Unexcused absences

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Their kids get free breakfast and lunch and sometimes dinner if they are enrolled in a free after school program. Think of the savings there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

Yes, AND there were literally parents and families still away on family trips on that VERY day! It was like she was preaching to the wrong crowd. Everyone was annoyed. No one even asked one question after her slides. We couldn’t wait to get to anything left of the morning meeting which wasn’t much at that point! The principal scored low on satisfaction that day.

[Anonymous]

It's NBD. Just ignore the bureaucrats.

My kid misses ~10 days a year (sports mostly) and has straight A's. She knows if her grades drop she'll get a tighter leash. I'm fine with it.

Results matter.

[Anonymous]

My X took my kids out of state and they missed 3 school days. He said "for family reasons" and they marked them excused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My X took my kids out of state and they missed 3 school days. He said "for family reasons" and they marked them excused.

Depends on your school how things get marked. It's not consistent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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).

Yes, AND there were literally parents and families still away on family trips on that VERY day! It was like she was preaching to the wrong crowd. Everyone was annoyed. No one even asked one question after her slides. We couldn’t wait to get to anything left of the morning meeting which wasn’t much at that point! The principal scored low on satisfaction that day.

Wow. That's wild. They lured you in under false pretenses and made you watch a powerpoint on attendance? YIKES

[Anonymous]

Our school just sent a pamphlet that attendance matters and our children cannot miss more than 9 days, excused or unexcused. We are currently at 8 days excused, due to illnesses such as fever, throwing up and pink eye! I thought it was 10. SMH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our school just sent a pamphlet that attendance matters and our children cannot miss more than 9 days, excused or unexcused. We are currently at 8 days excused, due to illnesses such as fever, throwing up and pink eye! I thought it was 10. SMH

Or what?

[Anonymous]

We got a letter after DS had been absent 5 days. Threatening court action if we missed 10 or more. We already had another trip scheduled that would be obvious he wasn’t sick (coming back tanned) so we said he was on vacation a couple of days and came back sick. He was out a week and still scored perfect on his math test. It’s ES for goodness sake they’ll learn more a week in Europe or wherever than they will in class. Which is constantly interrupted with whatever activity is that week. Boosterthon, movie time, flashlight reading time etc. All this has done is teach parents to lie. He’s going to have another cold for the upcoming Eclipse trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school just sent a pamphlet that attendance matters and our children cannot miss more than 9 days, excused or unexcused. We are currently at 8 days excused, due to illnesses such as fever, throwing up and pink eye! I thought it was 10. SMH

Or what?

OP here. I was wondering the same! Like what happens after 9?! Hopefully nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got a letter after DS had been absent 5 days. Threatening court action if we missed 10 or more. We already had another trip scheduled that would be obvious he wasn’t sick (coming back tanned) so we said he was on vacation a couple of days and came back sick. He was out a week and still scored perfect on his math test. It’s ES for goodness sake they’ll learn more a week in Europe or wherever than they will in class. Which is constantly interrupted with whatever activity is that week. Boosterthon, movie time, flashlight reading time etc. All this has done is teach parents to lie. He’s going to have another cold for the upcoming Eclipse trip.

What? Court action for 10 days off for family trips for a kid with perfect scores on his tests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got a letter after DS had been absent 5 days. Threatening court action if we missed 10 or more. We already had another trip scheduled that would be obvious he wasn’t sick (coming back tanned) so we said he was on vacation a couple of days and came back sick. He was out a week and still scored perfect on his math test. It’s ES for goodness sake they’ll learn more a week in Europe or wherever than they will in class. Which is constantly interrupted with whatever activity is that week. Boosterthon, movie time, flashlight reading time etc. All this has done is teach parents to lie. He’s going to have another cold for the upcoming Eclipse trip.

What? Court action for 10 days off for family trips for a kid with perfect scores on his tests?

Truant laws apply to everyone, not just to "other families"? Oh no!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got a letter after DS had been absent 5 days. Threatening court action if we missed 10 or more. We already had another trip scheduled that would be obvious he wasn’t sick (coming back tanned) so we said he was on vacation a couple of days and came back sick. He was out a week and still scored perfect on his math test. It’s ES for goodness sake they’ll learn more a week in Europe or wherever than they will in class. Which is constantly interrupted with whatever activity is that week. Boosterthon, movie time, flashlight reading time etc. All this has done is teach parents to lie. He’s going to have another cold for the upcoming Eclipse trip.

What? Court action for 10 days off for family trips for a kid with perfect scores on his tests?

Truant laws apply to everyone, not just to "other families"? Oh no!

Truant laws for high performing kids - really? Family vacations for high performing kids should be excused absences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got a letter after DS had been absent 5 days. Threatening court action if we missed 10 or more. We already had another trip scheduled that would be obvious he wasn’t sick (coming back tanned) so we said he was on vacation a couple of days and came back sick. He was out a week and still scored perfect on his math test. It’s ES for goodness sake they’ll learn more a week in Europe or wherever than they will in class. Which is constantly interrupted with whatever activity is that week. Boosterthon, movie time, flashlight reading time etc. All this has done is teach parents to lie. He’s going to have another cold for the upcoming Eclipse trip.

What? Court action for 10 days off for family trips for a kid with perfect scores on his tests?

Truant laws apply to everyone, not just to "other families"? Oh no!

A high performing kid is going on a family vacation. Oh no! … get over it.

[Anonymous]

A friend in PA, her kid has 18 excused days off. No mention of courts. I think 9-10 in VA is ridiculous in my opinion. Specially excused days off.