Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to private school and the seniors were allowed to leave campus when they had no classes. My father once suggested that one day
I just skip school altogether. I'd always wanted to do that but somehow, after being given permission to do so, my desire abated.

Clever dad.

We doing the same. Our kids doing outstanding in school since the first grade and we always told them they are allowed to take a mental health day off. They rary used it, though. I agree, once they know that they can do it any time, it takes the fun away.
On another hand, we always took them away for vacation during the school year. They had no problem in catching up and it worked better for us timewise and costwise not to travel during the standard school breaks.

Yep. In HS all the time. Big school and not too challenging. Had a book of signed hall passes we could use and places we could be "approved". Sometimes skipped to prepare for speech/debate, sometimes to go to taco joint, sometimes to study as well. I turned out okay but can't imagine kids would get away with this in smaller private school.

Class of 1989. Local. I regularly skipped classes (5th and 6th) by simply walking out to my car and driving away. I was part of an off-campus program that was considered an independent study. No attendance, no classroom time.

This was back in the day when administrators patrolled the parking lots looking for smoking and drug use but since I didn't fit that profile, I was golden. Sometimes I went home, but a few times I clandestinely met my boyfriend at his house.

Totally serious: I skipped with my brother once and my MOM drove by and saw us walking down the street. She busted us when we got home.

I skipped a few times a week. Wasn't a problem. My siblings and I came up with a system whereby I wrote everyone's notes. At that time there was no attendance requirement for graduation.

It's different now. If your kids miss a class the school sends you an email before the class is even over. Then you hit find my phone and get your kids' exact location. Not that I have experience with this . . .

Graduated in 2002. Never skipped once. Never wanted to. I was a pretty boring teen.

Anonymous wrote:I went to private school and the seniors were allowed to leave campus when they had no classes. My father once suggested that one day
I just skip school altogether. I'd always wanted to do that but somehow, after being given permission to do so, my desire abated.

Clever dad.

I skipped plenty.

In one case I just walked out. I was a good student, or so they thought, so no one questioned me, if anyone saw. The key was to walk like it was normal. My 7th period teacher was terrible attendance/had no control over the class so yeah.

Another time a bunch of kids took the stack of early permission notes (it was the school office note that was official -- you bring your parent note to the office, and they gave you an official school note to use later in the day) I got one and used it one day. Actually no one stopped me to see it.

A couple of other times a bunch of us skipped the first part of the morning. Pep rally first thing and a bunch of ppl said they were coming late. Several friends decided the more the merrier and there were just too many of us for them to track who was missing.

Anonymous wrote:I'm Gen X. I went to private schools. In HS they took attendence every class and called home or work if you skipped so, I never did. My brother went to public HS and skipped a lot. They had a computer generated system that called home but my parents were at work and we didn't have an anwering machine/voicemail so they missed it. My kids are too young to skip but the go to a small private so they likely wouldn't try it because we'd find out.

Same here. The school nurse always called when a student was absent. By junior or senior year, I took an occasional mental health holiday and she was not too happy when she called and found out that my mother at work didn't know I stayed home. What I really wanted to tell her was that her daughter, who was in my class told me she faked serious menstrual cramps to stay home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who on earth cares as long as they get stellar grades?
Raise them to prioritize their academic potential and you won't have much trouble with skipping school.
Ironically, in my little corner of MoCo, high schoolers skip classes because they're inundated with deadlines for other classes and stay home to do the work!!!

This. The results are important. If they can deliver on that, and keep themselves out of trouble, I don't care how they manage their time. My two college-age kids definitely skipped some in high school (both individual classes and whole days), and almost certainly more than the small number of days I actually know about.

My middle schooler has probably skipped classes here and there, but I do not officially know of any full days she has skipped. I *strongly suspect* she has skipped at least two days, but if I am right about that, I know where she was & who she was with, and I approve -- not that I would tell her that, because I do not yet want to set the precedent that I will approve of skipping full days. As far as she is aware, my tolerance for that begins in high school.

If we define "skipped" as "the parents told the school that the student would not be in school that day, and the school considered the reason given to be an unexcused absence" then all of my kids, including my preschooler, have "skipped" a few days due to traveling with us & attending family events.

As for me... I "skipped" class twice in high school with my principal's approval, and actually skipped once by faking my time of the month and spending the class period at the nurse's office. My parents also took me out of 5th grade for a week-long vacation that I think was considered "skipping"/unexcused absence.

Please, help this curious DCUMer out. I cannot think of a scenario where my middle school aged kid skips school and I would approve. I can imagine not flipping out under certain circumstances, but actually approving? Where was she, who with, doing what?

My middle schooler, C, is my niece and foster-daughter through kinship care placement. She doesn't normally like the distinction and prefers to just be one of "my kids" but in this case it's relevant context.

If I'm right about those 2 days, which I'm pretty sure I am based on other people attempting to keep me in the loop without violating C's privacy too badly, [b] she was with her cousin (my other sister's oldest daughter, 19yo A), sitting in either a hospital waiting room or chapel while her former foster-sister underwent an emergency medical procedure.

I understand why she felt the need to be there, and while I wish she had gone about it differently I approve of missing school in the case of a hospitalized relative to wait at the hospital for news, moral support, & in case the patient cam have visitors. That's why I didn't insist that A bring C home when she called to tell me something like, "hey, C just showed up at my house... she doesn't want me to tell you much and even me saying I'd tell you this was a huge fight, but someone she knows is in the hospital and it's bad. I know it's a school day and all, but I think I should take her over there like she asked." I agreed.

Do I wish she would have told me? Absolutely! But at the time, barely two months into her placement with me, she didn't trust me and she wasn't used to relying on adults for help or asking for anything she needed and having that turn out well at all. In her past, if she needed to accomplish something, she made it happen herself. I strongly suspect she only tolerated A's presence out of sheer necessity to have transportation. She may have acted with more independence than I would have preferred in this specific case, but she did the right thing in the best way she new how at the time and ultimately I approve of that. I approve of the fact that she skipped, and the reason for it, and if she'd come to me about what was going on I would have taken off work to be there with her, and called the school to make 'family member with health crisis' an excused absence. And, all things considered, I'm not even terribly upset about how she went about handling the situation.

It's taken a lot of work with C to get past serious trust issues, among other things, and now 18 months later I'm sure she would act somewhat differently if this situation happened today.

Back in the 80s I went to a strict private school, but many parent allowed kids to "skip" occasionally. Not mine Did not seem to hurt the others in the slightest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I graduated in '88. I skipped in middle school one time. No my kids haven't skipped and I don't think they will. It's a different time AND I get a robo call if they were counted as absent.

I skipped school while attending a magnet HS many times. It was easy to intercept the robo calls, parents never knew. Went on to an Ivy League college, turned out fine.

But now the robo call comes to my cell. Not so easy to intercept anymore, LOL!

Anonymous wrote:I graduated in '88. I skipped in middle school one time. No my kids haven't skipped and I don't think they will. It's a different time AND I get a robo call if they were counted as absent.

I skipped school while attending a magnet HS many times. It was easy to intercept the robo calls, parents never knew. Went on to an Ivy League college, turned out fine.

I graduated in 1998--my dad was the athletic director so there was no way I'd get away with it--I was petrified that if I did, the teacher would mention it to him!

I went to private school and the seniors were allowed to leave campus when they had no classes. My father once suggested that one day
I just skip school altogether. I'd always wanted to do that but somehow, after being given permission to do so, my desire abated.