Vacation in Pre-K DCPS

[Anonymous]

How does it work? We may go for a long-ish vacation in December that would entail an extra 4-5 days of missed instruction days. Since PK is not mandatory, will we get yelled at by the school?

[Anonymous]

No probably not - they have better things to do.

[Anonymous]

If you take a Pre-K spot in DCPS you have the same attendance requirements as K-12. You will be fine with 4 unexcused absences. You should get a letter sent to your home for 5, and maybe a call from the school social worker who may require a meeting. What happens at 5 in reality probably varies from school to school a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you take a Pre-K spot in DCPS you have the same attendance requirements as K-12. You will be fine with 4 unexcused absences. You should get a letter sent to your home for 5, and maybe a call from the school social worker who may require a meeting. What happens at 5 in reality probably varies from school to school a bit.

This is simply not true. Per OSSE guidelines, attendance is only mandatory at K and above. The school can set its own policy, but it’s unenforceable by OSSE.

[Anonymous]

You can’t be serious OP. Are you aware that DCPS very well may not even be open this fall? You think someone will care about your pre-K kid taking a 4 day vacation?

[Anonymous]

We have been in DCPS and DCPCS (and private)- no one cares.

[Anonymous]

A key point is that generally when kids miss days in PK, it doesn't matter at all for the "curriculum". It's PK, so they are just doing supervised play with some reading/math lessons scattered in, plus stuff like morning circle, read alongs, etc. It's totally different than even a 1st grader missing 4 days, where the child might actually miss some instruction that is important for them to build on in the coming weeks. PK almost never has anything like that. The kids are all at different levels with regards to numbers and letters, so missing a random week won't have any impact and unless the school or teacher is unusually strict, they are very unlikely to care.

BUT you might want to check in with the teacher early in the year just to see if there is some issue with missing those days. PK kids do have some mandatory stuff that can be a pain to make up, stuff like benchmarking assessments. I would try really hard not to pull your kid out when something like that is going on because they will give you a hard time about it. But I don't recall any of that stuff happening in December so you're probably fine. I'd still check, though, just to avoid any issues. If there is something like that going on and you give the teacher enough warning, she might be able to do your kids assessment early or something.

[Anonymous]

Given that DCPS … closed the schools … I wouldn’t worry about this for a single minute. Send an email to the school and teacher letting them know you’re on vacation, and don’t look back. attendence requierements can bite my *ss next year.

[Anonymous]

I hate to be this person but why are you, an adult, worried about being “yelled at” by the school? Do you really think DCPS is going to come knocking on your door for your child missing 4 days of school for a vacation? Seriously ????

[Anonymous]

we took two weeks off for vacations. they didnt care but did let me know they were required to report to CPS. no follow up. they have much bigger problems.

[Anonymous]

They don’t care but you’ll get an automated call every day to tell you the kid was absent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you take a Pre-K spot in DCPS you have the same attendance requirements as K-12. You will be fine with 4 unexcused absences. You should get a letter sent to your home for 5, and maybe a call from the school social worker who may require a meeting. What happens at 5 in reality probably varies from school to school a bit.

This is simply not true. Per OSSE guidelines, attendance is only mandatory at K and above. The school can set its own policy, but it’s unenforceable by OSSE.

Section 4(J) - these are DCPS's attendance rules for PK. Maybe OSSE doesn't have requirements for PK, but DPCS does.

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/page_content/attachments/FINAL%20DCPS%20Attendance%20and%20Truancy%20Policy%2008-21-18.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to be this person but why are you, an adult, worried about being “yelled at” by the school? Do you really think DCPS is going to come knocking on your door for your child missing 4 days of school for a vacation? Seriously ????

I think OP is worried about missing their spot for prek3 or what happens. Op doesn't know how DCPS or charter schools work

[Anonymous]

There was the Washington Post story on the family from Capital Hill who was reported to CPS - even through the mom told the school they were leaving for an international adoption: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/how-a-family-adoption-trip-led-to-a-truancy-referral-child-neglect-charge/2015/02/09/156af9ae-b069-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html

But this is not 4 days around the winter break.

Take the vacation and enjoy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been in DCPS and DCPCS (and private)- no one cares.

+1. No one cares.