Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have a child in public school who will be attending the NCSA/ISCA/spring zone meets do you have any tips in working with the school to not have these days be marked as unexcused absences or penalized for missing in class work? This is for a 7th grader who otherwise attends in person if it matters. I want to be upfront with the school and am hoping the end result would be to allow virtual asynchronous for a week. Thanks!

No good reason for a kid to miss school for a club swim meet. Club swimming merely a tool to get you ready for HS and Summer swimming. Kids shouldn't be putting much emphasis on club meets and definitely not traveling 1000 miles for them. Let them have fun and swim locally

Lol, as I have to sometimes ask my younger kid, is it Opposite Day?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have a child in public school who will be attending the NCSA/ISCA/spring zone meets do you have any tips in working with the school to not have these days be marked as unexcused absences or penalized for missing in class work? This is for a 7th grader who otherwise attends in person if it matters. I want to be upfront with the school and am hoping the end result would be to allow virtual asynchronous for a week. Thanks!

No good reason for a kid to miss school for a club swim meet. Club swimming merely a tool to get you ready for HS and Summer swimming. Kids shouldn't be putting much emphasis on club meets and definitely not traveling 1000 miles for them. Let them have fun and swim locally

What?! You are not in tune with the sport, particularly as level increases. Sure, no one has to travel in MS, it is a privilege to gain that experience, but the emphasis of club swim has little/nothing to do with summer/HS swim. Those are the fun rewards for training all year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i said no to the ISCA age group meet because it was missing too much school for an 8th grader taking HS math right after spring break. I haven't decided yet for the zone meet right before the break.

The school is not going to consider this excused absence unless you lie. If you're comfortable with that, you do you.

Not sure why all that was elegant (math level, zones, etc.)

Relevant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have a child in public school who will be attending the NCSA/ISCA/spring zone meets do you have any tips in working with the school to not have these days be marked as unexcused absences or penalized for missing in class work? This is for a 7th grader who otherwise attends in person if it matters. I want to be upfront with the school and am hoping the end result would be to allow virtual asynchronous for a week. Thanks!

No good reason for a kid to miss school for a club swim meet. Club swimming merely a tool to get you ready for HS and Summer swimming. Kids shouldn't be putting much emphasis on club meets and definitely not traveling 1000 miles for them. Let them have fun and swim locally

🙄 Yup, kids are getting up at zero dark thirty to swim for an hour and a half before school all in the name of prepping for MCSL or NVSL. Swimmers also love travel meets, it’s a badge of achievement for them because if you aren’t that good, you don’t travel.

Anonymous wrote:If you have a child in public school who will be attending the NCSA/ISCA/spring zone meets do you have any tips in working with the school to not have these days be marked as unexcused absences or penalized for missing in class work? This is for a 7th grader who otherwise attends in person if it matters. I want to be upfront with the school and am hoping the end result would be to allow virtual asynchronous for a week. Thanks!

No good reason for a kid to miss school for a club swim meet. Club swimming merely a tool to get you ready for HS and Summer swimming. Kids shouldn't be putting much emphasis on club meets and definitely not traveling 1000 miles for them. Let them have fun and swim locally

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is skipping for an elective activity. Own it. Or don’t have your kid do events that are during school days. Frankly I find it 100% ridiculous that the swim overlords scheduling the meets put them on weekdays. School should be a priority.

Plenty of sports result in missed school days. IMHO, some of these athletes plan to participate in their sport in college. Performing consistently, particularly in swimming, is learned over years. When performance is measured down to the hundredth of a second, can they still do well after flying, staying in a hotel, and not having the comforts and routines of being at home?

Anonymous wrote:i said no to the ISCA age group meet because it was missing too much school for an 8th grader taking HS math right after spring break. I haven't decided yet for the zone meet right before the break.

The school is not going to consider this excused absence unless you lie. If you're comfortable with that, you do you.

Not sure why all that was elegant (math level, zones, etc.)

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is skipping for an elective activity. Own it. Or don’t have your kid do events that are during school days. Frankly I find it 100% ridiculous that the swim overlords scheduling the meets put them on weekdays. School should be a priority.

It’s once a year for a big deal meet. They learn to goal set for the meet, manage their time with the demands of school and sport, train hard, compete while away from home and in some cases away from their parents. These are all valuable lessons in being a well-rounded person.

There are lots of kids in this area using swimming (or whatever skill they may have) as a springboard to great school opportunities. Many of them are prioritizing that starting by MS and certainly in HS. I’m not even talking about scholarship money or having to be fast enough for big D1 programs; there are local swimmers at/heading to Ivies and fantastic D3 schools where swimming (and all its lessons) opened doors.

Your kid is skipping for an elective activity. Own it. Or don’t have your kid do events that are during school days. Frankly I find it 100% ridiculous that the swim overlords scheduling the meets put them on weekdays. School should be a priority.

i said no to the ISCA age group meet because it was missing too much school for an 8th grader taking HS math right after spring break. I haven't decided yet for the zone meet right before the break.

The school is not going to consider this excused absence unless you lie. If you're comfortable with that, you do you.

Anonymous wrote:Death in the family! We always use that one. We are in DCPS and until recently that wasn't considered and excused absence but they just changed it again last summer to include it again. Phew.

I would never use this.

Anonymous wrote:Death in the family! We always use that one. We are in DCPS and until recently that wasn't considered and excused absence but they just changed it again last summer to include it again. Phew.

Horrible idea.

Anonymous wrote:Going through this right now with my 4th grader. We’re not in DC but another big swimming area. I was shocked he qualified for NCSA because he turns 10 shortly before the meet so had to meet 10 year old cuts at 9yo. That was hard to do so I’d like to let him go, especially since he likely won’t qualify next year. Feeling a little embarrassed about approaching the school about it.

Go for it! It's a good experience and you're right, you never know if you'll make it back. We have always doubled it up with visiting grandparents in the area, and one year, my dad died the next week. This has led me to err on taking the opportunity for sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going through this right now with my 4th grader. We’re not in DC but another big swimming area. I was shocked he qualified for NCSA because he turns 10 shortly before the meet so had to meet 10 year old cuts at 9yo. That was hard to do so I’d like to let him go, especially since he likely won’t qualify next year. Feeling a little embarrassed about approaching the school about it.

Congrats to your kid. But missing 4th grade is not the same as missing middle (if high school classes are taken during middle school) or high school.

In 4th grade this is so not a big deal. As the mom of a 12th grader, I wished I had pulled him out for more things in ES (like vacations)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has never been a kid who failed out of school for missing a few days.

The issue isn’t missing school- it’s the ability to make up assignments. Depending on the school district, you might not be allowed to make up the grades due to the absence being unexcused.

Fwiw, when my child missed 4 days in a row for one of those meets in middle school, I emailed the teachers and school counselor a few weeks prior. Some provided the missed work ahead of time, others said see me when you get back, one even said DC had a solid A and excused the assignment since it was near the end of the quarter. It worked out. The absences were still unexcused but DC didn’t receive any zeros.

What school district are you in, OP?

I am 12:13 and this was our experience as well (MCPS). It is really up to the teacher allowing the make up if you are put in the position of an unexcused absence. As long as you are also flexible about when the work will take place, that goes a long way. Demanding they send you off with the assignments is a no-no.

It's frustrating that it is inconsistent. We had teammates at another MS and had a much harder time with their principal than ours.