Have you taken your kids out of school for vacation?

[AuroraNJ]

I've taken my daughter out of school the past couple years and haven't had any problems. We spoke to the principals office first though to give them a heads up and feel out if it was going to be a huge problem or not. We put in a request at least a month in advance with her teachers to try to give us as much school work for the week that they possibly could. We did most of the school work before we even left for vacation and some on the plane down.

All that being said I'm not going to continue to take my daughter out of school because she's gonig into 4th grade this year and I'm concerned she'll miss a lot more than the prior years. We have been lucky though with school not having any problem with it and my DD didn't seem to suffer academically at all from missing the week. I think it's worth mentioning that we did bring back a little something for the teacher and the principal like a Disney travel mug or tin of popcorn or chocolates. It's a nice touch and the teachers appreciated it.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

My oldest DD missed 4 days of kindergarten and 4 days of 1st grade for vacation (we went during a week where one day was a no school day anyway). The school gave us no problems and gave us all of her work, which she completed BEFORE we left so we didn't have to worry about it when we got back. I feel strongly that I am the parent and I have the right to decide if it's okay to take her out of school for a few days or not. If she was in high school, I would probably try not to do it if she felt she would get really behind.

 

[guyver71]

I am taking my 5 year old out...expect a letter from the school despite having cleared it first with the head master...after all you only live once

 

[Suzy8383]

I am taking my child out of school for our trip. I am his parent. I make the decisions for him...not a school and not their arbitrary truancy laws either. I am LOLing at the "5 unexcused absenses" or whatever is being threatened to everyone. Seriously? Or what? If this is a public school, they can not prohibit you from attending. Sure, they can call your child "truant", they can refuse to accept make up work, but public school can not kick you out for not coming unless you miss a ridiculous amount of days...and even then all you have to do is re-enroll your child.

I have no intentions of asking anyone for permission to remove my child from school. I will inform them of the days he will be absent and ask if they would like him to complete his work. End of discussion. I will not allow a school to dictate my parenting decisions - nor will I explain why I chose to take a vacation during the school year instead of the summer...even if I have a darn good reason.

 

[Nutz4Dizney]

I am taking my child out of school for our trip. I am his parent. I make the decisions for him...not a school and not their arbitrary truancy laws either. I am LOLing at the "5 unexcused absenses" or whatever is being threatened to everyone. Seriously? Or what? If this is a public school, they can not prohibit you from attending. Sure, they can call your child "truant", they can refuse to accept make up work, but public school can not kick you out for not coming unless you miss a ridiculous amount of days...and even then all you have to do is re-enroll your child.

I have no intentions of asking anyone for permission to remove my child from school. I will inform them of the days he will be absent and ask if they would like him to complete his work. End of discussion. I will not allow a school to dictate my parenting decisions - nor will I explain why I chose to take a vacation during the school year instead of the summer...even if I have a darn good reason.

I don't know what state you live in, but here in Jersey you can be billed $100.00 for each day your child misses; after their "?" unexcused absenses (areas are different). It's also the state law if your child misses so many days of school you (their parent) will be dragged into court, you can be fined or jailed.

Your child will also be "un"registered from the school system and when you re-enroll him/her he/she will lose all the grade credits they received before being "un"registered.

My son goes to Catholic school so these laws don't apply to me, and I don't care what my son's school thinks about him missing school.

I understand the state stepping in because there are some no good parents that let their kids miss school because they (their parent) were too drunk or too lazy to get them to school.

On the other hand that law is unfair to other parents like me (if my kid was in public school) my son is an honor student and never misses school unless we are in Disney. The law has punished everyone, because of some no good parents. Hence, my kid going to Catholic school

 

[sillylily]

We will be taking our 10th grader out of school for our next visit; our 7th grader is homeschooled. my oldest DD is a superb student, and doesn't struggle to catch up. We just make sure to get all of her work ahead of time, and keep it at the five days off mark. My youngest and I will work before and after our trip to stay on track. I only have a couple of years before my oldest goes off to college and has her own family. Family time is just as necessary as school time.

 

[Angelboys3]

We are taking our 3 out of school for 6 days in early September. We have taken them out beforefor ski vacations and never had a problem, we just got their work beforehand. Our school was told before last year ended but I will be reminding them of our dates at the back to school meeting right before school starts. I don't feel bad about it, and our school is pretty laid back. It's a small rural school and many students miss Fridays/Mondays to go hunting lol, we are just taking our Friday/Mondays all at once! Another thing that helps us is that since it is such a small school, everyone knows everyone else. For instance, last year my youngest son's teacher is a woman who was a couple years ahead of me in school there, and the "new" principal used to be my cheer coach when I was in high school

 

[Nutz4Dizney]

We are taking our 3 out of school for 6 days in early September. We have taken them out beforefor ski vacations and never had a problem, we just got their work beforehand. Our school was told before last year ended but I will be reminding them of our dates at the back to school meeting right before school starts. I don't feel bad about it, and our school is pretty laid back. It's a small rural school and many students miss Fridays/Mondays to go hunting lol, we are just taking our Friday/Mondays all at once! Another thing that helps us is that since it is such a small school, everyone knows everyone else. For instance, last year my youngest son's teacher is a woman who was a couple years ahead of me in school there, and the "new" principal used to be my cheer coach when I was in high school

You are very lucky to have a system like that. When I was "thinking" of moving my son to public school; I spoke to the principal, the board of Ed and some other school district thing, and when each of them told me the new laws I about past out. I was like you got to be kidding me. I thought the school would look on how a child does in school; not that they make certain amount of days. Like I said, my son is an honor student and I thought they would be proud to add an honor student to the school, but oh well I'm not giving my vacations up just so he can go to school in town LOL. I don't mind the 20 minutes drive anymore.

I even had my husband (retired cop) call a couple cop buddies to make sure that "they" weren't making it up. The cop buddies told us what the school system told us was correct.

 

[ORMom2Four]

Your family sounds like ours (we have 6 kids) Our oldest is in college, the youngest are toddlers.

We have taken our kids out of school several times for vacation and will do it again. The longest was about 12 school days. That time we had to re-enroll them once we came back, which basically involved us calling to say they were coming back to school Our high schooler had to go to the office and sign a paper saying that he was back from vacation, and that re-enrolled him.

The kids in primary school did just fine. The hardest was high school, but that was only an issue with certain teachers who were NOT happy that our kids were out of school for something trivial like a vacation. DD20's college classes started the last week we were there, so she missed the first class of each of her college courses. All of the teachers were okay with missing one class, but more that that might have cost her some points on her grade.

 

[Ihave3cute1s]

I have taken my son out of school everytime we have gone to Disney. This year he will be in the 6th grade so we'll see how tough it is for him to make up. We are going in Jan/Feb 2013

 

[Leslieloody]

Feb 2011 I took my sixth grader out of school. I actually got 3 days of the 6 missed days excused by the principal. I had listed things that would be considered teaching tools. I have them saved at work. I'll try to get them posted. Anyway, off we go. We have planned one day at Cocoa Beach to kind of break things up. While we wiggling our toes in the sand it was coming a blizzard in Kentucky. School was out for 3 days for snow. In case you weren't keeping up, ALL DAYS WERE EXCUSED!!! This year, being in eight grade I planned our trip (in 45 days) during Fall break. Keep checking back for that list of learning tools. They are great! We also brought back a "aged" copy of the Declaration of Independence for the teachers and a map postcard for every student. They were all thrilled.

 

[skriegerjr]

We took our son out of school last Nov. He's in an accelerated enrichment program, the teacher was awesome, she gave him a packet of work to complete while on vacation, and an assignment to give the class a report of his trip to WDW upon his return. She gave the packet a few days before we left, and he handed it in, completed, and 100% correct, the very next day. She was blown away, and laughed when he told her he just didn't want to have homework on vacation! He never missed a beat, getting straight A's the whole year.

He'll be going into 4th grade this fall, and is already reading Harry Potter books on his own.

I guess it depends on your child, as well as the school and teacher's willingness to work with you. We've been fortunate to have great relationships with his teachers at the school, so if we wanted to do it again, I would have no problem I'm sure, given his drive and focus, I'm certain he'd get the work done.

 

[Leslieloody]

As promised, here are the reasons I gave my daughter's principal for extra excused days for our Disney trip.

Epcot is a destination inside of Disney World.
There are 11 "countries" within Epcot. Each
country has examples of it's own culture, such
as architecture and cuisine. Also, you'll find
different foliage and landscaping that is
native to that area.

Much of Epcot teaches about new
technology. You can experience everything
from reading the stars to morse code to
modern day computers.

Each day, there are different concerts and
theactrical events that represent each
country. Some even include guests to help
with the show.

Disney's cast members are decendents that
represent their own country. They help with
the authenticity within that area. Those
employees can speak their local language
to make the visit more original.

Disney's Animal Kindom is a place where one can
get the feeling of being lost in a tropical jungle.
There's a different kind of tree, plant, animal or
insect around every corner.

There are places where guests can see on-site
veternarians take care of sick or injured animals.
This experience can pursuade students into a
profession where they will be able to perform
a wide range of services with animals.

The jeep that takes you on a tour of the
safari runs on propane gas as to reduce the
impact on the environment. The benches are
made from recycled milk jugs and the napkins
are recycled without using bleach, another way
to teach about erasing our carbon footprint.

There are many animal skeletons around
Animal Kingdom. You can see how many of the
species have evolved over the years to the
sizes and shapes they are today.

I hope this helps someone. Feel free to use my hints. Welcome.

 

[melancholywings]

We have taken DD out of elementary school with no issues. But now that she's in middle school I'm concerned.
We planned to do a trip in the summer, but just found out that this up coming year we are really limited by work on when we can use PTO. I want DD to take school very seriously...but I also want her to learn to balance life with work.

 

[Poohforyou]

We took our dd out every year during elementary school. This past year she missed the last day of 7th grade for a trip. It truely was a non-learning day since the marking period had already ended.

I wouldn't pull my daughter out during a marking period any more now that she's in middle school. She would just miss too much. Heck it's a battle to keep her home when she's sick. She's a straight A student but I still wouldn't do it.

Op, whatever you decide to do don't try to justify it by claiming it's educational. You'll just be fodder for the teacher's lounge. Any trip even one to the track to bet on the ponies could be deemed educational what with the stats and all.

 

[biondagirl]

Yes, we have several times. Our school district has a policy that a child can miss 5 days of school for an educational vacation. Thankfully, Disney is considered educational. We've never had an issue. Some teachers will assign some work (my son could complete it on the 18 hour drive down) and some just wanted a report and he caught up when we came back. It's never been hard for him to pick it back up. He's going into 4th grade this year, so we (my husband) are trying not to do it any more. We'll see how it goes next year when we vacation with the crowds and heat in June, July or August.

Good luck!

 

[Guyer81304]

We took our oldest daughter out of school in 09, she was in 1st grade. In March we are going to be taking our oldest two out of school. We are planning on going the week before Easter so they will only miss three days of school. We have to complete educational trip forms so the days will be excused.

 

[soonerlpn]

Yes I have taken my son out of school for a disney vacation. He was in 3rd grade and he only missed two days at the end of school. We are going in Feb of 2014 and he will be in 6th grade. He will be pulled out for 5 days of school. Our district allows 10 days per semester. Two tardy equals an absence.

 

[sully7]

I have 4 kids that I am taking out of school for 6 days (in 2 weeks!) the oldest is a sophomore, the middle ones are 6th and 8th grade and the youngest is in 4th grade. We haven't had a vacation in 5 years so we really want to make the most of our time. Since we are going in September the lines will be shorter and the crowds a lot smaller, and we have Free Dining!

That all being said, the children are my children, not the school district's children. I decide what we will do and when. I am confident that whatever they miss will be able to be made up. The positives far outweigh the negatives for us!