Is it possible to have an absence excused for educational travel?

[Anonymous]

I have a professional speaking engagement that entails meeting with tribal leaders and some pretty neat stuff (not touristy stuff--these are special activities being arranged by the tribe), and I would definitely bring my oldest child (middle school) with me if the absence would be excused. Is this worth running by the school counselor? Has anyone had an absence that entailed an educational opportunity excused?

[Anonymous]

Who cares if it is excused? Unless your kid misses a lot of school don't waste their time asking.

[Anonymous]

Yes, definitely ask. I saw in MoCo rights and responsibilities action that you can have an absence excused for college visits and other educational reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, definitely ask. I saw in MoCo rights and responsibilities action that you can have an absence excused for college visits and other educational reasons.

Thanks, pp! I reviewed the mcps policies as well and there seems to be room for discretion here. Since it's essentially a once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm inclined to reach out.

[Anonymous]

+1 why does it matter? I assume it's for less than a week?

[Anonymous]

It only matters if your kid has a class with a grade that will go on a high school transcript--in that case, make sure that teacher will allow missed work to be made up.

Otherwise, who cares...the county don't cap absences excused or unexcused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It only matters if your kid has a class with a grade that will go on a high school transcript--in that case, make sure that teacher will allow missed work to be made up.

Otherwise, who cares...the county don't cap absences excused or unexcused.

Because if your child has a large number of unexcused absences from school, they are truant. Which is illegal. And unless your kid is 18, that falls on you, the parent. A few unexcused absences here and there is no big deal, but if they start piling up you don't want to start getting the PPW involved and worrying about the Truancy Review Board.

[Anonymous]

Do it OP. Your child will learn far more by going with you than taking in MCPS curriculum for that amount of time. Just do it. If you ask they may try to give you attitude. Just tell them this is what you're doing because of the educational benefit of such a visit. Offer to have him journal about it. Nothing that happens in middle school is important.

[Anonymous]

It's polite to give the school a heads up, but whatever they say, definitely do it.

[Anonymous]

MCPS was terrible when I had similar opportunities with my dad's career. Instead, because he's a physician, he just wrote us notes saying we were sick, so the absences were excused. This meant we could accompany him on several once in a lifetime experiences and believe me, those experiences were way more important and influential in our lives than things we were taught in school. (FWIW, we were also stellar students, who never received less than an A in any of our classes)

[Anonymous]

Yes. I'm a teacher. My older DD had 3 absences excused for educational travel. One each level (ES, MS, and HS). This was true educational trips though, not a visit to Disney that we claimed would teach CA geography. I have many middle school students who do family travel during the year. My deal is that I give a 4 page graphic organizer on the geography and culture of region they visit. It is easy to fill out with open-ended questions, but usually not things can be googled. Students can complete that OR the work they missed. 9 of 10 students come back with packet undone. The excuse is always that they were at the amusement park, resort pool, or cousins' lake house all the time so they never saw anything else.

[Anonymous]

Bump. What constitutes educational travel? Would a family vacation to Egypt count if you said you'd be visiting the pyramids? Or do you need to enroll in a program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS was terrible when I had similar opportunities with my dad's career. Instead, because he's a physician, he just wrote us notes saying we were sick, so the absences were excused. This meant we could accompany him on several once in a lifetime experiences and believe me, those experiences were way more important and influential in our lives than things we were taught in school. (FWIW, we were also stellar students, who never received less than an A in any of our classes)

You do realize that you put a burden on each of your teachers to facilitate you making up the work you missed right? Yes, we all know you learned a lot traveling with your dad but that does not mean it does not create extra work on already over burdened teachers. Yes I will give up my lunch so you can retake the test from 2 weeks ago that I have not been able to give back to your classmates yet because you have not taken it. Yes I will come up with an extra written assignment just for you because you can not make up the bio lab you missed... And yes there are 6 other kids that I am currently helping make up the work from when they were "sick" too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump. What constitutes educational travel? Would a family vacation to Egypt count if you said you'd be visiting the pyramids? Or do you need to enroll in a program?

Thanks for playing. Please try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, definitely ask. I saw in MoCo rights and responsibilities action that you can have an absence excused for college visits and other educational reasons.

Thanks, pp! I reviewed the mcps policies as well and there seems to be room for discretion here. Since it's essentially a once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm inclined to reach out.

It is possible, but largely depends on how you present it to the principal. As a teacher, I’ve traveled with my children internationally three times without any problems. We usually offer to write a report about the country in addition to making up missed assignments. In middle and HS, one snag is often County assessments that must be administered in a certain window. If it is a HS credit bearing course, there is typically less leeway. A second issue is how the student represents the absence to peers and teachers. My principal is very liberal with excusing educational travel, but gave a very short window for makeups to students who obviously were just on a family vacation in the Caribbean or simply went skiing.

Family “emergencies” are always excused and my students typically return from these emergency trips tanned and full of great stories about how much fun they had. I don’t advocate lying, but if you must travel for work and can’t leave your child behind, that’s a childcare emergency in my book.

Go and don’t worry so much. Teachers are used to it by now and most of us realize the world is a classroom.