school year travel that is not holiday related

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How often do you travel during the school year, like on weekends and take the kids out of school for Monday/Tuesday or any other combo. Just checking to see if this is normal?? I know a mom who is constantly traveling and her kids are missing school. How is she getting away with this? Is she claiming they are sick to the attendance clerk?

ES teacher here. Every year I have at least one student who misses 50 days or more. These are not excused absences. The school social worker and attendance team bend over backwards trying to get kids like this to come to school. Last year, half of our students were chronically absent (missed 18 days or more of school). Nothing happens to them. If this happens every year for a few years, their case might go to truancy court but nothing happens there either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How often do you travel during the school year, like on weekends and take the kids out of school for Monday/Tuesday or any other combo. Just checking to see if this is normal?? I know a mom who is constantly traveling and her kids are missing school. How is she getting away with this? Is she claiming they are sick to the attendance clerk?

ES teacher here. Every year I have at least one student who misses 50 days or more. These are not excused absences. The school social worker and attendance team bend over backwards trying to get kids like this to come to school. Last year, half of our students were chronically absent (missed 18 days or more of school). Nothing happens to them. If this happens every year for a few years, their case might go to truancy court but nothing happens there either.

+1. I work in EL in elementary and we have multiple students each year who go “home” for 2-3 months at a time. Nothing really happens except they keep failing their SOL’s and can’t graduate from EL services because they spend 3 months a year speaking their first language only. It’s pretty frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Several years ago someone i know had a son in 3rd grade (not in the DMV area.) She was constantly posting on facebook about their "adventures" where she'd keep him out of school for 1-5 days and go on a random road trip.
A few weeks before the last day of school, the school notified her that her son would not be able to move up to 4th grade, even though his grades were fine, because he had missed too much school.
She was FREAKING OUT (via facebook posts) about how unfair it was. In the end, they did let him move up to 4th grade...but I think they just wanted to put a scare into her so she'd stop having him miss so much school... And it seemed to have worked, because after that all of the "adventures" she posted on facebook were during school breaks and weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Several years ago someone i know had a son in 3rd grade (not in the DMV area.) She was constantly posting on facebook about their "adventures" where she'd keep him out of school for 1-5 days and go on a random road trip.
A few weeks before the last day of school, the school notified her that her son would not be able to move up to 4th grade, even though his grades were fine, because he had missed too much school.
She was FREAKING OUT (via facebook posts) about how unfair it was. In the end, they did let him move up to 4th grade...but I think they just wanted to put a scare into her so she'd stop having him miss so much school... And it seemed to have worked, because after that all of the "adventures" she posted on facebook were during school breaks and weekends.

I think it was an empty threat. I’m the EL pp above and our students that miss 3 months and fail all SOL’s are still promoted.

[Anonymous]

we have taken our son (only in 2nd grade) out for maybe a total of 3-5 days of illegal absences" per year. we don't lie, last year he missed 5 days for an international wedding, the year before he missed two days to visit his sick grandma.

[Anonymous]

Prior to this year we hadn't done it at all. This year they missed one day to extend a long weekend trip (not remotely educational, just for fun). It was early in the year, so they didn't miss much. Kids are in 4th and 7th.

My 7th grader will miss one additional day for a visit to her grandparents. Luckily it's near the beginning of the quarter so easy enough to make up. The 4th grader is off school that day.

Will try not to have anymore unexcused days the rest of the year.

[Anonymous]

My oldest is in 3rd and I think nothing of a few extra days off here and there. I wouldn't do a whole week, but for example next week Fairfax has off Monday and Tuesday. We are going away for the whole week. Kids will miss 3 days. We may do something similar later in the year. I assume in middle school it may cause more problems but even then I would prioritize a family trip over perfect attendance, assuming academics are in line. I do try to make trips line up with days already off but like adding extra days to the front or end.

Families with multiple kids in different schools will regularly have to take days off if their breaks dont align.

[Anonymous]

Only when necessary for extended family reasons and the date is not flexible (like weddings, funerals). Not just for travel deals.

Fwiw the one year we got closer to ten absences the school was very clear that we would be reported if they hit ten. Other friends were referred at ten, so it wasn't likely an empty threat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest is in 3rd and I think nothing of a few extra days off here and there. I wouldn't do a whole week, but for example next week Fairfax has off Monday and Tuesday. We are going away for the whole week. Kids will miss 3 days. We may do something similar later in the year. I assume in middle school it may cause more problems but even then I would prioritize a family trip over perfect attendance, assuming academics are in line. I do try to make trips line up with days already off but like adding extra days to the front or end.

Families with multiple kids in different schools will regularly have to take days off if their breaks dont align.

They don’t “have to.”
They could just take shorter trips, or not travel at all.

[Anonymous]

Rarely, maybe one or two days a year. With six of us traveling leaving a day early can save a lot on flights. Taking them out for a week? No way.

[Anonymous]

My daughter would miss days in November and December for Nutcracker performances. Some teachers weren’t happy about it but the day shows were for schools around the city and suburbs.

We’ve also taken days off to go somewhere off season because I hate crowds.

[Anonymous]

I used to do this when the kids were younger. Why do you even care? Pat yourself on the back for full attendance if you must, but stay out of their business. You have no idea about other people's lives and choices and you don't get a say in it either.

[Anonymous]

Never.

[Anonymous]

My younger elementary kid will miss 3 weeks of school (through Thanksgiving) for a big international trip. Teachers didn’t blink an eye, seemed fine with it.

[Anonymous]

We do it all the time, but my kids are young and our school has said that it would be a travesty for our kids to miss out because of school.

Probably depends on what you’re doing. Personally I doubt our travel is particularly educational but at this level neither is school.