Unexcused absences, holidays and “chronic truancy” and how DC handles these issues.

[Anonymous]

Just tell them you don't think school is as important as travel. Then at least you won't be a liar.

If you don't like your school why do you go there?

[Anonymous]

Just tell CPS that now that Larlo is 4, skiing in North America isn't good enough-- only the Alps will do.

[Anonymous]

You sound schmancy, so you're not likely to be happy with DCPS long-term anyway. Private schools can request attendance records as part of the admissions process. You could ask on the Private School board about that.

As your kid grows older and has more serious activities, the activities may have consequences for poor attendance as well.

[Anonymous]

They may contact you but nothing will happen. Or they may never contact you. Too many cases and not enough workers. Relisha Rudd can happen again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools can (and are supposed to) refer you to cps after 10 unexcused absences. They rarely do, though, and even more rarely does cps do anything when it's only 10 non-consecutive days.

But I don't know why your child's absences are any more justified than other people's, just because you're not poor.

This is the key point.

Your child is missing school for reasons that are not excused. This means you get the same communications and deal with the same consequences as every other family whose child misses that much school.

You aren’t special; you’re making a choice to pull your child out for reasons that DCPS doesn’t consider valid. If you don’t want to deal with it, don’t take your kid out of school so much. It’s pretty simple.

Sure. I guess I am just wondering what the actual, real consequences are, realistically, for 10 days of non-consecutive unexcused absences. Like could I lose my OOB spot?

Also, what are some good excuses to use to get some days excused after the fact of missing a few days. I know that’s a morally ambiguous inquiry, but I’m okay with that. A doctor’s note excusing a few days would be great, but I wonder if I could even use the religious observance excuse, which seems like it would be a pretty broadly accepted excuse, especially since we’re in the US with so much religiosity. Pretty hard, legally, to argue with “firmly held beliefs”.

What is morally ambiguous about it? You're planning to lie to them. Or is it a firmly held belief that this is Larlo's only chance ever to "see Bratislava"?

[Anonymous]

The school councilor will contact you first. I explained that I sent excused letters, but nobody recorded them. I even e-mailed some of the letters that I sent.
They just want to hear from the parent that the kid is ok. Just e-mail the excuse letters. They don't want you disappearing.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like your kids are young. I did this when my oldest was in Kindergarten (once in a generation wedding and family reunion.) took 10 unexcused absences, talked to the school counselor, no CPS, no lying. It was totally worth it. Very, very memorable experience.

Now that he's in middle school I can't imagine doing this -- he would never catch up.

Just do it. Don't lie. Don't be entitled about it, either. It's fine.

[Anonymous]

If you tell your kid's teachers in advance, offer to do any makeup work they want (but don't demand they prepare anything) and aren't generally a pain in the ass, there's a good chance they'll mark a couple of days as excused to avoid the letter. Just be upfront about the issue/don't lie. Our kids' teachers have always been willing to do it. (We take a family trip to my DH's country of origin every other year and miss about 8-10 days depending on the DCPS schedule for that year. The country is far away and so it's worth it for us. We've always been able to work with teachers to keep the unexcused year total under 10.)

[Anonymous]

As our counties become more international and also wealthier, school districts are not taking into hand what parents are asking for- longer breaks between quarters so that they can vacation and a shorter summer.

The places we need to travel to in order to visit family are awful in the summer, spring and fall is when we'd like to go so that we can coordinate with other family members. There are basically NO holidays in spring and fall, other than a week for Easter, but it's tied to Easter so plane flights are $$$.

I'd like 2 weeks between each quarter. There's already 2 weeks for Christmas which is great. Summer is way, way too long and it gets hotter every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As our counties become more international and also wealthier, school districts are not taking into hand what parents are asking for- longer breaks between quarters so that they can vacation and a shorter summer.

The places we need to travel to in order to visit family are awful in the summer, spring and fall is when we'd like to go so that we can coordinate with other family members. There are basically NO holidays in spring and fall, other than a week for Easter, but it's tied to Easter so plane flights are $$$.

I'd like 2 weeks between each quarter. There's already 2 weeks for Christmas which is great. Summer is way, way too long and it gets hotter every year.

Move to private

[Anonymous]

the reality is that the only "excused" absence is for the child's illness. My pre-k had issues where the parent/caregiver was too ill to get the kids to school, and that ALSO was not an excused absence because the student themselves was not ill.

sorry. part of having kids is being beholden to their school schedule, even when it's difficult for the parents. Like all of these professional development days that I have to take off of work...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the reality is that the only "excused" absence is for the child's illness. My pre-k had issues where the parent/caregiver was too ill to get the kids to school, and that ALSO was not an excused absence because the student themselves was not ill.

sorry. part of having kids is being beholden to their school schedule, even when it's difficult for the parents. Like all of these professional development days that I have to take off of work...

Illness is definitely not the only type of absence that can be excused: https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/attendance-and-truancy-policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the reality is that the only "excused" absence is for the child's illness. My pre-k had issues where the parent/caregiver was too ill to get the kids to school, and that ALSO was not an excused absence because the student themselves was not ill.

sorry. part of having kids is being beholden to their school schedule, even when it's difficult for the parents. Like all of these professional development days that I have to take off of work...

Illness is definitely not the only type of absence that can be excused: https://dcps.dc.gov/publication/attendance-and-truancy-policy

You can also request a special exception from your principal. If a student is meeting the president, competing in a national competition, going to Congress to watch their parent's confirmation hearing, competing in the Olympics, or any of a bunch of other things, I'd expect the principal to excuse the absence.

If a student or parent anticipates an absence not covered by the excused absences listed above or
expects to accrue ongoing absences related to a specific condition or circumstance, they may submit a
request for an excused absence due to a special circumstance to the school principal. The principal shall
consult with his or her instructional superintendent before determining whether to grant the excused
absence request. Any absence that does not meet the criteria of an excused absence or fails to satisfy
the documentation requirement of an excused absence within the allowable timeframe will be classified
as an unexcused absence.

[Anonymous]

Hot take - your kids school would prefer if you lied to them. If they can excuse the absence it improves their truancy rate. Win-win!

[Anonymous]

I don’t know what everyone is getting so high and mighty about. Even at the best elementary schools, your child’s education will not be adversely affected by missing 10 days. If you’re absent to travel, the experience in its self will be in many ways more educational and rewarding.

When I grew up, unexcused versus excused was the difference between a kid missing school with their parents’ knowledge/permission (excused) and kids cutting class (unexcused). It is, frankly, not the school’s business why I think my child needs to be absent. Use the free sick days if you must to get them off your back; I can’t imagine caring if I heard someone did so.