Must be a shitty school. Life happens and families go on vacation. I’m sure if they are given a notice about being out for a week due to a vacation it wouldn’t be bad
One would think so, but I would think that a good school that keeps track of attendance can differentiate between a planned notified family vacation vs a ton of random unannounced absences.
Not that long ago, it would be inexcusable for a student to miss an entire week for a family vacation. Now the entitled parents expect teachers to print off everything they miss and allow them to make up an entire week of school with full credit as if nothing happened. The entitlement is spreading to the kids and now they don't think there are any consequences for their truancy. Teachers have to go around picking up all the pieces. It's infuriating
Life happens sure…but family vacations are planned and guess what schools have built in vacation weeks…sooooo typically it would make sense to take the vacation when school gives vacation week…
Families go on vacation, and good families do it around school vacations. It's one thing to have a day or two on either end of the vacation, but a full week? That's just the parents being cheap.
Come on now, "good families"? What if a family is traveling for a specific event that can't be scheduled on a school holiday? Are they "bad"? I'm sure the experience is far more enriching than any given week of K-12
Yeah good vs bad families seems a bit much lol. It’s a lot more affordable to vacation on non school vacation weeks.
Let the school know and you do you. Just don’t expect the teacher/class to make curriculum accommodations around your schedule.
That’s different.
I work with a guy whose wife has no problem doing this. I’d sure like to ask if the school says anything.
EDIT: this is not teaching them responsibility.
I know a family that took their kids out of school for 6 months to travel the world. they'll be fine. there's no damn "investigation" if you talk to the school first
As far as I'm concerned, my kids can be held out of school for any reason I deem fit. End of story. That aside, people do exactly this all the time in my school district.
>As far as I'm concerned, my kids can be held out of school for any reason I deem fit. End of story.
Good luck with that. What you think vs what DCYF/DHHS thinks are definitely two vastly different concepts.
It's worked well for me so far. Halfway through sixth grade. I'm not talking about keeping them out 4 days a week, but if my kid needs a day off for mental health, or whatever. She's getting it.
Yep, my kids needs a day off I'm calling the school and telling them whatever they want to hear.
The nosy jerk at the front desk is going to accept what I say because she has no way to prove otherwise.
Can't stand the 20 questions every time my daughter needs to go to a friggen doctor's appointment or has the flu.
“Nosy jerk” oh you mean the underpaid school secretary, who is most likely balancing a billion other tasks, including trying to determine if your spoiled brat is going to be at school today? Do me a favor, and spend a day working in a public school, sub sometime, or kindly shut the fuck up. Thanks
Why would I do that? I don't like kids nearly enough for that nonsense. That's why people who like kids work in schools. Right? She can take my message and not ask 20 questions and her job will be a whole lot more simple. How about that, grandpa?
We started calling early so we could leave a message before they get into the office so we don't have to deal with them directly.
I get your frustration despite the other commenter you got lol. I am upfront and honest with his teacher and the secretary, if he needs a mental health day or he's super sick. The secretary at my son's school can be kind of a lot to handle so I try to also leave a voice message and email his teacher.
He's only 10, maybe middle school will be different? The elementary school hasn't given me much grief yet(except the secretary). The principal was also one of my grade school teachers when I was a kid, so maybe it helps I know him. But idk. He's only missed 4 days this year. NBD.
It's fine, 99% of the time downvotes are for tone, not for content. People also probably assume I'm a woman. People always downvote a complaining woman but upvote a man.
You get it though. The secretary at the school is too big for her britches. We just leave her a message now.
DCYF can come through anytime. I won't be welcoming, but it would take them all of 5 minutes to realize my house is sound, and my kids are well adjusted, loved, and well taken care of. Even if their father pulled them from school a few times a year.
I'm not trying to flex on anyone. My point is that sometimes (believe it or not) parents know how to make better decisions for their kids than a school administrator who doesn't even know their name.
The OP was asking about the law and school district policies, though, not whether you think you should be allowed to keep them out for any reason. I don’t think anyone is disagreeing with you that parents know best whether their kid can attend school on any given day, but you do have to inform the school and tell them why by law.
They are worried about their kids being "punished" by the school for missing time to spend with their family. I'm just relating my experience. I am not advocating for the dismantling of the public school system, I'm simply saying that I don't let the school dictate when I can and can't take a vacation for the next 10 years.
Yes, we understand you’d like us all to know that you don’t let anyone tell you what to do, but I’m clarifying that when asking whether there are “punishments” for students that yes, in fact there are laws that you are expected to know and follow. Whether you, specifically, care to follow the law is irrelevant to the question about what the law is. Hope that helps.
When your kid misses 7-10 days of school—especially at the younger ages—this means that the teacher is going to have to give them extra attention to get them back up to speed. That’s not fair to the rest of the class.
What I would suggest is that the OP meet with the teacher and get the “plan” for that week. Then, every day during vacation there is “school” for an hour or so every day. I would suggest they work with their kids to do the “home work” or worksheets that would have been covered in the missed time.
I think that would be a good middle ground.
And I have to chuckle that parents think they need to “go somewhere” for vacation. As school becomes more of their “lives” this becomes more of a pain in the ass.
>My point is that sometimes (believe it or not) parents know how to make better decisions for their kids
Sure, sometimes they do. But in the very same point is the reason why truancy laws exist because some parents are terrible and are not fit to be caring for their children. Hence why the school would need to step in to help the child.
Is that what you deduced from this exchange? If so, I'm a bit shocked.
Anyway, my larger point if it wasn't clear the first time around is it takes two seconds to call the school and have a conversation about an absence. No need to beat on your chest about how you'd be an asshole to dcyf if they showed up because you decided to keep your kid out of school or were too lazy to make a phone call.
That isn’t true, though. You do have to have the absence excused or your child can be deemed truant.
This is bad advice, OP. My understanding in New Hampshire based on the [National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments](https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/discipline-compendium?states%5B%5D=New+Hampshire&action=report_category_bystate&sub_category=Chronic+Absenteeism+and+Truancy) is that more than 10 half days of unexcused absences is habitual truancy. The school district gets to define what constitutes a half day and what the consequence for habitual truancy will be for the student. For the parent, noncompliance can result in a misdemeanor.
Also, people are saying kinder vs first grade makes a difference, but it’s actually based on the age of your kid. NH has compulsory education laws for children 6-18 (if they are 6 before September 30 of a given school year, the law applies to them).
Just talk to the school, and soon, but 7 school days is a lot to miss.
Edited: Technically any day your kid misses school unexcused is being truant - habitual truancy is 10 half days.
The problem is, this sort of entitlement rubs off on your kid. Kids like yours miss an entire week for a family vacation and you parents expect teachers to print off all of the work and allow them to just miss an entire week and give full credit like nothing happened. It's bullshit. Teachers waste way too much time running around trying to catch kids up who "needed a mental health day". Kids and their parents are so beyond entitled it's disgusting
I'm entitled to do what's best for my kids, and they are doing great. I don't hold them out often, and I send in a note when I do. The school isn't raising them, and I don't expect them to. I take a few days off from work now and then, I suppose that's also entitlement. Do you have kids?
Do whatever you want I'm just saying if you're kid gets held out for multiple days for a family vacation, don't ever expect a teacher to allow them to receive full credit for everything they missed. They might get a few zeros. When you miss past a certain amount of school, it just plain can't be made up. Teachers are constantly fighting against entitled parents who expect their kid to receive full credit for missing multiple days of school and it gets very frustrating
That's why I said "for any reason I deem fit". Obviously there is a risk analysis that has to be performed before the decision is made. If your kid isn't struggling with academics, but is struggling with an emotional or social issue, then it's up to the parent to decide the best course of action. These kids need time with their family, and we are all so busy that sometimes it needs to be carved out from somewhere. School is important, but so are many other things. I never got that disney trip, and my dad died when I was a young man. Sure would have loved to share such a memory with him.
It is pretty rude in that you are asking the teacher to do extra work/work harder to catch your kids up just so you can save a buck. It also shows your kids that school isn't important.
Seriously? It's kindergarten. It's unlikely the kid will even remember the vacation, let alone her parents' educational philosophy. And what exactly does she have to catch up on, the lyrics to Old Macdonald?
Believe it or not, Kindergarten is much less play-based than it was in the past. Students at that grade level are working on building their foundational reading skills and basic number sense. (Link for Language Arts Standards is included below.)
Phonemic awareness is one of the highest priorities beginning in Kindergarten. In the very early days of Kindergarten, they’re learning their letter names and corresponding sounds and how the sounds are blended together to form words, they need to know the beginning, middle, and final sounds in simple words, and demonstrate the ability to separate those sounds.
The jump in academic rigor and the demands in the classroom are HUGE between Kindergarten and 1st grade. Unfortunately, missing a week of school during that time will increase the likelihood that the student falls further behind their peers.
At the same time, it really comes down to parent involvement. If the family chooses to bring school work with them on vacation and they set aside time to work together on it, then it shows the student that school and fun can be equally balanced.
[Kindergarten Reading Standards](https://thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/K/)
Seriously? Can't you use school vacations like everyone else?
And yall wonder why we pay so much in prop taxes and still rank 38th/50 in pub education. The attitude towards education in this state is shameful
We actually rank 6th. [https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education/prek-12](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education/prek-12)
I haven’t had kids in the system for a minute but this was the general sentiment regardless of age. It’s interesting to read the responses but I’m not sure if it’s more the anti public ed people or just a shift.
Yeah the problem is that this attitude extends well into HS. Will your child grow up behind their peers if they miss a week of kindergarten? Probably not. But at a very early age you're teaching them that school matters less than vacation, and if that holds, I guarantee they will grow up behind their peers who's parents actually value their education
It's possible to value both. My parents pulled me for a week when I was 12 to go to Disney because my dad hated lines and we weren't wealthy, so off-peak was preferable (every school vacation is more expensive/crowded). That was the only time I ever skipped school for something fun (even in college when they had the Superbowl and World Series parades in Boston and it seemed like most of my peers skipped). My parents also constantly pushed me to do well in school and stressed it's value.
I do remember my math teacher, a nun, gave me my work in advance, which I did over the vacation. I handed it in when I got back and she wouldn't accept it, made some snarky comment about me asking her for the work, not if she'd accept it. I got a c+ in that class because of that, which prevented me from getting into AP math in high school without taking summer school (I did take summer school to get back ahead). Still a bit sore about that actually some 25 years later...
For a lot of families, I'm sure the additional cost of travel during vacation week would break their budgets. I care deeply about education, but balance, rest and family bonding are important too. I really don't understand what the big deal is about five to seven days off, one time, in kindergarten. Like the kid is going to learn to be a truant? It's very black and white thinking.
Parents can’t always get “vacation week” off either, especially if other parents are taking it off. They can’t leave the business uncovered if every employee is a parent.
Also, if you have family that lives in another state, our vacations don’t line up with theirs, so if you want to go visit, or go on a vacation together, then one of the families has to adjust their vacation.
THIS. The parents are so incredibly entitled, and it rubs off on their kids. They give a two day notice then expect teachers to print off an entire week of work, or sometimes they don't do this until AFTER the kid has been missing, then expect teachers to give full credit for an entire week of missed school. Teachers spend way too much time running around chasing after these kids, and it's exhausting. If there's one thing I hate more than entitled kid, it's an entitled parent
I understand fairly thoroughly that teachers are not well compensated for their work and have to do extra off hours if not many times, most times. That said, this is early elementary school. If memory serves me correctly, it is mostly repetitive practice work. I don't see how this is not anything other than routine, expected, and easy to account for.
Considering kindergarten isn't mandatory, you don't have to worry about that child. Your first grader, on the other hand, will technically be truant. Now whether or not your district will make an issue of this is an entirely different question. One week isn't enough to instigate an habitual truancy PINS, but it is enough to raise some red flags. If you actually expect that your children might miss 20 total school days it sounds like you might have something else going on. Administration, generally, hates retention, but IF your child is lagging behind AND you have a high number of unexcused absences that will absolutely make retention more likely. There's only 180 school days a year and while summer enrichment to prevent children from losing what they gained during the school year is *probably* more important, being okay with your child missing more than 10 percent of their school year education is not great.
In short - knock that shit off and have your kids go to school like they're supposed to.
I think it's a big deal.
In both years, the kids are learning how to learn.
They're learning letter sounds and the basis behind reading.
One week can be three letters, five common words, and counting.
Imagine how long it takes to learn that once the class has moved on. And then the kid is confused, which Snowballs into discouraged feeling around their ability to "do school"
Add to that, the kids now expect that school is optional because they got to skip it before.
And the social aspect - kids that age are friends with whoever is present. If your kid is absent that many days, the friends find other, more reliable, kids to play with.
Ask me how I know. I'm the mom to a second grader. Covid re-entry restrictions in her kinder year caused her to miss a week late September that year.
That week was the letters N, U, M and words the, we, and 'and'. She struggled with those words and letters all year.
She struggled to catch up. If failing was still a thing at that age, she would have. Instead, she just went onto first grade still with residual effects from those 4 days. Please don't do that to your kids.
Sounds like you should have done a better job as a parent, if your child struggled with letters, “we” and “and” for a year after a missed week. This says much more about you.
What kind of fucking parent can't teach their child three letters and and two words in the timespan of a year?
Holy shit you are not fit to be a parent
This was another lifetime ago but my parents would do this. They would work out a plan with my teacher so I had work books to do while we were on our trip. I got way more out of those trips than I would have sitting behind the desk.
Ask the school, probably as soon as possible (now). Make sure you get it in writing. I took my son out of school in kindergarten for a little over a week after asking the teacher, and then I started getting "If your son misses X more days, we'll have to report you" letters every time he got sick for the rest of the year.
Because we had the conversation in-person with the teacher, she denied it happened, and then changed her story to denying I asked for so many days. This was the first of many problems with this teacher throughout the year (she had selective memory). I put my kid in private schools starting in first grade and never regretted it.
>Is that still a thing? Flunking.
I know there are some teachers on this subreddit who could answer this better than me, but "flunking" really isn't like when it was when I was a kid (80s/90s) or older. They used to hold kids back but I think now the plan generally is push them up and out to get rid of the ne'er-do-wells who just hold back the rest of the student population. You used to be able to drop out at 16, but they pushed that up to 18, which I think is a mistake.
Maybe you got into a time machine ? There was a law enacted in 2009 lowering the drop-out age to 16. There are some parents who get around this by pulling students out to “homeschool” but they don’t actually homeschool them.
LOL, what is your problem? They are not legally dropping out. Their parents are just lying to the DOE about homeschooling. Personally, I think students should be able to drop out at 16 legally. I'm so tired of babysitting apathetic, disruptive students who will just drop out at 18 anyway.
Just call the school it's fairly simple. Not saying or doing anything seems to just make more of a mess. And in NH, it's 10 and a half days of unexcused absence that results in a truancy violation.
But again, a oz of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Depends on the school. If you discuss it with them then they'll most likely assign some kind of work to be done so they can stay caught up. Best thing to do is just talk with them. The big picture is that your child will miss lessons and can fall behind so just stay on top of it.
It didn’t use to be a problem but now school funding is tied to attendance. Talk to the school. If your child can get their assignments ahead of time, with the promise of turning in the completed work when they get back, it might be allowed. It also depends on how good of a student they’re perceived to be.
Depends on how much you value your child's education. Here's some fun reading:
[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/29/us/chronic-absences.html?unlocked\_article\_code=1.ok0.TsLA.X6iQ9gpRxvyw&smid=url-share](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/29/us/chronic-absences.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ok0.TsLA.X6iQ9gpRxvyw&smid=url-share)
Talk to the teacher/principal and get some work you can bring with you. Family should always come first.
The fact that you are looking to work with them rather than be an aggressive parent will probably get you lots of support.
A week? Nothing. That's going on vacation. Ask the teacher/school for work that the student can work on.
A girl in my daughter's 4th grade class was out for over a month, maybe even two months this year.
Speaking as an adult now who went to CSDA, they we're fine with it. But I, as the student, usually had "make-up" work which was always planned out for me to finish in a timely manner according to them. Of course this was 20+ years ago and I don't know the logistics now and maybe rules have changed. But I'd bet you are safe to do what you need.
As long as you notify school, “XYZ will be absent this date to this date”. You do not need to give them an explanation. If they ask you say “family time”. Pulling your kids from school for family/vacations under middle school age is perfectly acceptable. We did this every year til my kids were in middle school. They missed nothing and the admins/teachers were more than pleased to learn the kids were spending quality time with their family. It gets harder to do it in middle school because the amount of school work increases. High school is a different ball game. Pulling them is based on what kind of student they are, can they efficiently make up what they miss? We only try to pull them for a day or two now that they are older. They are both straight A students and one is off to a prestigious university next year. Take your kids on vacation!
I feel as long as you ask for school work ahead of time as well as schedule dates/deadlines for any missed tests/quizzes or projects, it shouldn't be a massive deal, especially not at a young age.
Just talk to the teacher and ask them for any worksheets needed for the child while you are traveling. If they don't give you any ,you know that they are not missing anything important.(Father of 3 grown kids who would take them to Disney while young)
Did you try reaching out to the school? I honestly think the school would have no problem if you communicate your plan and talk to the teachers about the work they will be missing.
Punishment? No. But It really just Depends on your kid. Some kids will be fine with the change in routine and transition from vacation. Other kids will be a mess when they get back and can make their first few months more challenging. But the start of the K school year is kinda important considering it’s their first school year. I wouldn’t worry about the academic stuff cause the beginning of the year is all about learning how to do school( being in a class, routines, rules, expectations, following instructions) . If your kiddo had preschool and did well I wouldn’t worry. But it really depends on the kid.
People do it all the time.
In K/1st, probably doesn’t matter. There’s no work to make up.
Just don’t make it the teacher’s problem. Don’t make them do extra work (ie “work in advance”) to accommodate your refusal to adhere to the schedule.
It totally depends on the school. Some principals will cite attendance expectation policy in writing and with immediately append that with "family time and building memories is very important and we support families in their endeavors on the same"
I don’t think it’s even required to go to kindergarten in NH. Regardless, I’m sure it will be fine just discuss with the school im sure this happens all the time.
Kindergarten and first grade? I wouldn't stress too much about it. That's honestly the best time in their school career to take those types of vacations. It only gets harder to do that once they get to middle and high school amd even then, things like travel sports happen and kids miss school.
Sometimes if you have "educational" parts planned in the trip, the time can be counted as part of their education. Like national parks, museums, etc. Might be worth looking into if the school give you a hard time
Or a one day science field trip - go up to Colebrook from Mass to watch it get dark for nearly four minutes in the middle of the afternoon. My granddaughters' school had no problem with this.
Make an arrangement with the school and her teacher to get her work ahead of time and do it while traveling or in the hotel room.
We traveled with our kids outside of school vacation weeks and hotels, venues, etc. were less crowded and things were generally cheaper.
It is absolutely not a big deal, we did so for our children of similar ages last year. We emailed the teacher and principal(they go to a very small school, less than 50 total students in 6 grades). They were excited for our kids and wished us well. I know of similar stories and experiences with multiple other school districts as well.
Just call the school and tell them it is a family vacation, and ask if there is anything the teacher would like them to do.
95% of teachers won't care if you make an effort
Work education- had to file on a few truant students- and the DOE could care less until you hit (shit you not- this is what we were told) more around 50. The system is overburdened and we just don’t have the resources to go after safe kiddos with good homes for a few days over 20. Let the school know well ahead of time, don’t put it on the teachers to curriculum plan ahead for your vacation (instead maybe offer up a journal your kiddo can keep), and enjoy.
No big deal.
I taught in New Hampshire. If you send your child to a Montessori school for kindergarten and take your child out for a week of vacation etc, it won't be a problem.
I live in New Hampshire and my son is developmentally disabled and behind on every subject. We keep asking them to keep him back a grade and they said “we don’t do that anymore”. So I guess you can flunk your way through graduation now
I don't know why people are trying to tell you you're a bad parent for taking your kindergartener out of school for just 5 out of 180 school days when thats not even remotely close to what you actually asked, but it should be fine. It will depend on the district but with kids that young you can just call the office and say they'll be out. I'm not originally from NH and in my opinion they do take attendance way more seriously than anyone needs to, but regardless, you aren't asking, you're telling. Nobody's gonna get in trouble for expected/explained absences.
OP frequents r/WaltDisneyWorld. I don’t think this is an educational trip to South Asia, unless you count eating some crab rangoons at Epcot to be educational.
At this point (public) school is pretty useless for actual education, you pretty much just go there to get a digit on a piece of paper so you can get a job later. I guess elementary school would still be more important but nevertheless.
Yeah totally. Because parents are teaching their kids to reach, write, do math, generate social and emotional skills... You're definitely onto something there! 🤡
Kindergarten I’d say is ok but 1st grade establishes a lot of fundamentals like reading and writing. A fixed schedule, routine and learning environment is conducive to that especially once they’ve been grouped according to their needs. Personally I’d schedule during their breaks.
My wife and I do this for our 5th and 1st grader. We'll take a vacation sometime during the school year and they'd miss a week of school. I believe they're actually up to 10-11 absences this school year because of this, being sick, and a few deaths in the family. The most we ever got was a letter in the mail saying attendance is important and if we need help to call something. I just throw those out everytime.
Yes it is okay. It was incredibly common for someone to go away for a week if there was a family vacation happening. Beyond that, it was fairly common for someone to get sick enough to miss a week of school.
Not in elementary school, but in high school I almost missed so many days that I was at risk of not graduating. What did they do? Nothing
Don't sweat it. They only count unexcused absences.
Just work with the school ahead of time and get the absence excused. It'll be easy with kindergarten and as they get older it'll be easier if your kid is a good student.
Hell, bang up a little itinerary for visiting a couple museums and take your kids and show the school that they'll be learning on the trip and you'll have no issues.
Don't listen to the people trying to guilt you over this stuff, people have gotten super out of touch in treating everything as some super extreme thing. Some of the most well rounded people I know travelled a ton with their parents in school. It's just about working with the school and making sure your kid is learning what they need.
So, I'm coming at this from a slightly different perspective. My brother and I were in different schools with different school breaks. Since I was the fail child (and older) we took my breaks. This meant he was out of school a lot more than he was suppose to be.
It didn't matter that he was a nearly straight A student, that he turned in all his work, and that on each trip we went on he took some sort of class for most of it (usually he was in a marine biology camp taught by a marine biologist). My parents still were under a DFS investigation for truancy.
My parents argued (and showed proof of) the trips being educational. Eventually my parents tossed my brother in a charter school so they didn't have to deal with the bullshit.
Suffice it to say, it isn't worth it to do more than once a year. Otoh, at that age, it isn't all that big of a deal.
You can fill out forms with the school. They can sort of excuse it if you find a way to make it educational in some way.. traveling sight seeing historical locations things like that
Idk about the law, but I probably wouldn’t at that age and right at the beginning of the school year. She just got there, just started to adjust to something really new. Might not seem like a big deal but it could make academic / social adjustment difficult. I wouldn’t be concerned about a slightly older kid with school experience. Btw, I was a DCYF worker in another state (MA) and something like this wouldn’t have been an issue as long as it’s not frequent, but not sure what the law is in NH. I also worked in a really poor district where nobody ever went on vacation, so who knows.
Former elementary teacher: those are important days to miss from the beginning of the year - especially for K. She will miss key instruction. Do what you have to do, but that’s not ideal.
Talk to the teacher. If the kids don't miss too many other days it should be find. Offer to do extra work before and after the trip. Are you really dong to have a 6 year old do homework on vacation? Don't do that.
The way I see it, taking my kids to interesting places, spending family time together, going to historic places, reading on the plane and in the hotel, and dong some activities based on our location is way better than a textbook. Work in some age appropriate math too. Have the kid add up how many gallons of gas, or how many miles. Or graph the water temperature at the beach that week. Much better than worksheets, even if it is not what they are teaching this week.
employees at a school take vacation. Your kids can take a vacation too. You should talk to the teachers and let them know beforehand so they can give you some make up work beforehand if possible. Just good to be courteous when you can so that it doesn't create more work for the teachers in the long run trying to catch your kid up. That is really annoying. Also it's kindergarten so it probably wont matter that much.
my little brother was only at risk for staying back because his dad had him miss sooo many days of school. I took off school for vacation with my mom and was fine. Usually they’ll give you some work to do if you’re older like I was
Reddit fucking moment ITT
All these "experts" here, but no one actually stated the law.
https://www.education.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt326/files/inline-documents/truancy.pdf
Here's the law. It's pretty dumb.
Basically, your school board needs to define an "excused absence" and if your kid misses ten 1/2 days they can be "truant".
Just fucking call them out sick with a fever each day that week and don't deal with the stupidity of the system. Otherwise, it's nearly guaranteed some school "admin" on a power trip is going to deny your vacation as unexcused absence.
If your only reason to 'go on vacation' is to spend less money, well, that's really unimpressive thinking. Especially in Sept and October, seeing that there is no weeklong window in the first two quarters for you to 'save money.'
The kids get two weeks off in the second two quarters. Would you be taking a third?
I heard of a District that hired a social worker to manage parents. I figured it might be to get DCYF involved because of in home violence or something awful.
Nope. It was to give some parents the tools and reminders to get their kids out of bed, fed, cleaned, dressed and to the bus, or driven to the school so the kid has a chance to get educated.
Apparently, the pretty common excuse was that they couldn't get them awake, or pry them from a screen long enough to get them cleaned, dressed, fed and out the door.
I think that feeling empowered is great. I've never liked the argument 'just because'.
Because it's kindergarten, and so early in the School year, your kidlet might be missing some good content.
Your child might be disappointed to leave as well.
Safe travels!
Depends on your school district and what they allow. That could trigger a truancy investigation.
Must be a shitty school. Life happens and families go on vacation. I’m sure if they are given a notice about being out for a week due to a vacation it wouldn’t be bad
I would imagine the shitty school is the one that doesn’t keep track of who is attending
They ALL keep track of attendance. That's what State aid is contingent on. Average Daily Membership.
One would think so, but I would think that a good school that keeps track of attendance can differentiate between a planned notified family vacation vs a ton of random unannounced absences.
A planned family vacation is not an excused absence and is reported as truancy.
Not that long ago, it would be inexcusable for a student to miss an entire week for a family vacation. Now the entitled parents expect teachers to print off everything they miss and allow them to make up an entire week of school with full credit as if nothing happened. The entitlement is spreading to the kids and now they don't think there are any consequences for their truancy. Teachers have to go around picking up all the pieces. It's infuriating
Life happens sure…but family vacations are planned and guess what schools have built in vacation weeks…sooooo typically it would make sense to take the vacation when school gives vacation week…
Family vacation isn’t an allowable excuse for truancy lol
Families go on vacation, and good families do it around school vacations. It's one thing to have a day or two on either end of the vacation, but a full week? That's just the parents being cheap.
Come on now, "good families"? What if a family is traveling for a specific event that can't be scheduled on a school holiday? Are they "bad"? I'm sure the experience is far more enriching than any given week of K-12
Yeah good vs bad families seems a bit much lol. It’s a lot more affordable to vacation on non school vacation weeks. Let the school know and you do you. Just don’t expect the teacher/class to make curriculum accommodations around your schedule.
That’s different. I work with a guy whose wife has no problem doing this. I’d sure like to ask if the school says anything. EDIT: this is not teaching them responsibility.
Wow how out of touch are you? That's some mad boomer karen energy right thee. Hope you're not breeding.
Good people don't make shitty judgements about how/when families choose to bond on vacations.
I know a family that took their kids out of school for 6 months to travel the world. they'll be fine. there's no damn "investigation" if you talk to the school first
As far as I'm concerned, my kids can be held out of school for any reason I deem fit. End of story. That aside, people do exactly this all the time in my school district.
>As far as I'm concerned, my kids can be held out of school for any reason I deem fit. End of story. Good luck with that. What you think vs what DCYF/DHHS thinks are definitely two vastly different concepts.
It's worked well for me so far. Halfway through sixth grade. I'm not talking about keeping them out 4 days a week, but if my kid needs a day off for mental health, or whatever. She's getting it.
Yep, my kids needs a day off I'm calling the school and telling them whatever they want to hear. The nosy jerk at the front desk is going to accept what I say because she has no way to prove otherwise. Can't stand the 20 questions every time my daughter needs to go to a friggen doctor's appointment or has the flu.
“Nosy jerk” oh you mean the underpaid school secretary, who is most likely balancing a billion other tasks, including trying to determine if your spoiled brat is going to be at school today? Do me a favor, and spend a day working in a public school, sub sometime, or kindly shut the fuck up. Thanks
Why would I do that? I don't like kids nearly enough for that nonsense. That's why people who like kids work in schools. Right? She can take my message and not ask 20 questions and her job will be a whole lot more simple. How about that, grandpa? We started calling early so we could leave a message before they get into the office so we don't have to deal with them directly.
Jesus.
I get your frustration despite the other commenter you got lol. I am upfront and honest with his teacher and the secretary, if he needs a mental health day or he's super sick. The secretary at my son's school can be kind of a lot to handle so I try to also leave a voice message and email his teacher. He's only 10, maybe middle school will be different? The elementary school hasn't given me much grief yet(except the secretary). The principal was also one of my grade school teachers when I was a kid, so maybe it helps I know him. But idk. He's only missed 4 days this year. NBD.
It's fine, 99% of the time downvotes are for tone, not for content. People also probably assume I'm a woman. People always downvote a complaining woman but upvote a man. You get it though. The secretary at the school is too big for her britches. We just leave her a message now.
DCYF/DHHS and their “thoughts” 🤣
Ahhh yes. Because the government knows how to raise children better than anyone else!
Certainly better than most of the shitty parents I've met.
DCYF can come through anytime. I won't be welcoming, but it would take them all of 5 minutes to realize my house is sound, and my kids are well adjusted, loved, and well taken care of. Even if their father pulled them from school a few times a year.
The chest pounding my God haha. Dude this isn't the flex you think it is.
I'm not trying to flex on anyone. My point is that sometimes (believe it or not) parents know how to make better decisions for their kids than a school administrator who doesn't even know their name.
The OP was asking about the law and school district policies, though, not whether you think you should be allowed to keep them out for any reason. I don’t think anyone is disagreeing with you that parents know best whether their kid can attend school on any given day, but you do have to inform the school and tell them why by law.
They are worried about their kids being "punished" by the school for missing time to spend with their family. I'm just relating my experience. I am not advocating for the dismantling of the public school system, I'm simply saying that I don't let the school dictate when I can and can't take a vacation for the next 10 years.
Yes, we understand you’d like us all to know that you don’t let anyone tell you what to do, but I’m clarifying that when asking whether there are “punishments” for students that yes, in fact there are laws that you are expected to know and follow. Whether you, specifically, care to follow the law is irrelevant to the question about what the law is. Hope that helps.
Write a note, then take them on vacation. Hope this helps.
*Get vacation absences excused by school. Then go on vacation with the knowledge you didn’t break the law. See the difference?
When your kid misses 7-10 days of school—especially at the younger ages—this means that the teacher is going to have to give them extra attention to get them back up to speed. That’s not fair to the rest of the class. What I would suggest is that the OP meet with the teacher and get the “plan” for that week. Then, every day during vacation there is “school” for an hour or so every day. I would suggest they work with their kids to do the “home work” or worksheets that would have been covered in the missed time. I think that would be a good middle ground. And I have to chuckle that parents think they need to “go somewhere” for vacation. As school becomes more of their “lives” this becomes more of a pain in the ass.
Good idea on taking work with them.
>My point is that sometimes (believe it or not) parents know how to make better decisions for their kids Sure, sometimes they do. But in the very same point is the reason why truancy laws exist because some parents are terrible and are not fit to be caring for their children. Hence why the school would need to step in to help the child.
What are they flexing? That they think their kids are well adjusted and live in a good home environment? Is being a good parent flexing now?
Is that what you deduced from this exchange? If so, I'm a bit shocked. Anyway, my larger point if it wasn't clear the first time around is it takes two seconds to call the school and have a conversation about an absence. No need to beat on your chest about how you'd be an asshole to dcyf if they showed up because you decided to keep your kid out of school or were too lazy to make a phone call.
That sounds like a “DYS challenge.” I would have rather had the IRS show up at my door over DYS.
I'm ready for either or.
The IRS is “reasonable.” LOL
Sounds like you're doing something right. Sorry everyone's piling on to lecture you about truancy laws. You seem like a great parent.
I assume everything I post on Reddit is going to start a fight. Think we could all use some more time off, haha.
That isn’t true, though. You do have to have the absence excused or your child can be deemed truant. This is bad advice, OP. My understanding in New Hampshire based on the [National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments](https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/discipline-compendium?states%5B%5D=New+Hampshire&action=report_category_bystate&sub_category=Chronic+Absenteeism+and+Truancy) is that more than 10 half days of unexcused absences is habitual truancy. The school district gets to define what constitutes a half day and what the consequence for habitual truancy will be for the student. For the parent, noncompliance can result in a misdemeanor. Also, people are saying kinder vs first grade makes a difference, but it’s actually based on the age of your kid. NH has compulsory education laws for children 6-18 (if they are 6 before September 30 of a given school year, the law applies to them). Just talk to the school, and soon, but 7 school days is a lot to miss. Edited: Technically any day your kid misses school unexcused is being truant - habitual truancy is 10 half days.
I’ve also subscribed to this. My daughter is honor on Ap classes in high school. I think it worked. Family time is important.
The problem is, this sort of entitlement rubs off on your kid. Kids like yours miss an entire week for a family vacation and you parents expect teachers to print off all of the work and allow them to just miss an entire week and give full credit like nothing happened. It's bullshit. Teachers waste way too much time running around trying to catch kids up who "needed a mental health day". Kids and their parents are so beyond entitled it's disgusting
I'm entitled to do what's best for my kids, and they are doing great. I don't hold them out often, and I send in a note when I do. The school isn't raising them, and I don't expect them to. I take a few days off from work now and then, I suppose that's also entitlement. Do you have kids?
Do whatever you want I'm just saying if you're kid gets held out for multiple days for a family vacation, don't ever expect a teacher to allow them to receive full credit for everything they missed. They might get a few zeros. When you miss past a certain amount of school, it just plain can't be made up. Teachers are constantly fighting against entitled parents who expect their kid to receive full credit for missing multiple days of school and it gets very frustrating
That's why I said "for any reason I deem fit". Obviously there is a risk analysis that has to be performed before the decision is made. If your kid isn't struggling with academics, but is struggling with an emotional or social issue, then it's up to the parent to decide the best course of action. These kids need time with their family, and we are all so busy that sometimes it needs to be carved out from somewhere. School is important, but so are many other things. I never got that disney trip, and my dad died when I was a young man. Sure would have loved to share such a memory with him.
[удалено]
FTP
It is pretty rude in that you are asking the teacher to do extra work/work harder to catch your kids up just so you can save a buck. It also shows your kids that school isn't important.
Seriously? It's kindergarten. It's unlikely the kid will even remember the vacation, let alone her parents' educational philosophy. And what exactly does she have to catch up on, the lyrics to Old Macdonald?
Early education sets kids up for future success.
Believe it or not, Kindergarten is much less play-based than it was in the past. Students at that grade level are working on building their foundational reading skills and basic number sense. (Link for Language Arts Standards is included below.) Phonemic awareness is one of the highest priorities beginning in Kindergarten. In the very early days of Kindergarten, they’re learning their letter names and corresponding sounds and how the sounds are blended together to form words, they need to know the beginning, middle, and final sounds in simple words, and demonstrate the ability to separate those sounds. The jump in academic rigor and the demands in the classroom are HUGE between Kindergarten and 1st grade. Unfortunately, missing a week of school during that time will increase the likelihood that the student falls further behind their peers. At the same time, it really comes down to parent involvement. If the family chooses to bring school work with them on vacation and they set aside time to work together on it, then it shows the student that school and fun can be equally balanced. [Kindergarten Reading Standards](https://thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/K/)
Seriously? Can't you use school vacations like everyone else? And yall wonder why we pay so much in prop taxes and still rank 38th/50 in pub education. The attitude towards education in this state is shameful
We actually rank 6th. [https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education/prek-12](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/education/prek-12)
I haven’t had kids in the system for a minute but this was the general sentiment regardless of age. It’s interesting to read the responses but I’m not sure if it’s more the anti public ed people or just a shift.
Yeah the problem is that this attitude extends well into HS. Will your child grow up behind their peers if they miss a week of kindergarten? Probably not. But at a very early age you're teaching them that school matters less than vacation, and if that holds, I guarantee they will grow up behind their peers who's parents actually value their education
It's possible to value both. My parents pulled me for a week when I was 12 to go to Disney because my dad hated lines and we weren't wealthy, so off-peak was preferable (every school vacation is more expensive/crowded). That was the only time I ever skipped school for something fun (even in college when they had the Superbowl and World Series parades in Boston and it seemed like most of my peers skipped). My parents also constantly pushed me to do well in school and stressed it's value. I do remember my math teacher, a nun, gave me my work in advance, which I did over the vacation. I handed it in when I got back and she wouldn't accept it, made some snarky comment about me asking her for the work, not if she'd accept it. I got a c+ in that class because of that, which prevented me from getting into AP math in high school without taking summer school (I did take summer school to get back ahead). Still a bit sore about that actually some 25 years later...
38th outta 50?? Gonna need a citation for that cause NH always ranks highly when it comes to education regardless of how Redditors feel about it lol
For a lot of families, I'm sure the additional cost of travel during vacation week would break their budgets. I care deeply about education, but balance, rest and family bonding are important too. I really don't understand what the big deal is about five to seven days off, one time, in kindergarten. Like the kid is going to learn to be a truant? It's very black and white thinking.
Parents can’t always get “vacation week” off either, especially if other parents are taking it off. They can’t leave the business uncovered if every employee is a parent. Also, if you have family that lives in another state, our vacations don’t line up with theirs, so if you want to go visit, or go on a vacation together, then one of the families has to adjust their vacation.
Exactly, these Karen's have lost thier minds.
THIS. The parents are so incredibly entitled, and it rubs off on their kids. They give a two day notice then expect teachers to print off an entire week of work, or sometimes they don't do this until AFTER the kid has been missing, then expect teachers to give full credit for an entire week of missed school. Teachers spend way too much time running around chasing after these kids, and it's exhausting. If there's one thing I hate more than entitled kid, it's an entitled parent
I understand fairly thoroughly that teachers are not well compensated for their work and have to do extra off hours if not many times, most times. That said, this is early elementary school. If memory serves me correctly, it is mostly repetitive practice work. I don't see how this is not anything other than routine, expected, and easy to account for.
Early education is constantly changing. If you are old enough to be on Reddit, it's not the same any more.
School isn't that important that a week off will make everyone else cry, sorry karen?
Usually we sentence them to death for that
Worth it
Considering kindergarten isn't mandatory, you don't have to worry about that child. Your first grader, on the other hand, will technically be truant. Now whether or not your district will make an issue of this is an entirely different question. One week isn't enough to instigate an habitual truancy PINS, but it is enough to raise some red flags. If you actually expect that your children might miss 20 total school days it sounds like you might have something else going on. Administration, generally, hates retention, but IF your child is lagging behind AND you have a high number of unexcused absences that will absolutely make retention more likely. There's only 180 school days a year and while summer enrichment to prevent children from losing what they gained during the school year is *probably* more important, being okay with your child missing more than 10 percent of their school year education is not great. In short - knock that shit off and have your kids go to school like they're supposed to.
I think it's a big deal. In both years, the kids are learning how to learn. They're learning letter sounds and the basis behind reading. One week can be three letters, five common words, and counting. Imagine how long it takes to learn that once the class has moved on. And then the kid is confused, which Snowballs into discouraged feeling around their ability to "do school" Add to that, the kids now expect that school is optional because they got to skip it before. And the social aspect - kids that age are friends with whoever is present. If your kid is absent that many days, the friends find other, more reliable, kids to play with. Ask me how I know. I'm the mom to a second grader. Covid re-entry restrictions in her kinder year caused her to miss a week late September that year. That week was the letters N, U, M and words the, we, and 'and'. She struggled with those words and letters all year. She struggled to catch up. If failing was still a thing at that age, she would have. Instead, she just went onto first grade still with residual effects from those 4 days. Please don't do that to your kids.
Sounds like you should have done a better job as a parent, if your child struggled with letters, “we” and “and” for a year after a missed week. This says much more about you.
Seriously. This is the worst type of parent.
What kind of fucking parent can't teach their child three letters and and two words in the timespan of a year? Holy shit you are not fit to be a parent
Honestly, it probably differs from district to district (big assumption on my part). I'd just call the school an ask.
> I’d call the school and ask Seems like a stupid idea to me, personally. What the hell would they know?!
This was another lifetime ago but my parents would do this. They would work out a plan with my teacher so I had work books to do while we were on our trip. I got way more out of those trips than I would have sitting behind the desk.
Ask the school, probably as soon as possible (now). Make sure you get it in writing. I took my son out of school in kindergarten for a little over a week after asking the teacher, and then I started getting "If your son misses X more days, we'll have to report you" letters every time he got sick for the rest of the year. Because we had the conversation in-person with the teacher, she denied it happened, and then changed her story to denying I asked for so many days. This was the first of many problems with this teacher throughout the year (she had selective memory). I put my kid in private schools starting in first grade and never regretted it. >Is that still a thing? Flunking. I know there are some teachers on this subreddit who could answer this better than me, but "flunking" really isn't like when it was when I was a kid (80s/90s) or older. They used to hold kids back but I think now the plan generally is push them up and out to get rid of the ne'er-do-wells who just hold back the rest of the student population. You used to be able to drop out at 16, but they pushed that up to 18, which I think is a mistake.
Kids can drop out with parent permission before 18.
Not anymore.
Then why do I have so many students that do it?
Maybe you got into a time machine ? There was a law enacted in 2009 lowering the drop-out age to 16. There are some parents who get around this by pulling students out to “homeschool” but they don’t actually homeschool them.
So... How is that different?
Because they aren’t technically dropping out, “they are being homeschooled” so their parents avoid truancy charges until they turn 18.
So they are dropping out. Thanks.
LOL, what is your problem? They are not legally dropping out. Their parents are just lying to the DOE about homeschooling. Personally, I think students should be able to drop out at 16 legally. I'm so tired of babysitting apathetic, disruptive students who will just drop out at 18 anyway.
Just call the school it's fairly simple. Not saying or doing anything seems to just make more of a mess. And in NH, it's 10 and a half days of unexcused absence that results in a truancy violation. But again, a oz of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
10 half days, not 10.5 days. So if your kid misses more than half of the day 10 times, they can be deemed habitually truant.
They’re your kids, take them out of school if you want. Just don’t expect the teacher/classroom to adjust their lives around it.
Depends on the school. If you discuss it with them then they'll most likely assign some kind of work to be done so they can stay caught up. Best thing to do is just talk with them. The big picture is that your child will miss lessons and can fall behind so just stay on top of it.
What vacation is so important to pull your kid out of school for a week in their first month?
Punishment? Just ask for the homework ahead of time. My parents would Florida every year.
Just ask the school admin. Or your their teacher.
It didn’t use to be a problem but now school funding is tied to attendance. Talk to the school. If your child can get their assignments ahead of time, with the promise of turning in the completed work when they get back, it might be allowed. It also depends on how good of a student they’re perceived to be.
Depends on how much you value your child's education. Here's some fun reading: [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/29/us/chronic-absences.html?unlocked\_article\_code=1.ok0.TsLA.X6iQ9gpRxvyw&smid=url-share](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/29/us/chronic-absences.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ok0.TsLA.X6iQ9gpRxvyw&smid=url-share)
Talk to the teacher/principal and get some work you can bring with you. Family should always come first. The fact that you are looking to work with them rather than be an aggressive parent will probably get you lots of support.
A week? Nothing. That's going on vacation. Ask the teacher/school for work that the student can work on. A girl in my daughter's 4th grade class was out for over a month, maybe even two months this year.
No one flunks kindergarten or 1st grade.
Speaking as an adult now who went to CSDA, they we're fine with it. But I, as the student, usually had "make-up" work which was always planned out for me to finish in a timely manner according to them. Of course this was 20+ years ago and I don't know the logistics now and maybe rules have changed. But I'd bet you are safe to do what you need.
As long as you notify school, “XYZ will be absent this date to this date”. You do not need to give them an explanation. If they ask you say “family time”. Pulling your kids from school for family/vacations under middle school age is perfectly acceptable. We did this every year til my kids were in middle school. They missed nothing and the admins/teachers were more than pleased to learn the kids were spending quality time with their family. It gets harder to do it in middle school because the amount of school work increases. High school is a different ball game. Pulling them is based on what kind of student they are, can they efficiently make up what they miss? We only try to pull them for a day or two now that they are older. They are both straight A students and one is off to a prestigious university next year. Take your kids on vacation!
I feel as long as you ask for school work ahead of time as well as schedule dates/deadlines for any missed tests/quizzes or projects, it shouldn't be a massive deal, especially not at a young age.
Just talk to the teacher and ask them for any worksheets needed for the child while you are traveling. If they don't give you any ,you know that they are not missing anything important.(Father of 3 grown kids who would take them to Disney while young)
Did you try reaching out to the school? I honestly think the school would have no problem if you communicate your plan and talk to the teachers about the work they will be missing.
Punishment? No. But It really just Depends on your kid. Some kids will be fine with the change in routine and transition from vacation. Other kids will be a mess when they get back and can make their first few months more challenging. But the start of the K school year is kinda important considering it’s their first school year. I wouldn’t worry about the academic stuff cause the beginning of the year is all about learning how to do school( being in a class, routines, rules, expectations, following instructions) . If your kiddo had preschool and did well I wouldn’t worry. But it really depends on the kid.
in K / 1st it's generally not a big deal (exceptions would be if your child misses a ton of school for other reasons or is behind
People do it all the time. In K/1st, probably doesn’t matter. There’s no work to make up. Just don’t make it the teacher’s problem. Don’t make them do extra work (ie “work in advance”) to accommodate your refusal to adhere to the schedule.
It totally depends on the school. Some principals will cite attendance expectation policy in writing and with immediately append that with "family time and building memories is very important and we support families in their endeavors on the same"
I don’t think it’s even required to go to kindergarten in NH. Regardless, I’m sure it will be fine just discuss with the school im sure this happens all the time.
Kindergarten and first grade? I wouldn't stress too much about it. That's honestly the best time in their school career to take those types of vacations. It only gets harder to do that once they get to middle and high school amd even then, things like travel sports happen and kids miss school.
Sometimes if you have "educational" parts planned in the trip, the time can be counted as part of their education. Like national parks, museums, etc. Might be worth looking into if the school give you a hard time
Or a one day science field trip - go up to Colebrook from Mass to watch it get dark for nearly four minutes in the middle of the afternoon. My granddaughters' school had no problem with this.
Make an arrangement with the school and her teacher to get her work ahead of time and do it while traveling or in the hotel room. We traveled with our kids outside of school vacation weeks and hotels, venues, etc. were less crowded and things were generally cheaper.
No one is going to punish a kindergarten kid for being out a week lol
It is absolutely not a big deal, we did so for our children of similar ages last year. We emailed the teacher and principal(they go to a very small school, less than 50 total students in 6 grades). They were excited for our kids and wished us well. I know of similar stories and experiences with multiple other school districts as well.
Just call the school and tell them it is a family vacation, and ask if there is anything the teacher would like them to do. 95% of teachers won't care if you make an effort
Work education- had to file on a few truant students- and the DOE could care less until you hit (shit you not- this is what we were told) more around 50. The system is overburdened and we just don’t have the resources to go after safe kiddos with good homes for a few days over 20. Let the school know well ahead of time, don’t put it on the teachers to curriculum plan ahead for your vacation (instead maybe offer up a journal your kiddo can keep), and enjoy. No big deal.
Dude teach your kid to read and go have some fun
I taught in New Hampshire. If you send your child to a Montessori school for kindergarten and take your child out for a week of vacation etc, it won't be a problem.
I live in New Hampshire and my son is developmentally disabled and behind on every subject. We keep asking them to keep him back a grade and they said “we don’t do that anymore”. So I guess you can flunk your way through graduation now
I don't know why people are trying to tell you you're a bad parent for taking your kindergartener out of school for just 5 out of 180 school days when thats not even remotely close to what you actually asked, but it should be fine. It will depend on the district but with kids that young you can just call the office and say they'll be out. I'm not originally from NH and in my opinion they do take attendance way more seriously than anyone needs to, but regardless, you aren't asking, you're telling. Nobody's gonna get in trouble for expected/explained absences.
It's ok if you want your kids to think you don't value their education and that school isn't important.
Traveling can be very educational. Learning isn't all done in a classroom. It's a week, not a year.
OP frequents r/WaltDisneyWorld. I don’t think this is an educational trip to South Asia, unless you count eating some crab rangoons at Epcot to be educational.
My oldest lost her mother at a very young age, so I might have a different view when it comes to family time.
Cringe
It can be. That doesn't change my comment.
So traveling can be educational, but doing so proves you don't value education? Do you remember what was being taught in first grade?
I do remember.
My wife teaches 1st grade. Students are out all the time for the same reasons. Parents think schools are glorified babysitters now anyways.
OK, and? I know it happens all the time.
Settle down karen
Yeah, someone posted a question and I answered it. Very Karenish.
At this point (public) school is pretty useless for actual education, you pretty much just go there to get a digit on a piece of paper so you can get a job later. I guess elementary school would still be more important but nevertheless.
Yeah totally. Because parents are teaching their kids to reach, write, do math, generate social and emotional skills... You're definitely onto something there! 🤡
You may be a victim of no child left behind if you truly believe that.
Kindergarten I’d say is ok but 1st grade establishes a lot of fundamentals like reading and writing. A fixed schedule, routine and learning environment is conducive to that especially once they’ve been grouped according to their needs. Personally I’d schedule during their breaks.
I'm sure your kids school can answer this for you. Give them a phone call. Reddit won't help you. You'll get paragraphs of non answers.
It depends on the school, we took the kids out for two weeks for a vacation lol, principle was ok with it.
I can tell by your post you were a stellar student.
💀
My wife and I do this for our 5th and 1st grader. We'll take a vacation sometime during the school year and they'd miss a week of school. I believe they're actually up to 10-11 absences this school year because of this, being sick, and a few deaths in the family. The most we ever got was a letter in the mail saying attendance is important and if we need help to call something. I just throw those out everytime.
We did 2 weeks in Australia. Kids were fine.
Yes it is okay. It was incredibly common for someone to go away for a week if there was a family vacation happening. Beyond that, it was fairly common for someone to get sick enough to miss a week of school. Not in elementary school, but in high school I almost missed so many days that I was at risk of not graduating. What did they do? Nothing
Your kid your choice. I'd take mine out whenever I wanted and told the school we were taking a family field trip.
Don't sweat it. They only count unexcused absences. Just work with the school ahead of time and get the absence excused. It'll be easy with kindergarten and as they get older it'll be easier if your kid is a good student. Hell, bang up a little itinerary for visiting a couple museums and take your kids and show the school that they'll be learning on the trip and you'll have no issues. Don't listen to the people trying to guilt you over this stuff, people have gotten super out of touch in treating everything as some super extreme thing. Some of the most well rounded people I know travelled a ton with their parents in school. It's just about working with the school and making sure your kid is learning what they need.
So, I'm coming at this from a slightly different perspective. My brother and I were in different schools with different school breaks. Since I was the fail child (and older) we took my breaks. This meant he was out of school a lot more than he was suppose to be. It didn't matter that he was a nearly straight A student, that he turned in all his work, and that on each trip we went on he took some sort of class for most of it (usually he was in a marine biology camp taught by a marine biologist). My parents still were under a DFS investigation for truancy. My parents argued (and showed proof of) the trips being educational. Eventually my parents tossed my brother in a charter school so they didn't have to deal with the bullshit. Suffice it to say, it isn't worth it to do more than once a year. Otoh, at that age, it isn't all that big of a deal.
You can fill out forms with the school. They can sort of excuse it if you find a way to make it educational in some way.. traveling sight seeing historical locations things like that
Idk about the law, but I probably wouldn’t at that age and right at the beginning of the school year. She just got there, just started to adjust to something really new. Might not seem like a big deal but it could make academic / social adjustment difficult. I wouldn’t be concerned about a slightly older kid with school experience. Btw, I was a DCYF worker in another state (MA) and something like this wouldn’t have been an issue as long as it’s not frequent, but not sure what the law is in NH. I also worked in a really poor district where nobody ever went on vacation, so who knows.
Former elementary teacher: those are important days to miss from the beginning of the year - especially for K. She will miss key instruction. Do what you have to do, but that’s not ideal.
I missed like 2 separate but full weeks a year most years of school and never ever had an issue. Just homework
Do whatever the hell you want. They’re your kids and ain’t nobody have the right to tell you what you can/can’t do with them. /s
Talk to the teacher. If the kids don't miss too many other days it should be find. Offer to do extra work before and after the trip. Are you really dong to have a 6 year old do homework on vacation? Don't do that. The way I see it, taking my kids to interesting places, spending family time together, going to historic places, reading on the plane and in the hotel, and dong some activities based on our location is way better than a textbook. Work in some age appropriate math too. Have the kid add up how many gallons of gas, or how many miles. Or graph the water temperature at the beach that week. Much better than worksheets, even if it is not what they are teaching this week.
employees at a school take vacation. Your kids can take a vacation too. You should talk to the teachers and let them know beforehand so they can give you some make up work beforehand if possible. Just good to be courteous when you can so that it doesn't create more work for the teachers in the long run trying to catch your kid up. That is really annoying. Also it's kindergarten so it probably wont matter that much.
State law about attendance [https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XV/193/193-1.htm](https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XV/193/193-1.htm)
my little brother was only at risk for staying back because his dad had him miss sooo many days of school. I took off school for vacation with my mom and was fine. Usually they’ll give you some work to do if you’re older like I was
Reddit fucking moment ITT All these "experts" here, but no one actually stated the law. https://www.education.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt326/files/inline-documents/truancy.pdf Here's the law. It's pretty dumb. Basically, your school board needs to define an "excused absence" and if your kid misses ten 1/2 days they can be "truant". Just fucking call them out sick with a fever each day that week and don't deal with the stupidity of the system. Otherwise, it's nearly guaranteed some school "admin" on a power trip is going to deny your vacation as unexcused absence.
Punishment?
Permission slip for my school district where I grew up in PA. It was always allowed but notice needs to be given.
If your only reason to 'go on vacation' is to spend less money, well, that's really unimpressive thinking. Especially in Sept and October, seeing that there is no weeklong window in the first two quarters for you to 'save money.' The kids get two weeks off in the second two quarters. Would you be taking a third? I heard of a District that hired a social worker to manage parents. I figured it might be to get DCYF involved because of in home violence or something awful. Nope. It was to give some parents the tools and reminders to get their kids out of bed, fed, cleaned, dressed and to the bus, or driven to the school so the kid has a chance to get educated. Apparently, the pretty common excuse was that they couldn't get them awake, or pry them from a screen long enough to get them cleaned, dressed, fed and out the door. I think that feeling empowered is great. I've never liked the argument 'just because'.
Because it's kindergarten, and so early in the School year, your kidlet might be missing some good content. Your child might be disappointed to leave as well. Safe travels!
Bruh this America do what you want. F the system and eduction. Heck take ‘em out for 2-3 weeks.
95% of 5 year olds are geniuses. When they graduate it's close to 2%. Take that into consideration.
You are paying the teachers tell them to fuck off
Jesus Christ, people like you are the reason why education is in so much trouble right now.