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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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”.

I think you're being kind of gross and would think less of you for it if I knew you. You need to understand that what happens is CPS may call you and tell you that school is important, but close out the case because your child is not actually being neglected or abused.

I think you could technically lose your OOB spot but probably they wouldn't bother. However if you act like an entitled PITA in other ways, that can subtly affect your experience. It seems like you're treating school like a daycare where you can come and go as you please, and teachers resent that because it's disrespectful and it's more work for them to catch your kid up.

I’m sorry but with a chance for my kid to see Bratislava for 4 days vs. miss a few days of school, I think it’s okay. You can pass moral judgments. It’s not as they matter to me because you have no impact on my life.

No one is judging you for your choice to take your kid out of school. We're judging you for lying in order to avoid the consequences.

Wait -- I'm judging him or her for taking the child out of school. If you give a child the message that school is important...unless you have other things you want to do, it leads to entitlement and ends up biting you in the butt when the kid blows off school later. I think it's poor parenting.

[Anonymous]

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

To be fair, it's cheaper to fly overseas and ski in the Alps than it is to go to the Rockies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our child missed 6 days of school within the last 2 months and we received a warning letter from our DCPS elementary school about unexcused absences. Our kid is doing well in school. I get that truancy is a real issue, but we are not out there missing 43 days of school a year or a crazy amount of days.

We are planning to be out again for 4 more days in the coming months, which would ultimately get us up to 10 days of unexcused absences at that point.

Can someone expand on how serious it is if my child ends up missing 10 days of unexcused absences in a year (unless we can get a doctors note or some other way to have the absence excused)?

What would 10 days mean? Essentially the letter notes at 10 absences they will refer the student to the District of Columbia Child and family services agency.

Do unexcused days impact the upcoming school lottery in any way? Ex. Would a prospective school see these on permanent record and factor that in the decision?

What are some grounds for having absences excused? Is religious observance a good one to use? Or family emergency?

It seems since the pandemic there has been a serious effort to crack down on truancy, which is completely understandable, but it’s pretty rigid and want to better understand the consequences.

Thanks.

Our school sends these out even if the days you were out you were sick. My child doesn't go to DCPS, but was out 4 days, 3 of which they were sick (fever and then stomach bug) and one day we left to see family. Still got a letter after 4 days of being out! Called the school and sick days still count toward the # for some reason... A friend of mine kept her kid out for 4 days because she had a 104 degree fever and got a letter!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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”.

I think you're being kind of gross and would think less of you for it if I knew you. You need to understand that what happens is CPS may call you and tell you that school is important, but close out the case because your child is not actually being neglected or abused.

I think you could technically lose your OOB spot but probably they wouldn't bother. However if you act like an entitled PITA in other ways, that can subtly affect your experience. It seems like you're treating school like a daycare where you can come and go as you please, and teachers resent that because it's disrespectful and it's more work for them to catch your kid up.

I’m sorry but with a chance for my kid to see Bratislava for 4 days vs. miss a few days of school, I think it’s okay. You can pass moral judgments. It’s not as they matter to me because you have no impact on my life.

It sounds like you should homeschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.)

No. Do not give teachers more work to accommodate your off-peak flight/vacation. You can buy a workbook from Target.

I don't even respond to those emails anymore. I just cc the social worker and let her do her thing.

Reading comprehension much? I specifically said not to ask them to prepare anything. My older kids' teachers have their homework ready well in advance and have always been happy to give it to us early. It's not a matter of me needing stuff for my kids to do, it's that I don't want my kids to get behind on work in a way that's a pain for their teachers. You must be at an UNW school if you think the school's social workers would care at all about this scenario. Our school's saintly overworked social worker would delete your message in a heartbeat.

"our teachers have always been willing to do it". Do what? because you are "honest" they just look the other way. You sound like a pain in the ass parent.
You are lucky you aren't in my class or at our school. Your out of boundary *ss would have been kicked out by now. Sounds like your saintly social worker should be fired for not doing their job.

Ever heard of Rashida Rudd from your little perch?

I’m not sure what you’re having trouble following. Our teachers have always been willing to mark a few days as excused even when we tell the truth about our plans in order to avoid hassle with the 10 day letter/CPS/etc. I’m also in the boundary of my school FWIW and have very good relationships with most of our teachers.

I’ve heard of Relisha Rudd, of course, but still think it is a waste of resources to go after families for missing 10 days, especially non-consecutively, when you know exactly where they are. We’d be totally happy to do a Teams call if that assuaged concerns — and in fact one of the kids did call into class to show the teacher and class something they’d learned about in school (at the teacher’s request) on our last trip.

Your travel plans should not be excused. What part of that do you not understand?

My advice was to OP who was explicitly asking how to deal with this issue. I offered a way that worked for us. You offered judgment.

How could I not? You and the OP are lying and suggesting teachers lie for you.

When I get an email “we are traveling to my husbands home country to celebrate his fathers birthday, can you please give us work for my darling child”

I say “safe travels.”. I do go out of my way to send class work. Nor do I mark the child excused. Because I could lose my job.

What is excused? My kid was barfing literally all night so I kept him home from school. Called school, told them (there was noroviurs going around), and kept him home another day until he hadn't barfed for 24 hours as school policy.
Another time he had a fever 100 so I kept him home, and sent him back next day because fever free 24 hours. Then one day we left on a Friday to go see a family member out of state who was in the hospital. ALL of those counted as unexcused absences. I called the school (after I got a letter), they said it wasn't a big deal, but I didn't have a doctors note, so it counted.

I have a high deductible insurance so it costs me $180 each time I take my kid in for a sick visit. I happily take them, but not for a throw up bug or a low fever that goes away after a couple hours. Only 2x did I ever give me a doctor's note- height of Covid and when my child fell at school. So do school admins have advice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.)

No. Do not give teachers more work to accommodate your off-peak flight/vacation. You can buy a workbook from Target.

I don't even respond to those emails anymore. I just cc the social worker and let her do her thing.

Reading comprehension much? I specifically said not to ask them to prepare anything. My older kids' teachers have their homework ready well in advance and have always been happy to give it to us early. It's not a matter of me needing stuff for my kids to do, it's that I don't want my kids to get behind on work in a way that's a pain for their teachers. You must be at an UNW school if you think the school's social workers would care at all about this scenario. Our school's saintly overworked social worker would delete your message in a heartbeat.

"our teachers have always been willing to do it". Do what? because you are "honest" they just look the other way. You sound like a pain in the ass parent.
You are lucky you aren't in my class or at our school. Your out of boundary *ss would have been kicked out by now. Sounds like your saintly social worker should be fired for not doing their job.

Ever heard of Rashida Rudd from your little perch?

I’m not sure what you’re having trouble following. Our teachers have always been willing to mark a few days as excused even when we tell the truth about our plans in order to avoid hassle with the 10 day letter/CPS/etc. I’m also in the boundary of my school FWIW and have very good relationships with most of our teachers.

I’ve heard of Relisha Rudd, of course, but still think it is a waste of resources to go after families for missing 10 days, especially non-consecutively, when you know exactly where they are. We’d be totally happy to do a Teams call if that assuaged concerns — and in fact one of the kids did call into class to show the teacher and class something they’d learned about in school (at the teacher’s request) on our last trip.

Your travel plans should not be excused. What part of that do you not understand?

My advice was to OP who was explicitly asking how to deal with this issue. I offered a way that worked for us. You offered judgment.

How could I not? You and the OP are lying and suggesting teachers lie for you.

When I get an email “we are traveling to my husbands home country to celebrate his fathers birthday, can you please give us work for my darling child”

I say “safe travels.”. I do go out of my way to send class work. Nor do I mark the child excused. Because I could lose my job.

What is excused? My kid was barfing literally all night so I kept him home from school. Called school, told them (there was noroviurs going around), and kept him home another day until he hadn't barfed for 24 hours as school policy.
Another time he had a fever 100 so I kept him home, and sent him back next day because fever free 24 hours. Then one day we left on a Friday to go see a family member out of state who was in the hospital. ALL of those counted as unexcused absences. I called the school (after I got a letter), they said it wasn't a big deal, but I didn't have a doctors note, so it counted.

I have a high deductible insurance so it costs me $180 each time I take my kid in for a sick visit. I happily take them, but not for a throw up bug or a low fever that goes away after a couple hours. Only 2x did I ever give me a doctor's note- height of Covid and when my child fell at school. So do school admins have advice?

This is weird. Our school doesn't require a doctor's note for "excused" sick days until you've been out more than 3 or 5 days in a row or something. But if you're not out that long, the parent can just say "sick," and it counts as excused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.)

No. Do not give teachers more work to accommodate your off-peak flight/vacation. You can buy a workbook from Target.

I don't even respond to those emails anymore. I just cc the social worker and let her do her thing.

Reading comprehension much? I specifically said not to ask them to prepare anything. My older kids' teachers have their homework ready well in advance and have always been happy to give it to us early. It's not a matter of me needing stuff for my kids to do, it's that I don't want my kids to get behind on work in a way that's a pain for their teachers. You must be at an UNW school if you think the school's social workers would care at all about this scenario. Our school's saintly overworked social worker would delete your message in a heartbeat.

"our teachers have always been willing to do it". Do what? because you are "honest" they just look the other way. You sound like a pain in the ass parent.
You are lucky you aren't in my class or at our school. Your out of boundary *ss would have been kicked out by now. Sounds like your saintly social worker should be fired for not doing their job.

Ever heard of Rashida Rudd from your little perch?

I’m not sure what you’re having trouble following. Our teachers have always been willing to mark a few days as excused even when we tell the truth about our plans in order to avoid hassle with the 10 day letter/CPS/etc. I’m also in the boundary of my school FWIW and have very good relationships with most of our teachers.

I’ve heard of Relisha Rudd, of course, but still think it is a waste of resources to go after families for missing 10 days, especially non-consecutively, when you know exactly where they are. We’d be totally happy to do a Teams call if that assuaged concerns — and in fact one of the kids did call into class to show the teacher and class something they’d learned about in school (at the teacher’s request) on our last trip.

I would be very upset if my child's teacher allowed this to happen. How could a teacher think it's appropriate to flaunt another family's wealth and complete disregard for school attendance in front of the whole class?

There's so much bitterness in this post that I think it must be fake, but it was always very common when I was in school for kids to share photos or stories of their trips especially to destinations relevant to what we were learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.)

No. Do not give teachers more work to accommodate your off-peak flight/vacation. You can buy a workbook from Target.

I don't even respond to those emails anymore. I just cc the social worker and let her do her thing.

Reading comprehension much? I specifically said not to ask them to prepare anything. My older kids' teachers have their homework ready well in advance and have always been happy to give it to us early. It's not a matter of me needing stuff for my kids to do, it's that I don't want my kids to get behind on work in a way that's a pain for their teachers. You must be at an UNW school if you think the school's social workers would care at all about this scenario. Our school's saintly overworked social worker would delete your message in a heartbeat.

"our teachers have always been willing to do it". Do what? because you are "honest" they just look the other way. You sound like a pain in the ass parent.
You are lucky you aren't in my class or at our school. Your out of boundary *ss would have been kicked out by now. Sounds like your saintly social worker should be fired for not doing their job.

Ever heard of Rashida Rudd from your little perch?

I’m not sure what you’re having trouble following. Our teachers have always been willing to mark a few days as excused even when we tell the truth about our plans in order to avoid hassle with the 10 day letter/CPS/etc. I’m also in the boundary of my school FWIW and have very good relationships with most of our teachers.

I’ve heard of Relisha Rudd, of course, but still think it is a waste of resources to go after families for missing 10 days, especially non-consecutively, when you know exactly where they are. We’d be totally happy to do a Teams call if that assuaged concerns — and in fact one of the kids did call into class to show the teacher and class something they’d learned about in school (at the teacher’s request) on our last trip.

I would be very upset if my child's teacher allowed this to happen. How could a teacher think it's appropriate to flaunt another family's wealth and complete disregard for school attendance in front of the whole class?

There's so much bitterness in this post that I think it must be fake, but it was always very common when I was in school for kids to share photos or stories of their trips especially to destinations relevant to what we were learning.

There is a big difference between a student sharing "What I did during winter break" and a student sharing "What I'm currently doing on vacation while you suckers sit in class."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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”.

I think you're being kind of gross and would think less of you for it if I knew you. You need to understand that what happens is CPS may call you and tell you that school is important, but close out the case because your child is not actually being neglected or abused.

I think you could technically lose your OOB spot but probably they wouldn't bother. However if you act like an entitled PITA in other ways, that can subtly affect your experience. It seems like you're treating school like a daycare where you can come and go as you please, and teachers resent that because it's disrespectful and it's more work for them to catch your kid up.

I’m sorry but with a chance for my kid to see Bratislava for 4 days vs. miss a few days of school, I think it’s okay. You can pass moral judgments. It’s not as they matter to me because you have no impact on my life.

It sounds like you should homeschool.

Right?? OP is acting like Bratislava isn't there in July when school is out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.)

No. Do not give teachers more work to accommodate your off-peak flight/vacation. You can buy a workbook from Target.

I don't even respond to those emails anymore. I just cc the social worker and let her do her thing.

Reading comprehension much? I specifically said not to ask them to prepare anything. My older kids' teachers have their homework ready well in advance and have always been happy to give it to us early. It's not a matter of me needing stuff for my kids to do, it's that I don't want my kids to get behind on work in a way that's a pain for their teachers. You must be at an UNW school if you think the school's social workers would care at all about this scenario. Our school's saintly overworked social worker would delete your message in a heartbeat.

"our teachers have always been willing to do it". Do what? because you are "honest" they just look the other way. You sound like a pain in the ass parent.
You are lucky you aren't in my class or at our school. Your out of boundary *ss would have been kicked out by now. Sounds like your saintly social worker should be fired for not doing their job.

Ever heard of Rashida Rudd from your little perch?

I’m not sure what you’re having trouble following. Our teachers have always been willing to mark a few days as excused even when we tell the truth about our plans in order to avoid hassle with the 10 day letter/CPS/etc. I’m also in the boundary of my school FWIW and have very good relationships with most of our teachers.

I’ve heard of Relisha Rudd, of course, but still think it is a waste of resources to go after families for missing 10 days, especially non-consecutively, when you know exactly where they are. We’d be totally happy to do a Teams call if that assuaged concerns — and in fact one of the kids did call into class to show the teacher and class something they’d learned about in school (at the teacher’s request) on our last trip.

I would be very upset if my child's teacher allowed this to happen. How could a teacher think it's appropriate to flaunt another family's wealth and complete disregard for school attendance in front of the whole class?

There's so much bitterness in this post that I think it must be fake, but it was always very common when I was in school for kids to share photos or stories of their trips especially to destinations relevant to what we were learning.

Because the original poster suggested allowing their child to be live-streamed during class time to share where they are. Super weird. Even weirder of the teacher allowed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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”.

I think you're being kind of gross and would think less of you for it if I knew you. You need to understand that what happens is CPS may call you and tell you that school is important, but close out the case because your child is not actually being neglected or abused.

I think you could technically lose your OOB spot but probably they wouldn't bother. However if you act like an entitled PITA in other ways, that can subtly affect your experience. It seems like you're treating school like a daycare where you can come and go as you please, and teachers resent that because it's disrespectful and it's more work for them to catch your kid up.

I’m sorry but with a chance for my kid to see Bratislava for 4 days vs. miss a few days of school, I think it’s okay. You can pass moral judgments. It’s not as they matter to me because you have no impact on my life.

No one is judging you for your choice to take your kid out of school. We're judging you for lying in order to avoid the consequences.

Wait -- I'm judging him or her for taking the child out of school. If you give a child the message that school is important...unless you have other things you want to do, it leads to entitlement and ends up biting you in the butt when the kid blows off school later. I think it's poor parenting.

I feel similarly. It's not the worst thing ever, but I don't like the message that it sends. If I want my kids to understand that school really matters and is to be taken seriously, my actions need to reflect that. I don't make school optional optional because I deserve a cheaper flight or slightly longer vacation. Things like religious observance or funerals, weddings, etc.? Totally get it. Those are dates you can't control. But you want to fly to Disney on a Wednesday rather than a Friday? That just doesn't feel right to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.)

No. Do not give teachers more work to accommodate your off-peak flight/vacation. You can buy a workbook from Target.

I don't even respond to those emails anymore. I just cc the social worker and let her do her thing.

Reading comprehension much? I specifically said not to ask them to prepare anything. My older kids' teachers have their homework ready well in advance and have always been happy to give it to us early. It's not a matter of me needing stuff for my kids to do, it's that I don't want my kids to get behind on work in a way that's a pain for their teachers. You must be at an UNW school if you think the school's social workers would care at all about this scenario. Our school's saintly overworked social worker would delete your message in a heartbeat.

"our teachers have always been willing to do it". Do what? because you are "honest" they just look the other way. You sound like a pain in the ass parent.
You are lucky you aren't in my class or at our school. Your out of boundary *ss would have been kicked out by now. Sounds like your saintly social worker should be fired for not doing their job.

Ever heard of Rashida Rudd from your little perch?

I’m not sure what you’re having trouble following. Our teachers have always been willing to mark a few days as excused even when we tell the truth about our plans in order to avoid hassle with the 10 day letter/CPS/etc. I’m also in the boundary of my school FWIW and have very good relationships with most of our teachers.

I’ve heard of Relisha Rudd, of course, but still think it is a waste of resources to go after families for missing 10 days, especially non-consecutively, when you know exactly where they are. We’d be totally happy to do a Teams call if that assuaged concerns — and in fact one of the kids did call into class to show the teacher and class something they’d learned about in school (at the teacher’s request) on our last trip.

I would be very upset if my child's teacher allowed this to happen. How could a teacher think it's appropriate to flaunt another family's wealth and complete disregard for school attendance in front of the whole class?

There's so much bitterness in this post that I think it must be fake, but it was always very common when I was in school for kids to share photos or stories of their trips especially to destinations relevant to what we were learning.

Because the original poster suggested allowing their child to be live-streamed during class time to share where they are. Super weird. Even weirder of the teacher allowed it.

The teacher requested it, actually, and my child wasn't the first child to do it and won't be the last. The idea of zooming someone not in the classroom obviously didn't exist when you were in school, but it's essentially the better version of photos/stories. Also, obviously there is absolutely no difference when it comes to "flaunt[ing] another family's wealth." In fact, the rich kid could get back to school on time more easily because ticket prices don't matter to their family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.)

No. Do not give teachers more work to accommodate your off-peak flight/vacation. You can buy a workbook from Target.

I don't even respond to those emails anymore. I just cc the social worker and let her do her thing.

Reading comprehension much? I specifically said not to ask them to prepare anything. My older kids' teachers have their homework ready well in advance and have always been happy to give it to us early. It's not a matter of me needing stuff for my kids to do, it's that I don't want my kids to get behind on work in a way that's a pain for their teachers. You must be at an UNW school if you think the school's social workers would care at all about this scenario. Our school's saintly overworked social worker would delete your message in a heartbeat.

"our teachers have always been willing to do it". Do what? because you are "honest" they just look the other way. You sound like a pain in the ass parent.
You are lucky you aren't in my class or at our school. Your out of boundary *ss would have been kicked out by now. Sounds like your saintly social worker should be fired for not doing their job.

Ever heard of Rashida Rudd from your little perch?

I’m not sure what you’re having trouble following. Our teachers have always been willing to mark a few days as excused even when we tell the truth about our plans in order to avoid hassle with the 10 day letter/CPS/etc. I’m also in the boundary of my school FWIW and have very good relationships with most of our teachers.

I’ve heard of Relisha Rudd, of course, but still think it is a waste of resources to go after families for missing 10 days, especially non-consecutively, when you know exactly where they are. We’d be totally happy to do a Teams call if that assuaged concerns — and in fact one of the kids did call into class to show the teacher and class something they’d learned about in school (at the teacher’s request) on our last trip.

I would be very upset if my child's teacher allowed this to happen. How could a teacher think it's appropriate to flaunt another family's wealth and complete disregard for school attendance in front of the whole class?

There's so much bitterness in this post that I think it must be fake, but it was always very common when I was in school for kids to share photos or stories of their trips especially to destinations relevant to what we were learning.

Because the original poster suggested allowing their child to be live-streamed during class time to share where they are. Super weird. Even weirder of the teacher allowed it.

The teacher requested it, actually, and my child wasn't the first child to do it and won't be the last. The idea of zooming someone not in the classroom obviously didn't exist when you were in school, but it's essentially the better version of photos/stories. Also, obviously there is absolutely no difference when it comes to "flaunt[ing] another family's wealth." In fact, the rich kid could get back to school on time more easily because ticket prices don't matter to their family.

The "poor" kids are the ones skipping school for vacation because they can't afford the more expensive flights? Lol.

You live in quite the bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.)

No. Do not give teachers more work to accommodate your off-peak flight/vacation. You can buy a workbook from Target.

I don't even respond to those emails anymore. I just cc the social worker and let her do her thing.

Reading comprehension much? I specifically said not to ask them to prepare anything. My older kids' teachers have their homework ready well in advance and have always been happy to give it to us early. It's not a matter of me needing stuff for my kids to do, it's that I don't want my kids to get behind on work in a way that's a pain for their teachers. You must be at an UNW school if you think the school's social workers would care at all about this scenario. Our school's saintly overworked social worker would delete your message in a heartbeat.

"our teachers have always been willing to do it". Do what? because you are "honest" they just look the other way. You sound like a pain in the ass parent.
You are lucky you aren't in my class or at our school. Your out of boundary *ss would have been kicked out by now. Sounds like your saintly social worker should be fired for not doing their job.

Ever heard of Rashida Rudd from your little perch?

I’m not sure what you’re having trouble following. Our teachers have always been willing to mark a few days as excused even when we tell the truth about our plans in order to avoid hassle with the 10 day letter/CPS/etc. I’m also in the boundary of my school FWIW and have very good relationships with most of our teachers.

I’ve heard of Relisha Rudd, of course, but still think it is a waste of resources to go after families for missing 10 days, especially non-consecutively, when you know exactly where they are. We’d be totally happy to do a Teams call if that assuaged concerns — and in fact one of the kids did call into class to show the teacher and class something they’d learned about in school (at the teacher’s request) on our last trip.

I would be very upset if my child's teacher allowed this to happen. How could a teacher think it's appropriate to flaunt another family's wealth and complete disregard for school attendance in front of the whole class?

There's so much bitterness in this post that I think it must be fake, but it was always very common when I was in school for kids to share photos or stories of their trips especially to destinations relevant to what we were learning.

Because the original poster suggested allowing their child to be live-streamed during class time to share where they are. Super weird. Even weirder of the teacher allowed it.

The teacher requested it, actually, and my child wasn't the first child to do it and won't be the last. The idea of zooming someone not in the classroom obviously didn't exist when you were in school, but it's essentially the better version of photos/stories. Also, obviously there is absolutely no difference when it comes to "flaunt[ing] another family's wealth." In fact, the rich kid could get back to school on time more easily because ticket prices don't matter to their family.

Super weird. I work at a great school and I cannot imagine any teacher, from pk all the way to fifth allowing this. Never mentioned wealth- you seem obsessed.

[Anonymous]

We have missed a lot of school. And we have never been referred. My guess is if you're at a school with a lot of poverty where kids missing a lot of school is a red flag, you're more likely to get referred. We were in an UMC DCPS. No issues.