I generally take a pretty hard line on absences for my daughter (APS elementary) but I've let her dad take her a day early on a couple of holiday weeks because I know it's good for them to have more time with family, it saves him time, and I don't think she misses much on one day anyway.

We were set to miss the day before Thanksgiving ourselves, and then APS gave us the Wednesday off.

I would not worry about missing a couple of days for Thanksgiving. FCPS will have tons of closures during the winter, a few extra days is not going to make a difference. Spending extra time with aging family members is super special. Go for it.

Anonymous wrote:Trust me, if the schools moved to the Tuesday off, students would start missing Monday. Think about it. People fly Tuesday because there's less demand so it is cheaper. If more people can leave Tuesday, the demand rises and so does the price. As a result, families will start leaving on Monday to save money.

It is not cheaper. The rates are high for the whole week.

Anonymous wrote:It will be considered an unexcused absence and that means teachers do not have to provide make opportunities. Most do, but they only have to if the absence was excused. My HS DC's have had tests on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, but not the Wednesday.

So call them in sick.

Actually I don't think it would be unexcused if prearranged. My DC has missed for swim meets and absences were excused.

Anonymous wrote:I would never do this with my children. What sort of example are you setting? That its ok to break the rules when it's inconvenient or when other people are doing it too? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Lol, we always do it. Moreover, we even take a week off school to go to vacation when it works with our schedules. The example that we are setting is if you work hard and get the best grades, then you have a freedom to do stuff like that. My all kids are taking all hardest classes available, won numerous examples national level science and math contests, all on varsity teams in school. They need a break. And it is a good lesson to teach them to be able to take a break and to have some fun in life.