Reply to Absenteeism-reduction measures at Dranesville ES feel like misplaced student pressure

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My neighbor at a Title 1 school said their ES is also pushing kids to attend school more also. They were told it is a factor in boosting their school score.

We do know many families who take their ES kids out on vacations in excess of 10 days per year, outside of Spring break as its more convenient for them and apparently, they are the type of families the effort is being aimed at, not the sick kids.

[b]There is a culture of "its ok to take take kids out on family vacations at any time," and they are focusing in on this issue.[/b]  [/quote]

Are you saying that the kids who go on vacation for a week are harmed? Is there data to back up a week in the Bahamas hurting a kid academically? I know there are studies showing that FARMS and ELL kids missing school perform poorly academically, but do those studies show the same thing for UMC kids with highly educated parents taking vacation? [/quote]

DP - there’s probably no data either way, but 1) regardless of your SES, it gets more difficult for a kid to miss a week in the higher grades. ES is maybe negligible, MS is difficult, HS they will definitely find themselves behind. 2) there are more than likely no studies on the affects of absenteeism by class/income, because sadly, the majority of kids in the US are low income. They also aren’t generally missing school to spend a week at Disney - it’s more days here and there because they missed the bus and no one could drive them, they had to help with child care, older kids didn’t feel like going, or they wanted to pick up a shift at a job. Stuff like that. Then they start to get behind and now they really don’t want to go because their grades are slipping and they don’t understand the material. It builds on itself. That’s the reality for the average student in the US, not a kid being out for a week with a bad case of pneumonia + all the other less serious illnesses and they end up missing 18 days, or a kid taking a week long Caribbean cruise in May. [/quote]

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