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However, what usually happens is that people who believe that "the rules do not apply to them" spoil it for everyone else.
It's not a big deal in my district. You just fill out a vacation request form and it gets approved.
Your example of a mother taking repeated long weekends is entirely different. Those aren't vacations. It's sort of bizarre she told you about it because most parents call their children off sick for a day or two absence.
If my kid turns out to be pretty smart, so ahead at school, then I'll have no problem taking her out of school for holidays (well I suppose of course it would depend on what the rules are here, I have no idea yet as school is still a long way off) but if she struggles with school and would have trouble catching up if she missed some school then that would be different.
My parents took us out of school pretty much every year, usually two weeks (and sometimes more than once in the same year) at a time and me and my brother had no trouble catching up (we were usually ahead to begin with anyway), my older brothers didn't usually come on these term-time holidays as it would have been harder for them to catch up. My mum even sent us to school on holiday once - that was a very interesting experience and my brother ended up staying behind by himself and going to school there for 6 weeks (at the age of 11!!)
I think taking younger children out is not a big deal, the older they are, the harder it is to catch up.
We took the children out for a few weeks to travel abroad to visit a sick grandparent when the kids were young, and the school was very understanding. To avoid the mandatory reporting the school advised us to un-enroll and then re-enroll, and it went without a hitch.
As a retired teacher I really enjoyed reading this thread.
Of course, the school where the family with the dying grandmother in Sweden should have let them go to visit her. Of course, the school where the family won an "once in a lifetime" vacation should have left them go. However, what usually happens is that people who believe that "the rules do not apply to them" spoil it for everyone else.
I once had a first grader with some serious learning difficulties. About the second week in September his mom said that he would miss Friday and maybe Monday because they were traveling out of state so he could see his grandmother. Of course, I was happy for them as Mom said that they only "rarely got to visit her". Well , Mom's definition of rarely and my definition of rarely were very, very different. Soon, it become an every other weekend event. Sometimes they left on Thursday and the student didn't return to school until the following Wednesday. By midyear (90 days) he had already missed 25 days of school.
The Mom couldn't understand why he kept falling farther and farther behind and blamed the teacher (me). She was insulted when the principal told her that it was unlikely that her son would be able to catch up with his peers considering how much time he had missed. She transferred him to another school district a little later.
I also have had several students over the years where the families have taken month long vacations every year. It is hard to catch up when you miss that much school.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strawflower
I think there is a big difference between missing 6 days as was proposed in the OP and what you describe...
Sorry, that I was unclear. I agree that parents should be able to take their children out of school for a special vacation or for special reasons (as long as they make up all of the work) as long as it isn't "excessive". I was stating the examples of the excessive vacations and absences because that is one of the reasons that school districts have rules about the number of missed days. Years ago, a fellow teacher in a very wealthy school district told me that it wasn't unusual for some families to take several (what middle class people would think of as "once in a lifetime vacations") vacations a year. Ten days in Hawaii, three weeks in Europe and many long weekend as their cabin in the mountains for skiing make it pretty hard for the kids to catch up. But, those parents felt that the teacher should be able to put in the extra work so that their child would pass (of course that is a topic for different thread).
Although, it may have changed since I retired I believe that 10 days of unexcused (not due to illness or other legitimate reasons) absences was the maximum in my state before a school district needed to send an official letter to the parent asking them about the excessive absences. At that time it was a state rule not a school district rule. However, it was up to the school district to decide what was considered excused and unexcused.
BTW I just noticed that this is an old thread. Oops.
You are the parent. Do what you think best for your kids and your family. Is this vacation going to be in their memory banks when they are 47? Probably, especially if you are not ever able to go again. I raised 4 kids....never once did I succumb to what the school "allowed". You are totally and completely responsible for your children. If you decided to go, I certainly hope this is the most wonderful time for all of you.
You have to go! My parents took my brother and I out of school for vacations all the time, and we both still graduated on time. I was in the top 10% of my senior class and everything. My mother's philosophy was that we were her children and didn't belong to the school, so we were going to take trips when it was convenient for our family. We were always expected to make up whatever work we missed. Sometimes we'd get it beforehand and take it with us to do in the car or on the plane. But you can't pass up a trip to Disney World because the school is going to get their panties in a bunch! If they give you grief about it, tell them to stick it in their ears.
They haven't missed any school for illnesses or anything else this school year so unexposed absence problem isn't an issue. This has just been an abnormal winter for us. Where typically there is maybe 3 snow days they use on the built in schedule. Today marks day 13 day have missed because of winter weather and tomorrow will be 14. There was only 5 built into the schedule so I'm not sure what they will do. As of right now it looks like we have completely went through the first week of June a d will be starting on the second week if they start missing g next week also. We are normally out May 23.
Sorry, that I was unclear. I agree that parents should be able to take their children out of school for a special vacation or for special reasons (as long as they make up all of the work) as long as it isn't "excessive". I was stating the examples of the excessive vacations and absences because that is one of the reasons that school districts have rules about the number of missed days. Years ago, a fellow teacher in a very wealthy school district told me that it wasn't unusual for some families to take several (what middle class people would think of as "once in a lifetime vacations") vacations a year. Ten days in Hawaii, three weeks in Europe and many long weekend as their cabin in the mountains for skiing make it pretty hard for the kids to catch up. But, those parents felt that the teacher should be able to put in the extra work so that their child would pass (of course that is a topic for different thread).
Although, it may have changed since I retired I believe that 10 days of unexcused (not due to illness or other legitimate reasons) absences was the maximum in my state before a school district needed to send an official letter to the parent asking them about the excessive absences. At that time it was a state rule not a school district rule. However, it was up to the school district to decide what was considered excused and unexcused.
BTW I just noticed that this is an old thread. Oops.
Well, it got bumped, and it's a continuing issue.
My district has a lot of people who do the above, and we're not all that "wealthy" of a district.
My district requires documentation (doctor's note, other signed document) after a certain number absences, excused or unexcused.
This has become a pretty big issue in NJ and is a hot topic among parents in my district. A part of the education reforms undertaken in the past couple of years in the state included tieing funding to "average daily attendance". If the districts attendance rate drops too low we can lose our state funding. Our district calculated the number of acceptable absences at 6 per student. That means that if every kid missed 6 days for any reason, we would be OK, but if more was missed our funding would be jeopardized. It doesn't matter if the absences are excused or unexcused, they all count the same.
The district started off the year with reinforcing this heavily, including telling the students how important attendance was. That last part got some people upset as younger kids who had planned vacations already during the year interpreted it as they were no longer allowed to go. The school has tried to adapt, for instance this year "take your child to work day" was just a scheduled day off since so many people participate in it.
I think my opinion before in this thread was that it's OK assuming the kid is doing well in school and/or it's a special trip. I think parents should try to plan vacations for non-school times, but this is now even more important in NJ where too many kids out can jeopardize funding for the whole district.
Sorry, that I was unclear. I agree that parents should be able to take their children out of school for a special vacation or for special reasons (as long as they make up all of the work) as long as it isn't "excessive". I was stating the examples of the excessive vacations and absences because that is one of the reasons that school districts have rules about the number of missed days. Years ago, a fellow teacher in a very wealthy school district told me that it wasn'tunusual for some families to take several (what middle class people would think of as "once in a lifetime vacations") vacations a year. Ten days in Hawaii, three weeks in Europe and many long weekend as their cabin in the mountains for skiing make it pretty hard for the kids to catch up. But, those parents felt that the teacher should be able to put in the extra work so that their child would pass (of course that is a topic for different thread).
Although, it may have changed since I retired I believe that 10 days of unexcused (not due to illness or other legitimate reasons) absences was the maximum in my state before a school district needed to send an official letter to the parent asking them about the excessive absences. At that time it was a state rule not a school district rule. However, it was up to the school district to decide what was considered excused and unexcused.
BTW I just noticed that this is an old thread. Oops.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
Well, it got bumped, and it's a continuing issue.
My district has a lot of people who do the above, and we're not all that "wealthy" of a district.
My district requires documentation (doctor's note, other signed document) after a certain number absences, excused or unexcused.
Years ago, a fellow teacher in a very wealthy school district told me that it wasn'tunusual for some families to take several (what middle class people would think of as "once in a lifetime vacations") vacations a year. Ten days in Hawaii, three weeks in Europe and many long weekend as their cabin in the mountains for skiing make it pretty hard for the kids to catch up.
I'm confused. If your district has "a lot of people" taking three week vacations to Europe, 10 days in Hawaii and multiple long weekends skiing at their cabin in the mountains each and every school year it is probably a much wealthier district than you imagine it to be.
And, what does your district do about "a lot of people" whose children miss 30 to 40 days, out of 180 days, every school year? My friend said it was a big problem in her district as many parents simply told the staff that they didn't care how much school they child missed, and it was the teacher's responsibility to get their child "caught up" when they returned to school after a vacation (and BTW, they also expected their children to still get straight As).
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