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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Where I work this problem is solved by giving everyone two floating holidays a year in addition to normal vacation time.

The idea is that these can be used to take off on religious holidays so that people are free to take off for theirs without everyone having to take off.  But their use is not limited to religious holidays; everyone gets them and can use them as they see fit.

If it was implemented in a way that teachers would have to give sufficient advance notice for using them, why couldn't this work?  [/quote]

This is a fine idea, but it only addresses the teacher side, not the student side.  If too many kids are missing, it becomes something of a lost instructional day.  Now, I don't think there are enough observant Hindu kids at any given school that more than 10% would be missing, but I might be wrong.  [/quote]

Even for those who aren't religiously observant, it's a big cultural holiday as Christmas is for many purely nominal Christians or the first two nights of Passover for many strictly cultural Jews. As a teacher, I've noticed this with the Eids as well. It's not MCPS's place to police the actual religious faith of students any more than a supervisor could in the world of work for people who use leave for religious holidays. I have Jewish students who take the minor holidays off as a day to decompress or catch up on school work not go to shul. These are still marked "excused for religious". That's between them and God. I bet most of my Christian students used Thursday to shop and go to the movies not attend church services. Why should I care? I don't want MCPS to require a note from the priest, rabbi, or imam that the child attended services. [/quote]

You are probably at a school with more Muslims and Jews, for that matter.  In my HS, I remember one child who fasted during Ramadan and who was "excused" to pray.  There are simply not enough faithful Muslims in the system - who, if absent - would inconvenience the system.

Not all schools have the same balance of religions.  Keep that in mind.  If a school is heavily Latino, Christian holidays will still "rule."

Your lens is different from mine, as our experiences are clearly not the same.  So while I don't think an inquisition is necessary during religious absences, I don't know how equity comes into play when concentrations of religions vary from school to school. So while your school may have a high number of absences on minor holidays, mine doesn't.
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