School Attendance

[Turkey22]

Anything longer than one week should be done on either Christmas break or the summer. I'd say unless it was an unbelievable opportunity to go somewhere for free they shouldnt be missing any school because of a vacation. Thats just bad parenting to pull your kids out of school to take em to Disney or something.

 

[Dedpuhl]

I was constantly sick when I was in elementary school. I missed large chunks of class at a time and I never fell behind. It just depends on the student and his/her ability to comprehend lesson plans on his/her own (or with help from parents).



heh, In high school, I called in 80 times. I also missed a bunch of class for Student Council, NHS, and other school functions.

 

[ggavinmoss]

How old are your kids?

-geoff

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Turkey22
Anything longer than one week should be done on either Christmas break or the summer. I'd say unless it was an unbelievable opportunity to go somewhere for free they shouldnt be missing any school because of a vacation. Thats just bad parenting to pull your kids out of school to take em to Disney or something.

Unless your kids are so advanced that they could miss a whole year and still be ahead of their class. I'll be taking my kids out of school for a week this fall to take a vacation to SoCal. We want to be able to enjoy disneyland and sea world without waiting in 2 hour lines for every ride.

 

[Mill]

Two weeks is way too long. The only time that would be ok would be in the case of a immediate family death, or an emergency.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Kilrsat

Originally posted by: Mwilding
What vital piece of information is taught to an 8 year old child in class that their life will be devastated without it?

Long division, fractions, the initial development of problem solving skills.

Missing the introduction of these topics can put the child at a great disadvantage as they dive more in depth.

The children have off in the summer, normally some time for thanksgiving, again during the Christmas/New Years period, and again some time in the spring.

There are more than enough opportunities to go on vacation without forcing them to missing more than 1-2 days of school. Its about realizing that you need to make the sacrifice of changing your schedule to fit better with your child's. Rather than trying to make your child nicely fit into your world.

My dad taught me half a semester of calculus at the dinner table in two evenings. I think I could make up a weeks worht of school.

 

[shopbruin]

really just in this there seems to be information missing that can hopefully, when given, we can give a better opinion on.

such as:

1. where on earth is she taking them!? three weeks in europe while can be educational, can also put a child extremely behind. not to mention they may be ostracized when they return "you go on vaction... oooohh" making them think they're getting special treatment.
2. how old are the children in question?
3. i still think vacations should be done only during breaks. if she has the ability to take off whenever, then she should be able to schedule vacations during the breaks.
4. i wonder how often she wants to do this. there doesn't seem to be any terms as to how often. if its once a month, definitely forget about it. if its once a year, that's a completely different story, but still, should be done during breaks.

i personally don't agree with taking your kids out during the school year to go on vacation. i know someone who did that in high school and while she wasn't behind, i always thought it was odd.... all she did was go to disneyland with her family for a week and it was under the pretenses of "family gathering."

but then the most school i've ever missed is four days in a row because of illness. and that was in the sixth grade. otherwise unless i was half dead, i was at school. mind you, this mindset changed in college, but k-12 i was always there.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: Shanti

Originally posted by: ergeorge
Seems like the colorado legislature agrees with me:

Colorado Revised Statutes 22-33-107. Enforcement of compulsory school
attendance.

(3) (a) As used in this subsection (3), a child who is "habitually
truant" means a child who has attained the age of seven years and is
under the age of sixteen years having four unexcused absences from
public school in any one month or ten unexcused absences from public
school during any school year. Absences due to suspension or expulsion
of a child shall be considered excused absences for purposes of this
subsection (3).

Unexcused absences are when the kid misses school without the parent's permission.

The statute you quoted has absolutely nothing to do with taking a vacation and being absent with a parent's permission.

from the student handbook:
"Parents must ensure that students attend school, and may not excuse abscences except for sickness or family emergency. State statute defines any student whose unexcused abscences are in excess of 4 days in a semester as a truant."

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: ggavinmoss
How old are your kids?

-geoff

2 & 5
But this agreement is for the duration, unless we legally amend it down the line.

 

[ggavinmoss]

My gf is an elementary school teacher and mentioned in the past that kids who get behind (even by a week or two) often have a hard time getting back up to speed with everyone else. Now parental assistance can help the child stay on course, but there's no real way of knowing what kind your children's academic level will be. It doesn't seem like it's worth the risk.

-geoff

 

[Kilrsat]

Originally posted by: Mwilding

Originally posted by: Kilrsat

Originally posted by: Mwilding
What vital piece of information is taught to an 8 year old child in class that their life will be devastated without it?

Long division, fractions, the initial development of problem solving skills.

Missing the introduction of these topics can put the child at a great disadvantage as they dive more in depth.

The children have off in the summer, normally some time for thanksgiving, again during the Christmas/New Years period, and again some time in the spring.

There are more than enough opportunities to go on vacation without forcing them to missing more than 1-2 days of school. Its about realizing that you need to make the sacrifice of changing your schedule to fit better with your child's. Rather than trying to make your child nicely fit into your world.

My dad taught me half a semester of calculus at the dinner table in two evenings. I think I could make up a weeks worht of school.

You can learn calculus in a few nights because you aren't 8 and you already possess the necessary foundation. You have the skillset needed to learn new material rapidly. However when you're talking about children who are first developing the skillsets needed to learn material in school, missing out on these basic foundation principles can put the student at a large disadvantage compared to their peers.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: Shanti

Originally posted by: ergeorge
Seems like the colorado legislature agrees with me:

Colorado Revised Statutes 22-33-107. Enforcement of compulsory school
attendance.

(3) (a) As used in this subsection (3), a child who is "habitually
truant" means a child who has attained the age of seven years and is
under the age of sixteen years having four unexcused absences from
public school in any one month or ten unexcused absences from public
school during any school year. Absences due to suspension or expulsion
of a child shall be considered excused absences for purposes of this
subsection (3).

Unexcused absences are when the kid misses school without the parent's permission.

The statute you quoted has absolutely nothing to do with taking a vacation and being absent with a parent's permission.

from the student handbook:
"Parents must ensure that students attend school, and may not excuse abscences except for sickness or family emergency. State statute defines any student whose unexcused abscences are in excess of 4 days in a semester as a truant."

Ahh, I see.

Personally, I think it depends on the child. Will it be a struggle for them to make up the work?
My kids(6 and 9) are way ahead of the rest of their class in pretty much every subject. In fact, the biggest problem we have with my 9 year old is that the work is too easy for him and he gets bored.
That's why I decided it would be fine for my kids to miss a week of school this fall for a vacation.

But yes, I would be concerned that having them miss school will make things hard for them. And if I was in the same situation, I don't think I would want to allow my ex to do that.

 

[Armitage]

Here's an interesting link to another Colorado school districts attendance policy (pdf)

Another link regarding what is considered an excused abscence.

A point to note. After 7 unexcused abscences you could be talking to the DA.

 

[Armitage]

Just talked to my attorney:
"No judge is ever going to order that. She'll never get it."

 

[badmouse]

Funny, I just had this discussion with my soontobeex/lawyers/schools etc.

The end result for us is that if the kid misses school, the parent in charge at that time is responsible for finding out about missed school work and getting it finished and approved.

Good luck.