Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Our school district does allow educational trips as excused absences. In April we took our then 9th grader with us to visit his sister in China for two weeks. We had a meeting with the teachers and GC ahead of time to talk about work to be done ahead of time and just to give them a heads up. My son was worried about missing school but the GC was the one that encouraged me to take him and (rightly) pointed out that he would more in China then he would in his classroom. Juniors and seniors are also allowed to take a few days for college visits.
Overall our district has an excellent attendance record and because they are flexible about non-sick absences I think people don't take advantage of it. This is a public.
Not many public schools allow that. Just look at the original post.
All others aside; the teachers are supposed to have plans ahead anyway, aren't they? That shouldn't be an issue.
Please don't be mistaken, I don't think parents should take children out of school on a whim; for vacation or any other pleasure, but emergencies do come up. The OP stated the reason was a dying family member, and doctor appointments. In those cases, any school should be open enough to allow such absenses.
Say a teacher in the same school has a parent on his/her deathbed, and that teacher wanted to take enough time off for travel to say goodbye and wait with other family members during the time of passing. Should that teacher be allowed that time?
Why deny that time to another person because he/she couldn't get children out of school to accompany him/her? Any person going through this experience has enough on his/her mind without worrying about their children suffering lowered grades and other aftereffects because of school, or worrying because they had to leave their children behind to be cared for by a sitter (assuming that's possible).
Allowances should be made for family emergencies.
And the appointment issue shouldn't even be an issue. Not everybody can get a child into appointments easily period, let alone be picky about the time. Next week, I'll have to take my 14 year old out for a couple hours because of a dentist appointment I made for her 6 months ago. I have been homeschooling for years, and she is back to school part time. I did not anticipate that 6 months ago.
Choices: Cancel the appointment and wait another 6 months to get a different one, possibly or likely having to take that next one during the school day; or take her out of school because missing a couple hours 2X yearly shouldn't be a problem.
Even with braces, a student wouldn't miss more than an hour or two every couple months.
Having plans made ahead of time for classroom instruction is not the same as preparing work for students to take home ahead of instruction.
After returning to school, the teacher will assess the student’s needs and make assignments accordingly. If a child is absent for an extended period due to illness or injury, contact the teacher to discuss a plan for instructional support.
This allows for emergencies.
Our school district does allow educational trips as excused absences. In April we took our then 9th grader with us to visit his sister in China for two weeks. We had a meeting with the teachers and GC ahead of time to talk about work to be done ahead of time and just to give them a heads up. My son was worried about missing school but the GC was the one that encouraged me to take him and (rightly) pointed out that he would more in China then he would in his classroom. Juniors and seniors are also allowed to take a few days for college visits.
Overall our district has an excellent attendance record and because they are flexible about non-sick absences I think people don't take advantage of it. This is a public.
That's pretty awesome and IMO a common sense policy.
As for grades and absences: I had to repeat THREE classes in high school that I was passing with A's, because of the absence policy. Some of them weren't even "absences" but tardy accumulation.. 3 tardies equaled one absence and so many absences equaled no credit for the class.
I had my own car, my mom was a single mom, at some point she made me responsible for getting up and to school on time as she had to be at work super early and I was rather chronically late, but my grades were always A's. So when I lost credit and had to repeat the classes in summer school I had to pay for that myself as punishment (I had an afterschool job for years)... but I always thought the whole thing was dumb, as obviously the absence or tardy issue was NOT affecting my grades. Even if I wasn't allowed to make up work, my test scores brought my grade up enough to compensate.
I was so thrilled when my first jr. college English prof told us on the first day that he didn't care about attendance as long as we did our work. For the entire class I'd show up briefly on Monday, get the week's assignments, then turn them in on Friday, and otherwise I only showed up for tests. I even got extra credit and passed the class with an over-100 average. Freshman Comp II was a different story but anyway...
Not necessarily. You live in Maine. My city has more people than your entire state.
I fail to see how living in maine would have any impact on whether someone can schedule a doctor appointment outside normal school hours. I can do it. If you live in a large city, you should also. I don't see why not. I must be missing something.
My daughter had to take 3 days off school last month due to some family matters. So, we reported this to the school, truthfully, expecting to get an excused absense.
Today, I got a notice of TRUANCY.
Turns out that "Personal" or "Family" absences are considered UNEXCUSED. Yes - if your child has to take some time off because her grandmother in another state is in the hospital dying, that is an UNEXCUSED absence.
Of course, if you just say she's SICK, that's an EXCUSED absence.
The lesson learned? If you have to take time off, lie. What a wonderful lesson to teach.
Your local school system needs a wake-up call. Schedule an appearance before the school board at their next meeting to explain the unfairness of this policy. Get a group of friends and family to attend to support you. My bet is that you can get the board to update this attendance policy. As it stands, it's unreasonable.
I fail to see how living in maine would have any impact on whether someone can schedule a doctor appointment outside normal school hours. I can do it. If you live in a large city, you should also. I don't see why not. I must be missing something.
Are you using a GP?
I used pediatrician and pediatric dds for my kids. They don't generally allow you to schedule all your appts. during non-school hours only, probably be kind of tough for them to stay in business if they couldn't fill their daytime hours with appointments for school age kids too .
The original poster hasn't said if his daughter had missed other days of school or if these three days were the only days she had missed so far. It seems strange that a truancy letter would come home after missing only three days. Especially if the school was notified beforehand. We also don't know the exact words used to excuse the student. I'm sure if she hadn't missed too many other days, aside from these three, and if the parents talk with the school about the issue, it should all be resolved. Also, we don't know what grade this student is in. High school attendance is taken more seriously than in the earlier grades.
Attendance is about more than getting good grades. It's also about being responsible and arriving to work/school/life responsibilities when you are supposed to be there. It's about being held accountable for yourself. What if you ordered a cake, from the most wonderful cake baker and decorator in the world.... and they made you this awesome cake - but it arrived too late for your guests to enjoy at your event. ? That's no good. That's why Woody Allen said eighty percent of success is showing up.
As far as the appointments... I try to schedule appointments on "no school" days... conference days and early-release days, teacher workdays, etc. Also, I've scheduled appointments as close to the let-out time as possible and just picked the kids up 30 minutes early from school. That works really well. Also our district has one day a week where school lets out an hour early. We try to schedule appointments on those days as well.
I fail to see how living in maine would have any impact on whether someone can schedule a doctor appointment outside normal school hours. I can do it. If you live in a large city, you should also. I don't see why not. I must be missing something.
I guess exceptions make the rule?
I also take it you never had to make an appointment for something like a CT scan.
As far as absences go, I could care less if its excused or not. If I need MY kid, then MY kid will go. My kid does not belong to the school, my kid belongs to me.
My freind pulled his kids out of school for two days before he deployed with the Army to Iraq. The school counted it as unexcused, I guess seeing dear daddy possibly even for the last time was not an excusable absence.
Are you using a GP?
I used pediatrician and pediatric dds for my kids. They don't generally allow you to schedule all your appts. during non-school hours only, probably be kind of tough for them to stay in business if they couldn't fill their daytime hours with appointments for school age kids too .
I work in a pediatric office. We have plenty of appointments in the later afternoon hours. Most of our patients are very young, e.g. babies and toddlers. We can generally accomodate school age kids. If the kid is really sick, s/he shoudn't be in school anyway. And to reiterate, we schedule well visits and other appts in the late afternoon as well. I think haggardhouself said it well. A CT scan, well, yes, that would probably require at least 1/2 day off school. AS hhe said, it depends on how many other absences the kid has had, how the school will treat it. Our schools accept a signed note from the dr. that the child was in the office.
Absence policy is dictated by state law, not individual schools. There is obviously some wiggle room there, but for the most part the school is just following the law.
In my state, we allow students to leave for educational trips, as long as they do some sort of school project about what they learn (usually just a short report). We also, as a military community, have implemented a policy that marks as excused absences when a parent gets deployed or returns from deployment.
That said, absenteeism is a HUGE problem. Parents keep their kids out for anything. You should see some of the excuses we get. One second grader was out for a week. His excuse? His mom was sick and he had to stay home to take care of her. Schools have to have a policy and implement it strictly or there will be a large segment of the population that will take advantage.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Freshman Comp II was a different story but anyway...
