 2 days of kindergarten. Our school doesn't give actual letter grades until 3rd grade. Of course our school counts excused absence as any absence that the parent calls in or sends a note. They just ask if the child is sick or just excused. The only unexcused absence is if the parent doesn't excuse it.

I still take my boys out for vacation and they are in 7th and 9th grades. They missed 5 days this year for vacation. They had no problem making up the work. It's very common in our district for kids to take time off for vacations.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

You should read your district's handbook and call if you have questions. I doubt any of us know the rules of your district.

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

In our area at the elementary level, the teachers might be a little annoyed and they aren't required to give make-up work if the absence isn't excused (however, most do.) It only becomes a problem in middle and high school because then you get truancies.

 

[Crystal824]

here I teach its unexcused and all grades go in as a zero and no make up work is allowed

That is really harsh. My DD starts kindergarten next year. DH is already asking about the policy for days off. We would like to go to WDW next October.

To the OP, I wouldn't worry too much about it in kindergarten.

 

[aaarcher86]

I really don't care what the school says. Our teachers have been accommodating so far, but I've never really asked the school. I just tell them we will be gone.

I wouldn't mention it any further and would call in sick days. They can't be unexcused if your child is sick.

I'm pulling my kids out for 4 days. I intentionally planned our trip over a short week. I haven't told the school yet, but I am not anticipating any issues. My 16-year old nephew lives with us. I am most worried about him missing and making up the days for high school.

Yes they can. Our district won't count a sick day as excused without a doctor note within 48 hours.

 

[MystikaFaith]

Goodness! A child learns far more on vacation than they do locked in the confines of the classroom.... Disney is absolutely loaded with learning opportunities. Sigh... Our education systems are bizarre.... "You may see the world from behind the iPad screen, but NO! You mustn't experience it!!!"

I wouldn't care what the school's policy is. I didn't. When we went to Disney World last, I merely informed the school that my kids would be absent for a few weeks as we were going on vacation and that was that. They weren't given any make up work and even if they were I wouldn't have made them do it. They're kids (Kindergarten and grade 3 at the time). The school never fussed and it didn't reflect poorly on their report cards in any way. This is in Canada btw, we tend to function very differently than the US.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Schools get paid based on the average number of kids per day, that's why they are harsh on absences. Has nothing to do with how much the kid is learning.

We are going to homeschool so that we won't have to deal with nonsense like this.