Reply to Extended unexcused absence in APS

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Reply to "Extended unexcused absence in APS"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow. That sounds like a little much.

I did not receive a letter like that but I did have to have a visit with a social worker after DD missed more than maybe 18 days of school. This was because of major stomach aches and a family trip. It was actually a great conversation; I learned that DD's stomach aches were likely a result of anxiety and got her into therapy. I genuinely felt like it was to help our situation rather than to "get after us."

In your situation that form letter is just to get parents who are blase about attendance to act. Statistically speaking, it is really bad to miss a ton of school, so schools highly discourage it. Also, if too many kids in a school miss more than 18 days of school, the school gets a bad grade on their school report card and might sink to level 2 status. That means the school gets a lot more scrutiny from the county (and probably the state, I am not too familiar with how it works). Teachers hate that because it means much less autonomy, so I don't blame the schools for wanting to avoid that situation.

TLDR I am 99.99% sure they would not haul you to court for this because you aren't the target audience of that letter. Even if they did, I personally wouldn't let that stop me from going on this trip. Connecting with grandparents and family of origin is important and the educational consequences will be minimal. [/quote]

I agree with above. However, I believe it's a problem as the student gets older. Hopefully this isn't a yearly occurrence for your child. I don't get why families can't/won't make their long trips during the times that would minimize their student's absences. Nevertheless, I do believe it's a case-by-case basis. Your child is ahead and won't likely suffer academically. Please keep in mind, though, that going into middle and high school, kids do more group projects and classes are more significantly impacted by absences.[/quote]

OP here, thanks for the reassurance!! I wasn’t nervous about it before the trip based on my conversations with the teachers and principal, but this made me anxious. This was likely once in a lifetime — grandmother was traveling, it was a major holiday in the country where she went, and she can do her first grade schoolwork in her sleep — and I definitely wouldn’t plan to pull her routinely or after she gets older.[/quote]

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