Anonymous wrote:We pulled our first grader out for a week in November. Let the teacher know a few weeks ahead in the hopes of getting some work so they whole thing wouldn’t be unexcused, but they basically said “don’t worry about making up the work” and then marked them all as unexcused absences.

Getting work from the teacher and the absence being excused or unexcused have nothing to do with each other. Pulling work ahead of time is a lot of work for a teacher who may not be planned that far in advance (this is actually good practice, planning too far ahead does not take into account children's needs and understanding). Often times when a teacher does pull the work ahead of time it doesn't get done by the student anyways. As a note, what is done in school is about group work and the in classroom teaching also, it cannot typically be replicated with worksheets.

- Signed a long term teacher who has taken their own child out of school for a few days at a time for trips.

I do it every year. I never notify the school. It is usually 4 undecided absences. My kids make up the works. Oldest is in 8th and never a problem.

OP here- upper elementary school

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it for a school sanctioned reason or just because, like a family vacation?

Your mileage may vary if it's the latter. Technically, MCPS discourages parents from pulling kids out for nonessential reasons like family travel. So some teachers and admins might give you a harder time about it than others.

No, they don't. Unless a kid is out for 2 entire weeks, then they can make noise and are legally allowed to dis-enroll. And even then, it's a hassle so they'd rather excuse it if you make a good case.

This is what we are told, we pulled our kids out in ES for vacations for 7-10 days. Usually we combined them around holidays with long weekends.

We did this every while the kids were in elementary school, so that we could visit grandparents who live abroad. The school (KPES) did a code 50 once or twice, but then reenrolled the kids without issue.

Now that they are in middle school, they missed the week before Christmas but we no longer pull them out for more than that. It wasn't so much the school, the kids complained that they would otherwise have too much work to make up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it for a school sanctioned reason or just because, like a family vacation?

Your mileage may vary if it's the latter. Technically, MCPS discourages parents from pulling kids out for nonessential reasons like family travel. So some teachers and admins might give you a harder time about it than others.

No, they don't. Unless a kid is out for 2 entire weeks, then they can make noise and are legally allowed to dis-enroll. And even then, it's a hassle so they'd rather excuse it if you make a good case.

I've actually done this before and definitely got flack and pushback from teachers about this....so I don't know why you are definitively insisting "no, they don't" when I have personally experienced pushback from some of my kids' teachers on this.....

Also, I will second what the other PP said about teachers' not giving work in advance despite the advance notice. My experience has been that they prefer for your kid to just catch up and do the makeup work when they get back. This does require your kid to understand they will be working harder for a bit when they get back from being out and commit to that work for a few weeks until they're caught up.

PP you replied to. Because we did too, on several occasions at the elementary, middle and high school level, and received nothing but support. It's true we had a good reason (visa issues - had to leave the country for an embassy appointment and visa approval), but they also chose to believe us.

We pulled our first grader out for a week in November. Let the teacher know a few weeks ahead in the hopes of getting some work so they whole thing wouldn’t be unexcused, but they basically said “don’t worry about making up the work” and then marked them all as unexcused absences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it for a school sanctioned reason or just because, like a family vacation?

Your mileage may vary if it's the latter. Technically, MCPS discourages parents from pulling kids out for nonessential reasons like family travel. So some teachers and admins might give you a harder time about it than others.

No, they don't. Unless a kid is out for 2 entire weeks, then they can make noise and are legally allowed to dis-enroll. And even then, it's a hassle so they'd rather excuse it if you make a good case.

Yes they do.

Anonymous wrote:What grade is it? In HS, if you are pulling out for vacation or to visit family, the attendance secretary will not have authority to excuse anyway, so you risk not being able to make up work (it's at the teacher's discretion). If it's for something like an academic competition, you can usually get administration to approve it. Missing a week of HS is really hard.

For ES, odds are the teacher will just say "it's fine" or--at most--will tell you what math pages they will be covering for that week.

Yes, the stakes are lower in ES and you likely won't get pushback, but you'll face more in HS, which is what I was referencing.

What grade is it? In HS, if you are pulling out for vacation or to visit family, the attendance secretary will not have authority to excuse anyway, so you risk not being able to make up work (it's at the teacher's discretion). If it's for something like an academic competition, you can usually get administration to approve it. Missing a week of HS is really hard.

For ES, odds are the teacher will just say "it's fine" or--at most--will tell you what math pages they will be covering for that week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it for a school sanctioned reason or just because, like a family vacation?

Your mileage may vary if it's the latter. Technically, MCPS discourages parents from pulling kids out for nonessential reasons like family travel. So some teachers and admins might give you a harder time about it than others.

No, they don't. Unless a kid is out for 2 entire weeks, then they can make noise and are legally allowed to dis-enroll. And even then, it's a hassle so they'd rather excuse it if you make a good case.

I've actually done this before and definitely got flack and pushback from teachers about this....so I don't know why you are definitively insisting "no, they don't" when I have personally experienced pushback from some of my kids' teachers on this.....

Also, I will second what the other PP said about teachers' not giving work in advance despite the advance notice. My experience has been that they prefer for your kid to just catch up and do the makeup work when they get back. This does require your kid to understand they will be working harder for a bit when they get back from being out and commit to that work for a few weeks until they're caught up.

Anonymous wrote:Is it for a school sanctioned reason or just because, like a family vacation?

Your mileage may vary if it's the latter. Technically, MCPS discourages parents from pulling kids out for nonessential reasons like family travel. So some teachers and admins might give you a harder time about it than others.

No, they don't. Unless a kid is out for 2 entire weeks, then they can make noise and are legally allowed to dis-enroll. And even then, it's a hassle so they'd rather excuse it if you make a good case.

Is it for a school sanctioned reason or just because, like a family vacation?

Your mileage may vary if it's the latter. Technically, MCPS discourages parents from pulling kids out for nonessential reasons like family travel. So some teachers and admins might give you a harder time about it than others.

Depends if you want teachers to give your child work ahead of time - usually they don't, even with advanced notice, but some do, and it's always polite to let them know anyway. So a week ahead, perhaps?

How much in advance to inform the school?