Unexcused absences

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, your kids are the low hanging fruit. There’s a difference between the kids who miss 5-10 days over the course of a year for family trips or illness and manage to make up work and the kids who miss 30+ days with no communication from parents or attempts to do any work they’ve missed. FCPS is trying to guilt the former group because they’re more responsive and because they’re unable to move the needle with the latter group.

This is school dependent. I am a teacher myself and got many similar phone calls and emails about chronic absenteeism for one of my kids even through there was a documented ongoing medical issue. Think of something like surgery and then ongoing PT and rehab.

This year we had my kids miss one day for an aunt’s wedding out of town and I was honest, that was marked unexcused. I will always say it’s a sick day from now on.

[Anonymous]

They get funding from the state and federal governments when they have butts in seats. They are afraid of losing $$$ and take it out on parents as a result. Just ignore and don’t engage, because it doesn’t matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This should not be an issue as advance notice for travel can be marked as an excused absence for future days off.

I think this only works for medical, religious observance, or family emergency. It doesn't work for a family trip, no matter how enriching.

We have not had an issue with requesting excused absence for a few days for a family trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, responding to both:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD....

and...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD.

School districts in Virginia and around the country are trying to deal with it. This is a good thing. Even for UMC kids, missing a week of school is hard and can lead to lasting problems.

This is OP, and guilty as charged. The school year is longer than it needs to be, filled with a bunch of busy work, and a last month where they run out the clock. If the school year allowed for reasonable breaks long enough to take trips, we would use those instead of pulling the kids out of school. There is a big difference between a kid skipping a bunch of school enabled by parental ignorance or indifference, and a kid travelling with his family and keeping up on his work while he's out.

I used to be cowed by all those lectures about chronic absenteeism. Then I saw exactly what OP saw, as did all the other UMC parents. Plus we saw how the schools have no problem interrupting student education when it's convenient for them (the lack of 5 day weeks in the calendar), or treating education like it's optional in other ways. It's really annoying to be lectured by people who don't themselves work their hardest to ensure our kids' time is well used when they are in school or that they have a consistent academic schedule.

Sorry that reality, that chronic absenteeism harms your DC, is inconvenient. It's not you that pays for it. It's your DC.

DC will be just fine if they are a good student and catch up or get ahead for a few days off school for a family trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, responding to both:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD....

and...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD.

School districts in Virginia and around the country are trying to deal with it. This is a good thing. Even for UMC kids, missing a week of school is hard and can lead to lasting problems.

This is OP, and guilty as charged. The school year is longer than it needs to be, filled with a bunch of busy work, and a last month where they run out the clock. If the school year allowed for reasonable breaks long enough to take trips, we would use those instead of pulling the kids out of school. There is a big difference between a kid skipping a bunch of school enabled by parental ignorance or indifference, and a kid travelling with his family and keeping up on his work while he's out.

I used to be cowed by all those lectures about chronic absenteeism. Then I saw exactly what OP saw, as did all the other UMC parents. Plus we saw how the schools have no problem interrupting student education when it's convenient for them (the lack of 5 day weeks in the calendar), or treating education like it's optional in other ways. It's really annoying to be lectured by people who don't themselves work their hardest to ensure our kids' time is well used when they are in school or that they have a consistent academic schedule.

Sorry that reality, that chronic absenteeism harms your DC, is inconvenient. It's not you that pays for it. It's your DC.

Poster you are responding to. None of my DCs have ever been chronically absent. I'm just sympathetic to the posters who are. And I know so many of those people whose overseas grandma is "sick" every January, requiring a 3 week trip, whose kids are way smarter than my (decently academic) kids and who are doing just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They get funding from the state and federal governments when they have butts in seats. They are afraid of losing $$$ and take it out on parents as a result. Just ignore and don’t engage, because it doesn’t matter.

Funding numbers are set in September. Some school districts need rears in seats to keep $$$s, but it doesn't work that way in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, responding to both:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD....

and...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD.

School districts in Virginia and around the country are trying to deal with it. This is a good thing. Even for UMC kids, missing a week of school is hard and can lead to lasting problems.

This is OP, and guilty as charged. The school year is longer than it needs to be, filled with a bunch of busy work, and a last month where they run out the clock. If the school year allowed for reasonable breaks long enough to take trips, we would use those instead of pulling the kids out of school. There is a big difference between a kid skipping a bunch of school enabled by parental ignorance or indifference, and a kid travelling with his family and keeping up on his work while he's out.

I used to be cowed by all those lectures about chronic absenteeism. Then I saw exactly what OP saw, as did all the other UMC parents. Plus we saw how the schools have no problem interrupting student education when it's convenient for them (the lack of 5 day weeks in the calendar), or treating education like it's optional in other ways. It's really annoying to be lectured by people who don't themselves work their hardest to ensure our kids' time is well used when they are in school or that they have a consistent academic schedule.

The only people who pay attention to those lectures are people who already care about their kid's education. OP, next time you kid is absent just lie about the reason

OP: For sure, lesson learned. A stupid policy calls for a stupid response. I do actually care about my kids' education but I don't view the concept as being confined to what FCPS teaches. I'm happy to have the schools teach my kids math, and science, but it could be done in about half the time they take to do it. The rest of it is just killing time, and I would rather have my kids spending that time outside, seeing wildlife, visiting cities, swimming in the ocean, or on the slopes. And in a reasonable world, I wouldn't have to lie about exercising this discretion with regard to kids with no academic concerns. But, I'm done shaking my fist at the sky, and will just take the practical approach.

+ 1 but our schools have allowed excused absence for trips with family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, responding to both:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD....

and...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD.

School districts in Virginia and around the country are trying to deal with it. This is a good thing. Even for UMC kids, missing a week of school is hard and can lead to lasting problems.

This is OP, and guilty as charged. The school year is longer than it needs to be, filled with a bunch of busy work, and a last month where they run out the clock. If the school year allowed for reasonable breaks long enough to take trips, we would use those instead of pulling the kids out of school. There is a big difference between a kid skipping a bunch of school enabled by parental ignorance or indifference, and a kid travelling with his family and keeping up on his work while he's out.

I used to be cowed by all those lectures about chronic absenteeism. Then I saw exactly what OP saw, as did all the other UMC parents. Plus we saw how the schools have no problem interrupting student education when it's convenient for them (the lack of 5 day weeks in the calendar), or treating education like it's optional in other ways. It's really annoying to be lectured by people who don't themselves work their hardest to ensure our kids' time is well used when they are in school or that they have a consistent academic schedule.

This. My son just came home and said they had a [KITCHY NAME WITH SCHOOL MASCOT] day because other kids in the same grade were on a field trip. On further inquiry, he explained that this means they just have the day to do any work that needs to be done (null set for him) and otherwise it is free time. He further explained that this is "basically what we do every Friday." (And this is AAP!) So, yes, missing even a day of school at the parent's discretion will call into question my child's future, but twiddling his thumbs for a day in his school chair is perfectly appropriate. Hard to reconcile the logic. Maybe there is some magic in that FCPS school chair.

Kids exaggerate the truth all the time. Maybe it was a fun day because all the other kids in the grade went on a field trip, but it definitely does not happen every Friday.

DP. In second grade my kid came home and would say they did nothing at school. I would quiz DC in detail about each subject block, and indeed what they did effectively worked out to nothing. When math was "Because Larlo behaved well we watched a YouTube video about how to draw cats, which is Larlo's favorite thing," and DC was done with the language arts work, and they were in between units in social studies and so on, it was effectively nothing. Sure the day was full, but not of academic content. And in third grade DC's teacher's first comment to me was, "I'm surprised at how behind DC is in math." I had to explain how many drawing-cats days there were in 2nd grade math. So not all kids are lying, exaggerating, or forgetting this stuff when they report it. The FCPS curriculum leaves too much space in many grades to really...not do much.

[Anonymous]

OP, the issue is not kids like yours, but you are swept up in the same one-size-fits-all problem-solving. The issue in elementary school in particular is that a lot of lower-income ESOL students miss 1-3 months of each year going back to their countries. Then they return to school and fail all the SOL's. It's frustrating to the schools that they can't stop this. Sounds like yours is trying to crack down with threatening letters, but of course you're probably not the person who is actually causing the problem - but ARE probably the only one actually reading and caring about the empty threats. The ones whose kids are missing a third of the year and who most need to be in school couldn't care less about letters from the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, responding to both:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD....

and...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD.

School districts in Virginia and around the country are trying to deal with it. This is a good thing. Even for UMC kids, missing a week of school is hard and can lead to lasting problems.

This is OP, and guilty as charged. The school year is longer than it needs to be, filled with a bunch of busy work, and a last month where they run out the clock. If the school year allowed for reasonable breaks long enough to take trips, we would use those instead of pulling the kids out of school. There is a big difference between a kid skipping a bunch of school enabled by parental ignorance or indifference, and a kid travelling with his family and keeping up on his work while he's out.

I used to be cowed by all those lectures about chronic absenteeism. Then I saw exactly what OP saw, as did all the other UMC parents. Plus we saw how the schools have no problem interrupting student education when it's convenient for them (the lack of 5 day weeks in the calendar), or treating education like it's optional in other ways. It's really annoying to be lectured by people who don't themselves work their hardest to ensure our kids' time is well used when they are in school or that they have a consistent academic schedule.

This. My son just came home and said they had a [KITCHY NAME WITH SCHOOL MASCOT] day because other kids in the same grade were on a field trip. On further inquiry, he explained that this means they just have the day to do any work that needs to be done (null set for him) and otherwise it is free time. He further explained that this is "basically what we do every Friday." (And this is AAP!) So, yes, missing even a day of school at the parent's discretion will call into question my child's future, but twiddling his thumbs for a day in his school chair is perfectly appropriate. Hard to reconcile the logic. Maybe there is some magic in that FCPS school chair.

Kids exaggerate the truth all the time. Maybe it was a fun day because all the other kids in the grade went on a field trip, but it definitely does not happen every Friday.

DP. In second grade my kid came home and would say they did nothing at school. I would quiz DC in detail about each subject block, and indeed what they did effectively worked out to nothing. When math was "Because Larlo behaved well we watched a YouTube video about how to draw cats, which is Larlo's favorite thing," and DC was done with the language arts work, and they were in between units in social studies and so on, it was effectively nothing. Sure the day was full, but not of academic content. And in third grade DC's teacher's first comment to me was, "I'm surprised at how behind DC is in math." I had to explain how many drawing-cats days there were in 2nd grade math. So not all kids are lying, exaggerating, or forgetting this stuff when they report it. The FCPS curriculum leaves too much space in many grades to really...not do much.

I'm a teacher, and when I first started teaching in elementary school I was stunned by how much of the school day was spent on busy work and time-wasters. Not breaks - the kids could really use more recess and physical activity - but on things like "lining up." I would say lining up in a straight, orderly, silent line and then marching down the hall like little soldiers, and then lining up again at the door to the destination, then spending several minutes being scolded for not being silent or straight enough in line, takes up probably close to an hour a day total. Worksheets and other busy work with the express purpose of keeping some kids busy while the teacher does something else or works with something else account for another hour or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not OP here, responding to both:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD....

and...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chronic absenteeism is a huge problem post-pandemic. Including the OP, who thinks it is NBD.

School districts in Virginia and around the country are trying to deal with it. This is a good thing. Even for UMC kids, missing a week of school is hard and can lead to lasting problems.

This is OP, and guilty as charged. The school year is longer than it needs to be, filled with a bunch of busy work, and a last month where they run out the clock. If the school year allowed for reasonable breaks long enough to take trips, we would use those instead of pulling the kids out of school. There is a big difference between a kid skipping a bunch of school enabled by parental ignorance or indifference, and a kid travelling with his family and keeping up on his work while he's out.

I used to be cowed by all those lectures about chronic absenteeism. Then I saw exactly what OP saw, as did all the other UMC parents. Plus we saw how the schools have no problem interrupting student education when it's convenient for them (the lack of 5 day weeks in the calendar), or treating education like it's optional in other ways. It's really annoying to be lectured by people who don't themselves work their hardest to ensure our kids' time is well used when they are in school or that they have a consistent academic schedule.

This. My son just came home and said they had a [KITCHY NAME WITH SCHOOL MASCOT] day because other kids in the same grade were on a field trip. On further inquiry, he explained that this means they just have the day to do any work that needs to be done (null set for him) and otherwise it is free time. He further explained that this is "basically what we do every Friday." (And this is AAP!) So, yes, missing even a day of school at the parent's discretion will call into question my child's future, but twiddling his thumbs for a day in his school chair is perfectly appropriate. Hard to reconcile the logic. Maybe there is some magic in that FCPS school chair.

Kids exaggerate the truth all the time. Maybe it was a fun day because all the other kids in the grade went on a field trip, but it definitely does not happen every Friday.

DP. In second grade my kid came home and would say they did nothing at school. I would quiz DC in detail about each subject block, and indeed what they did effectively worked out to nothing. When math was "Because Larlo behaved well we watched a YouTube video about how to draw cats, which is Larlo's favorite thing," and DC was done with the language arts work, and they were in between units in social studies and so on, it was effectively nothing. Sure the day was full, but not of academic content. And in third grade DC's teacher's first comment to me was, "I'm surprised at how behind DC is in math." I had to explain how many drawing-cats days there were in 2nd grade math. So not all kids are lying, exaggerating, or forgetting this stuff when they report it. The FCPS curriculum leaves too much space in many grades to really...not do much.

I'm a teacher, and when I first started teaching in elementary school I was stunned by how much of the school day was spent on busy work and time-wasters. Not breaks - the kids could really use more recess and physical activity - but on things like "lining up." I would say lining up in a straight, orderly, silent line and then marching down the hall like little soldiers, and then lining up again at the door to the destination, then spending several minutes being scolded for not being silent or straight enough in line, takes up probably close to an hour a day total. Worksheets and other busy work with the express purpose of keeping some kids busy while the teacher does something else or works with something else account for another hour or two.

Plus, ST Math and Lexia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From what I heard parents were told that schools with more than 10% of kids on track to be considered chronically absent were being required to implement measures like these. I've heard of at least one school springing a surprise lecture about attendance on parents who thought they were there for a chance to see their kids' classrooms in action.

Yep, that happened at Chesterbrook. Parents took time off from work to ‘see’ what ‘morning meeting was like’ and instead were told to go in the library. There, the principal gave a lecture on how absenteeism has grown since Covid and how it can impact learning later on, blah blah, blah. This left very little time to experience morning meeting in the kids’ classrooms. Sorry, I took time off from work!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I heard parents were told that schools with more than 10% of kids on track to be considered chronically absent were being required to implement measures like these. I've heard of at least one school springing a surprise lecture about attendance on parents who thought they were there for a chance to see their kids' classrooms in action.

Yep, that happened at Chesterbrook. Parents took time off from work to ‘see’ what ‘morning meeting was like’ and instead were told to go in the library. There, the principal gave a lecture on how absenteeism has grown since Covid and how it can impact learning later on, blah blah, blah. This left very little time to experience morning meeting in the kids’ classrooms. Sorry, I took time off from work!

PP here. I heard about this from a different ES, which means this was clearly an idea Gatehouse passed around.

The ridiculous thing was that the kids whose parents were likely to show up are the ones who academically are fine (even if they might have missed 5 days for a family vacation).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, the issue is not kids like yours, but you are swept up in the same one-size-fits-all problem-solving. The issue in elementary school in particular is that a lot of lower-income ESOL students miss 1-3 months of each year going back to their countries. Then they return to school and fail all the SOL's. It's frustrating to the schools that they can't stop this. Sounds like yours is trying to crack down with threatening letters, but of course you're probably not the person who is actually causing the problem - but ARE probably the only one actually reading and caring about the empty threats. The ones whose kids are missing a third of the year and who most need to be in school couldn't care less about letters from the school.

How do people of limited means afford to fly internationally so frequently?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This only encourages people to lie.

If you had said they were sick they would have been marked excused.

This. I always just say my kids are sick. I'm not dealing with the school's nonsense.