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[quote=Anonymous]Parent of a 3rd grade AAP DS.  We did this for Thanksgiving week this year, and yes, it was an educational trip - didn't matter to the school.  BTW, this was a trip that had been planned before we moved to Fairfax county.  Only one teacher of the group gave us work ahead of time, the others did NOT and did not allow the work to be made up.  It's 3rd grade so I didn't care as much whether it affected his grade - and yes, at this age, a lot of the grade is based on the "homework" not test grades.  A disadvantage for the boys, but it is what it is.

Luckily, our trip only consisted of 3 days out of school, but we were told on several occasions we would get a truancy letter and if we had 5 days in the school year, there is a mandatory call/visit by the truancy officer for Fairfax county schools now.  This is a new legislative/mandatory requirement I am told.  I'm told our school is normally lenient about this, but they have no control over the new reporting requirement (or the new enforcement of the reporting requirement I should say).

He had no problem being caught up, but it did take a little extra work (which he usually doesn't have to do).  Would I do it again?  Probably not unless it was something VERY special.  We've lived all over the world (including DS), so we also don't feel the need to have to take him there right now.  Fourth grade might still be OK, but they do move pretty quickly, so if you kid is not a self-starter, be prepared to push to get things caught up.  I'd say by 5th grade AAP, I would not take them out and just suck it up until school vacation time.  I would not, even now, take any vacation in May though due to the SOLs.  Unfortunately, this is the bread and butter of the schools right now and you will really get on the schools bad side for missing this.  Best not to go there.

This is not to say we have stopped or will stop taking vacations, esp. to historical sites which we love.  We do 4 or 5 a year.  We'll just NOT do them during school, or take one day here or one day there if needed.  Just my two cents for someone who has been there, done that.[/quote]

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