Unexcused absence for MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not looking for judgement here. This was a trip scheduled over a year ago before deciding my child to attend public school. This is my first child attending public school, so I have no clue how it would be handled. Simply asking for info, so I know whether I need to prepare my child for penalty or need to cancel the trip.

Thanks for your response.

The wrong place to post, if you aren't looking for judgement. I am sorry that you got it right off the bat. Some people on this board have waaaay too much time.

[Anonymous]

A few thoughts. For starters, it's not that hard to figure out the school calendar - it's public knowledge. Perhaps one saving grace for you would be all the half days and holidays that pop up in the Fall. We were faced with several unplanned times when we contemplated pulling our kids out of elementary school for family emergencies. We talked with the front office and our student's teachers. In both cases they worked with us on "assignments." In the end, for one trip we found someone who could stay with the kids while we traveled, and for the second trip we brought work with us and it didn't make a difference. But our kids were later on in elementary schools so they had already acclimated to the school, teachers etc. I would not have been comfortable pulling a kindergartener out of school before they were really settled in. But you do you.

[Anonymous]

My advice is to cancel the trip. It is not in your child’s best interest to miss the first 10 days of school at a new school. And yes, there can be penalties that would make the logistics of enrolling her worse. Currently if a child misses 10 days in a row unexcused they will be unenrolled from school. See link below. I am not judging you for planning the trip but please know there will be consequences if you choose not to follow MCPS policy. During the pandemic MCPS was lax with attendance regulation but now that poor attendance has been a noted issue, they are being much more severe.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/jeara.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A few thoughts. For starters, it's not that hard to figure out the school calendar - it's public knowledge. Perhaps one saving grace for you would be all the half days and holidays that pop up in the Fall. We were faced with several unplanned times when we contemplated pulling our kids out of elementary school for family emergencies. We talked with the front office and our student's teachers. In both cases they worked with us on "assignments." In the end, for one trip we found someone who could stay with the kids while we traveled, and for the second trip we brought work with us and it didn't make a difference. But our kids were later on in elementary schools so they had already acclimated to the school, teachers etc. I would not have been comfortable pulling a kindergartener out of school before they were really settled in. But you do you.

They set the fall 2024 start date about a month ago, so this is not exactly as though OP was flouting common information in booking the trip.

[Anonymous]

Teach you kid to be polite and follow the rules. The least thing we need is entitled people teaching their kids to game a system that has no concrete standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few thoughts. For starters, it's not that hard to figure out the school calendar - it's public knowledge. Perhaps one saving grace for you would be all the half days and holidays that pop up in the Fall. We were faced with several unplanned times when we contemplated pulling our kids out of elementary school for family emergencies. We talked with the front office and our student's teachers. In both cases they worked with us on "assignments." In the end, for one trip we found someone who could stay with the kids while we traveled, and for the second trip we brought work with us and it didn't make a difference. But our kids were later on in elementary schools so they had already acclimated to the school, teachers etc. I would not have been comfortable pulling a kindergartener out of school before they were really settled in. But you do you.

They set the fall 2024 start date about a month ago, so this is not exactly as though OP was flouting common information in booking the trip.

Let's be realistic - how much does it really change? Right? So if you know that late August to first week in September its gonna likely start you work around that. All the start dates from previous years are easy to find and you plan accordingly. Unless you don't care, my point is it's not that hard if you put effort in to figure out the general starting dates and schedule any trips around that timeframe.