Do you take your kids out of school?

[Disvillain63]

We took our kids out, even in high school...and they were taking 4 to 5 AP classes. We always worked with their teachers and all the work was completed before they left school or turned in the day we returned from our trip. The kids skipped lunch to make up tests and such.

Depending on your school, May might be a good time to go, especially if it is after state testing. Our state will test at the end of April.

 

[Kristamouse]

Yes and we will continue to take them out of school as long as the kids are doing well. They attend a private Catholic School so attendance isn't an issue. My husband jokes that the school is making money regardless if they attend or not All missed work is turned in the day we return and in the case of our last trip submitted via email or drop box the same day the rest
Of the class turned the work in. We have 5 kids, our 6th is due in June and they range in age from 11 to 16 months. We are aiming for an early January 2016 trip. Our oldest will be in 6th grade we are waiting to see how he does with a middle school course load and Algebra before we make any concrete plans. He is also a pretty good athlete so basketball season might play a factor into our trip plans. January is a quite month for my husband at work. The kids are mid trimester at school and WDW has some slow days so it could workout to be an idea time to take off.

 

[WDW!]

Yes & sometimes the teachers do have an issue but, we take school work with us so they don't miss to much.

 

[DARKMATTERSAVANT]

Speaking from the perspective of a child or "young adult", for the necessity of those that crave political correctness, I find myself quite able to evaluate my priorities and have been able to surmount quite a portion of success. However, I also know quite a few of my peers on the other end of the spectrum, with no self evaluation or control and therefore fail at several tasks they undertake. Therefore with such a range in the spectrum you must evaluate whether your child has enough good habits and can prioritize properly enough to legitimize missing school. As far as your concern of ridicule from teachers, I often get very sick, as I suffer from a weak immune system, and therefore know that ridicule from a teacher can be expected if the absence is made a habit however; the ridicule is often out of line and uncalled for, the teacher has no grounds and is just venting at the student who has caused them a fraction of extra work. My advice is to not worry about it and just enjoy life.

"In one-hundred years from now we shall all be dead and all of this shall have been for naught, but the memories we retain and pass as inheritance is the true measure of the value of the time we were blessed with"

 

[StarWarsGirl]

My parents always took me out of school and still take my brother out of school.

In elementary school, the teachers never made a big deal out of it. The school principal is a DVC member, so she was always fine with excusing the absence.

In middle school, they still took me out. No one ever made a big deal out of it. My brother is currently in middle school and they've never made a big deal about it either. He's on the autism spectrum, and they find that the break and the stimulation are good for him.

High school...now high school will depend on the kid. I've got severe asthma which always caused me to miss time. I handled absences really well. I learned how to work on my own and play catch up because it was sheer necessity for me. Missing four days for WDW was never a big deal, even with AP classes. One year I actually only missed one day because there were three snow days that week.

Junior year and senior year I actually had to visit a college during my trip in order to get all the days excused. Principal was a pain in the you know what. Previously, all the days were excused as personal time. That principal...um, let's just say I had my issues with her, and not just about that.

Now that I'm in college, I don't take days off, but I've got four months off every year, so I can figure out my vacations during the time that I have off.

Whether you should take your kids out is ultimately up to you. Check with your school about what their policy is (do they excuse days as personal time). Don't tell your school specifics about why your children are being taken out of school unless the school genuinely does not care. Just say that your family needs some personal time and you will be taking your children out of school. Same goes for teachers. Unless they genuinely don't care and won't make an issue of it, don't tell them. As far as anyone is concerned, it's no one's business but your family's. It also should depend on your kids. Mine always had WDW out there as a reward for doing well in school. If I started doing poorly, they would threaten to cancel the trip if I did not pull my grades up. And I knew they would follow through on that threat.

 

[HollyAD]

I do take my son out of school with no hesitation for vacation. I am a nurse and we all can't always take off in the summer. So we just take time when we can. Secondly, I like to make the most of my money. Usually I take advantage of a resort discount offered in the fall. There are less crowds, we get to do more, therefore I feel like we get more for our money. The weather was also great during our trip this past October!

As far as the school is concerned. I did tell them our plans and no one was upset about it. I explained that in my profession we can not always get time off in the summer (unless you have been there a very long time). I believe that family time is just as important as education. When I was 8 y/o, my father unexpectedly passed away. Ever since, I have learned that going places with your family is extremely important. Live life and make memories. As long as my son is doing well in school, I will let him miss it for family experiences.

 

[DisneySurprisePA]

I just took my children out of school for vacation to Disney with no hesitation. They are excellent students, and picked a time they had two days off already and one early dismissal. The district can see it' s way to help send the band members on a yearly trip and forgive the time off, I want the same privileges for my children. And it doesn't cost them anything when my kids go to Disney.

Can't imagine taking the kids to Disney in the heat of the summer or crowds of the holiday season. We will always plan our trips when they are little for slow school times. Just my opinion....

 

[MaryJaneP]

Yes. Late May for us. We had one done college classes, one junior in High School, and one in Middle School. All great students. By May, teachers were comfortable with the progress and how well the kids could handle taking assignments with them. Also after state exams for us and family in other states and their exams. We called over a year in advance to find out when each state was administering their tests so we didn't cause any family problems. This was a big family shindig.

 

[disneygirl1]

I have taken my DS out of school to go to Disney pretty much annually, sometimes semi-annually since has been in kindergarten. He is now in the 7th grade. I will say that I do try to plan our trips around scheduled days off the school has so that he is not missing an entire week or more. The school has always been accepting of taking him out thankfully. I always give plenty of advance notice and ask for any work that he will be missing ahead of time so that he is not too far behind when he returns.

 

[NormC]

I have pulled my kids the last three times we went.

 

[KordovaJD]

We do, but my kids are young, so I should say, we will. My parents took us out of school a lot as kids for Disney trips. But there's qualifications there.

1) we all went to private school and both my parents were on the Board of Trustees. No one was going to complain.
2) It was college prep school (7th -12th grade), so we could usually work extra hard to catch up (classes weren't every day)
3) My Dad's company attended the PGA New Products Show every January anyway.

Since the last week of January was/is historically pretty dead around the parks, and since he could write most of it off as a business expense, my Dad would take us out of school, yes.

I think it's important to have a good time. If that means going when crowds are less and skipping school, then go for you. They're your kids, not the school districts...

 

[jaklgreen]

My kids are in middle school so it is tougher to take them out so we leave for WDW the day after they get out of school at the end of May. The crowds are still manageable.

 

[LilWalt]

We did it in 2013 in December. We planned a Christmas trip before the crowds and took our DS (1st grade at the time) out. The teacher at first gave some flack but never heard more about it and never got any make up work and still made honor roll. I know as he gets older it will be harder and harder to do so. So far this year he hasn't missed a day and only days he missed last school year was for our WDW trip.

 

[disneyfirstLJ]

I won't take my daughter out of school for a vacation but that is because she is in middle school and I don't want her to fall behind. She is a great student but we have enough snow days and illness type stuff that keeps her out of school as it is. I have planned both of our trips around school vacation. It worked out well last year and fingers crossed it will work out well again this year. I do not plan to go to WDW during the summer as I am not a fan of the heat but we might go to DL during the summer in the next few years. Good luck!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

How about this answer...I can't.

While most of the US states still have more liberal attendance laws, a handful have strict laws that make it illegal for parents to take their kids out for vacations (or really anything unexcused). In our state, more than 2 days of unexcused absences in a 60-day period is considered a violation of the law. If your school admins choose to pursue this, you could wind up in court facing fines and misdemeanor charges. There are a couple of states that actually have jail time written in as possible punishments for parents on their first offense. And to just show you how strict they are, school trips to educational places like DC now have to happen over holiday weeks as they violate attendance laws. My friend even spent over a week proving to a court constable that her son was legitimately out for a death in the family.

The reality though is that more states may be seeing this in their state attendance laws. One of the morning shows was talking about this the other week and I guess more states are considering enacting such laws. While I'd like to think it's for the kids, it's done for funding. More kids in attendance = more funding for each respective school/district.

And I know every time I bring this up, I get people saying they'd never follow this and the govt has no right. Technically, if you've signed your kid up for public school, you've agreed to the laws governing their enrollment in said school/district. I know people like to talk a good game, but do you move to a new state? Do you home school? Or do you leave them in public school and deal with all of the legal charges and fines as they roll in each year, hoping that a judge won't escalate things and take it beyond the basic penalties? Because you're never going to win in court if you try and argue you have a legal right to take your kid on vacay vs. sending them to school.

I'm mixed on the matter as I see both sides. On one side...I want the freedom to vacation when prices and crowds are low + while I don't feel WDW is nearly as educational as other trips, kids do learn lots from vacays. On the other side...my parents pulled me out for trips and I missed some crucial lessons that I really shouldn't have missed. No make up work could compensate for what I lost by being out of the classroom.

Just food for thought

 

[KordovaJD]

How about this answer...I can't.

While most of the US states still have more liberal attendance laws, a handful have strict laws that make it illegal for parents to take their kids out for vacations (or really anything unexcused). In our state, more than 2 days of unexcused absences in a 60-day period is considered a violation of the law. If your school admins choose to pursue this, you could wind up in court facing fines and misdemeanor charges. There are a couple of states that actually have jail time written in as possible punishments for parents on their first offense. And to just show you how strict they are, school trips to educational places like DC now have to happen over holiday weeks as they violate attendance laws. My friend even spent over a week proving to a court constable that her son was legitimately out for a death in the family.

The reality though is that more states may be seeing this in their state attendance laws. One of the morning shows was talking about this the other week and I guess more states are considering enacting such laws. While I'd like to think it's for the kids, it's done for funding. More kids in attendance = more funding for each respective school/district.

And I know every time I bring this up, I get people saying they'd never follow this and the govt has no right. Technically, if you've signed your kid up for public school, you've agreed to the laws governing their enrollment in said school/district. I know people like to talk a good game, but do you move to a new state? Do you home school? Or do you leave them in public school and deal with all of the legal charges and fines as they roll in each year, hoping that a judge won't escalate things and take it beyond the basic penalties? Because you're never going to win in court if you try and argue you have a legal right to take your kid on vacay vs. sending them to school.

I'm mixed on the matter as I see both sides. On one side...I want the freedom to vacation when prices and crowds are low + while I don't feel WDW is nearly as educational as other trips, kids do learn lots from vacays. On the other side...my parents pulled me out for trips and I missed some crucial lessons that I really shouldn't have missed. No make up work could compensate for what I lost by being out of the classroom.

Just food for thought

You should move to Texas where we don't put up with that BS. Let me know how I can help get the process started.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

You should move to Texas where we don't put up with that BS. Let me know how I can help get the process started.

I am in Texas! The state law to which I'm referring was put in place in 2010.

 

[KordovaJD]

I am in Texas! The state law to which I'm referring was put in place in 2010.

I wasn't aware of this change in the laws. I'm sorry. I looked into it a bit further. If your child has unexcused absences for 10 or more days or parts of days in a 6-month period the school district must file charges on the student. If they are under 12, the charges will be filed on the parent. The charge is a Class C misdemeanor (same as traffic ticket) with a fine up to $500.

All this is complete MADNESS. If you take your kids out and this happens, I will come represent you in court for free (as long as it's in Texas). I don't want to live in a world where this is legal.

 

[Much-Pixie-Dust]

I do and I am a teacher. I look at it like this, if this were my last year on Earth, I would want my family to have wonderful memories of quality time together. Our vacations do just that. They enrich our lives in ways that day-to-day experiences can't.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I wasn't aware of this change in the laws. I'm sorry. I looked into it a bit further. If your child has unexcused absences for 10 or more days or parts of days in a 6-month period the school district must file charges on the student. If they are under 12, the charges will be filed on the parent. The charge is a Class C misdemeanor (same as traffic ticket) with a fine up to $500.

All this is complete MADNESS. If you take your kids out and this happens, I will come represent you in court for free (as long as it's in Texas). I don't want to live in a world where this is legal.

I had a tough time locating the language on our school district's site; however, this is my friend's school district and they try to spell it out for parents... http://kisd2.katyisd.org/PARENTS/Pages/CompulsoryAttendance.aspx I can say that we do receive the FYI ppwk at the beginning of each school year and I've already had a few fights over some of this, so I know our admins and district attendance officer are more inclined to play hardball.

So, based on the Katy ISD site, it was actually Dec 2009 and not 2010 as I first noted + it's a 4 week period rather than a 60-day period for no more than 2 unexcused absences. Of course, some schools are more consistent with enforcing this, which makes it even more frustrating.

On top of that, their page also details the state's laws and policies concerning college visits. I had another friend go through this with her daughter last year. This one is proof positive that the state doesn't care how good of a student you are with regard to this law. My friend's daughter is now a freshman at Cornell and received a full academic scholarship.

In any event, I agree that it's madness, but Texas is just one of a handful of states doing this and supposedly more are looking to change to this model. It's funny (but not in a ha ha way) that you bring up religious absences (at least, I think that came up). That's about the only thing I've got going in my favor here. We're a dual religion household and the schools are well aware of this matter. Still, I expect a small battle if I push that too far. My friend noted Hanukkah as the reason for his sons' absences and the admins had the audacity to say that Hanukkah wasn't a major holiday and really shouldn't count. The admins/school lost that battle, but it shows the level some of these people will stoop to with the enforcement of this law.