Has anyone had a child with a modified school schedule so they can regularly leave for sports training?

[Anonymous]

We have a child who plays tennis and we’re considering looking into if her school would allow her to adjust her schedule to leave early. We know kids who have done it but have never know the details on how it works and if they felt it was worth it. Curious about anyone’s experience.

[Anonymous]

My child is a gymnast. Every school and district handles it differently. Many of her teammates have transitioned into home school, community college classes for HS credit, or virtual school sponsored by their district.

Her club has maybe 8 school districts represented plus numerous private schools, and no two schools handle it the same. In my experience, elementary and HS have the most flexible scheduling, and MS the least. Depending on the district, some let out quite late which makes things even more complicated.

We have her dismissed 15 minutes/day, 3x/week. That takes buy-in from the administration and individual teachers every year, and often there is resistance. It doesn’t help that teacher assignments and schedules at her school are not set until the Thursday before the school year starts.

She has teammates at Catholic school who do virtual school for math and dismiss at 12 noon, teammates who have all their core academic classes scheduled for morning and skip electives in the afternoon, and teammates like her who have a slightly early dismissal and miss just packing up or transition time or study time. Fortunately competition season is quite short or else there would be lots of missed school for travel meets and Friday competitions. I don’t know if it’s worth it- we still rush to practice in traffic and I feel like we are walking on thin ice with school. Her gym friends are solid, kind girls and more reliable than school friends, so that’s what keeps us from stopping.

I’m stressed every year from March-September waiting for practice schedules and school schedules, because it’s never guaranteed that it will work out. This is the time to start discussions with school because if it’s not going to work, you need alternate plans for school, tennis or both.

[Anonymous]

You can say you have repeated "appointments" unspecified, until you figure things out.

[Anonymous]

What grade are they in, OP?

[Anonymous]

At our school, beginning in HS, students can count their work for their competitive sport as an elective, effectively leaving school one period early so that they can attend training every day.

[Anonymous]

I have a (young) figure skater who gets out 20 minutes early a few days a week. Ice time is so limited that you have to work around it. Several of the older girls have a hybrid schedule or do online school. From what I've observed of older generations, this does not hold them back from attending good colleges.

[Anonymous]

DC plays tennis and leaves school early (after lunch) every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What grade are they in, OP?

She’s in 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Op here, all of these responses are very helpful. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can say you have repeated "appointments" unspecified, until you figure things out.

I’m the gymnast mom PP and am required to sign my DD out every day. The administration and teachers know why she’s leaving early, but I write “appt” in the “reason for dismissal” column every time.

Plenty of kids have standing appointments for orthodontia, PT, therapy, etc. I’m surprised by how open people are on the main office sign-in sheets.

[Anonymous]

I knew gymnasts at Robinson who just did two or three classes and had them scheduled for Periods 1-3 so they always went to school in the AM and then homeschooled the rest of their classes/trained at noon every day.

[Anonymous]

We had to homeschool / hybrid school our tennis player to make it work (son was training several hours each day and nationally ranked).

[Anonymous]

Our school had early out for sports or work

[Anonymous]

For a swimmer- misses first period everyday. Got swimming to be an elective period

[Anonymous]

This is volleyball and not personal experience (just heard other parents talking about it). Apparently the players in top clubs (with heavy travel schedule) may have to miss an entire Friday to make it to tournaments across the country. Depending on when the tournament ends, they might also miss the Monday after the tournament. The school administration is typically flexible and accommodates such top athletes who are likely on school varsity teams as well. The absences are excused, but the students have to catch up with the material and they are supposed to still turn in assignments on time. It is harder on the students than on school, but playing at that level comes with a lot of effort and sacrifices.