Would you pull your kids out of school for a Disney vacation?

[penguinande]

To the OP, I notice that you are from CA--we are too. I have pulled my kids out of school for trips to WDW. In our school district, you can do "independent study" for the days that you miss. If you do this, then the school still gets the money from the district for your child being "present at school". The teachers were much happier when I did this as the school was not out any of their funding. The work wasn't much at all and was easily done on the plane ride both to and from Florida. Hope this helps!

That helps a lot. Thank you!

 

[Allison]

I haven't and wouldn't.

 

[btk2333]

Thanks for all the input! I have never had a child in school so didn't know what to expect. We rarely took vacations when I was a kid (for financial reasons) so had no real reference point from that perspective either. I can definitely understand why some parents and teachers might think it's not okay, but I think I am with the majority on this one. Dd has excelled socially and academically in preschool and I have no reason to expect she might do otherwise in kindergarten and beyond. If things are going well, I think I will just talk to her teacher in advance to make sure it is okay.

Kids will only be kids once and once they've grown up you can never get that time back!

 

[SensesFailed]

I felt weird a bit after reading some of the responses and seeing people say I would stop after they got into middle school and here I am taking my son out of middle school lol

 

[MamaCoog]

I'm a teacher and my kids go to school with me. I am taking them out for a trip in two weeks. I knew that they would not have any major testing on the week that we planned and they are both high performing students so I am not terribly worried about them missing three days. My principal did give me a little bit of a hard time about taking the kids out because she says Disney is not educational IMO, unless they are missing major testing (EOY, state standardized, benchmarks) then the kids will be fine missing a few days.

 

[DCbride]

It basically depends on your school rules. But, I have nonproblem taking a kid out of school for a week up until around grade 6/7, basically middle school. Dd7 has 2 trips to Disney where we take a day or two over a holiday. But, she also has 2 week long cruises planned with her grandparents each year. We try to plan them on the weeks of half days due to parent/teacher conferences.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Yes, in elementary school. After that we didn't but no judgement here. My sil pulls my niece out and as she says, her kid her decision...so to each his/her own..

 

[GotLabradors]

I'm a teacher and my kids go to school with me. I am taking them out for a trip in two weeks. I knew that they would not have any major testing on the week that we planned and they are both high performing students so I am not terribly worried about them missing three days. My principal did give me a little bit of a hard time about taking the kids out because she says Disney is not educational IMO, unless they are missing major testing (EOY, state standardized, benchmarks) then the kids will be fine missing a few days.

Same here. I am taking myself and my 3 kids out of school in September.

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

We have done it several times. Our kids are outon MLK day and the two days after that...so they can miss only 2 days and get a full week in Disney. I just let the teachers know in advance amke keep all other absences at a minimum throughout the year. Also, our district allows up to 3 days for educational absences so the days are not counted as absent....maybe y9=our school has that as well???

 

[houstonmomof3]

I would advise to wait and see how your child does missing school. Here's why, my older son is in 6th grade and my daughter is in 3rd. My son has missed school before for orthodontist visits, religious holidays, etc. and it never affected him. This year, my daughter (who is only in third grade), missed one day of school due to illness and it took her forever to catch up plus she did poorly on some assignments because she missed out on in class instructions (and she normally gets all As). My point is all kids are different. I learned this year, that my daughter doesn't do well when she misses class time, but my son can catch up quickly. You have to see how your child is.

I will say this, I've always gone during spring break or Thanksgiving (we get a whole week off). Yes, it can be crowded, but if you do proper touring plans and get to the parks early, its really not a big deal.

 

[tink9702]

I pulled my Kindergartner out of school this past November. Our district will NOT give work ahead of time though so we had a busy week when we came back making up the work. I'd do it again in a heartbeat though! I would be more hesitant and consult my child once they hit middle school but up until then I would do it yearly if we could afford to go to Disney once a year! LOL

 

[btk2333]

I pulled my Kindergartner out of school this past November. Our district will NOT give work ahead of time though so we had a busy week when we came back making up the work.

Is that district policy? That seems strange- why wouldn't they want kids to be prepared for when they come back?

 

[hcox31]

Is that district policy? That seems strange- why wouldn't they want kids to be prepared for when they come back?

I can't speak for other teachers, but the lessons I teach (I teach grade 3) often require a lot of pre teaching and interaction between teacher and students. You can't just hand out worksheets and say "do it". There are often concepts behind work assigned that need to be pretaught.

Not only that, but as a teacher you plan a lesson and then a million and one things derail your plans-kids need extra time to get a concept, school assemblies, constant interruptions, etc. on a good day you get through 75% of what you had planned. It's the nature of teaching. You can't plan detailed lessons more than a couple of days in advance. So for a parent to ask for the work we will do his time next week, I can't accurately say WHAT that will be. Does that make sense?

A week out of school is nothing to be worried about ( unless in Highschool). I ask my parents to get a journal and have their child do a scrapbook or journal of their travels so they can do a report for the class when they get back. And to READ a book or two and enjoy the experiences of travelling,

 

[ForeverAlice]

Yes we took DS (8)out and will again in late spring. His teacher had him do all make up work when he returned,which was a lot for him but he said it was worth it!! Hopefully his teacher this year will let him have the work before we leave.

 

[mm1971]

This (or similar) had probably been asked before, but I'm curious - do you think it is appropriate to take your kids out of school in order to travel to WDW at off-peak times?
I'm in the very early stages of planning my kids' first trip to WDW. My dd is currently 4, almost 5, and ds is 2. However, we probably will not be going for another 1-2 years, so dd will be in school by then. Looking at the crowd calendars for the times we would be able to go makes me cringe. I doubt dh would have any objections to pulling her out of school, but I don't know how I would feel about it.
Has anyone done this, or an I totally horrible for even thinking about it? If you have done it, what did your child's teacher say?

I didn't read through the whole thread, but here is my opinion based on my experience.

First, please check with the school district to determine the rules. I know most do not restrict time out of school per say, but some have very specific rules about unexcused absences and can take it pretty seriously. As long as there are no hard line rules, I say it's a great idea. For us, we had no problem at all pulling our kids out until they reached middle school. Now we go in August as we feel they would miss too much by being out. We started pulling them when DD (now in grade 6) was in kindergarten. We went every year in October or December until DS hit 7th grade. Then we made the change. It was never a problem and any work missed was made up within a few days of our return.

I would recommend against it in the following conditions:

1) If your child(ren) have difficulty with school and learning. If that is the case, missing the time may impact negatively.

2) If your children do not deal with change well or will struggle with returning to school and being focused.

3) If the school expressly forbids it.

You know you children and family dynamic better than anyone else. If you think your children will handle it OK, then I say go ahead and have fun when the parks are less busy. They are only young once, may as well enjoy it as much as you can. Good luck deciding.

 

[pigletgirl]

No we won't be taking our child(ren) out of school for a trip to Disney. In our family, education trumps Disney and therefore we will not be taking them out for an extended period of time. Of course that means we'll have to go during peak season so we won't be going every year.

This is something my husband and I have discussed and we will not budge on it.

 

[DopeyDame]

I'm taking them out in two weeks. Oldest is just in K. School knows. They said "OK, have fun!" One of the many reasons we love his school.

Travel (around the world, not just to WDW) is very important to our family, and some of that is best done during the school year. If we ever find ourselves in a situation where the school can't support that, than we'll be looking for a different school. (And yes, I fully realize we are incredibly blessed to have the means to make that decision)

 

[DISNEYD14]

We have done it now twice in October for 5-6 days at a time.

We lucked out in 2012 as our school shut down 3 days due to severe flooding from hurricane....this year we did it and it was tough for my one child to make up the work so we may not be doing it many more times especially since she is a few years from middle school. At that point it may be tough due to school work load.

 

[navyblue8]

Yes. It's cheaper to go when school is in session so that's when we go. My kids are young and do well in school so I am not worried at all about them catching up. I just make sure we don't go when there is testing. As they get older I might reconsider but for now it's fine.

 

[Manda]

I did when my son was in elementary and it was never a problem (for Disney and other vacations). He was out for two weeks in 5th grade for a family trip to Europe. Now he's in his 1st year of middle school though and is having a hard enough time keeping organized and staying on track with when assignments are due in all the classes... he'd never dig himself out of it if I took him out for a week. He's struggling with the increased personal responsibility. Unless he has a major moment where he manages to figure all this out, I doubt we'll be taking anymore school year trips. Although, he is missing one day next week for the last day of our MLK Jr weekend trip. I think it's all very dependent on the kid and the situation.