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Many families choose to visit Disney theme parks during the school year to take advantage of lighter crowds and milder weather. This week we asked our Parenting Panel: Would you take your children out of school for a Disney theme park vacation?
Chris Salata, also known as GusMan, is a Disney-inspired author and photographer, and loves to help people get the most out of their Disney vacation. Chris writes:
When planning my first family vacation to Disney, my daughter was going to a private elementary school. She was an excellent student and her teachers were awesome. We talked with her teachers several weeks ahead of time and made any and all applicable arrangements for homework and tests. In some cases, she got the work ahead of time. We really appreciated the teachers making the extra effort for us so that we could have a great vacation and our daughter would not fall behind because of it.
After a few years, we moved to a different state and took advantage of the public school system. Keep in mind, when we moved, we already had a trip planned and mostly paid for. However, when we brought it up to the teacher, it was an entirely different reaction than her former private school. This is because the school district saw such absences as unexcused. While this in of itself was not really an issue, it was the school policy of reporting parents to DCFS after the fifth absence that really got me a bit steamed. That's right – I was going to be reported to a state agency for “educational neglect” because I wanted to take my straight-A student on a vacation that was planned a year ago.
I will say that there is a happy ending to this story, as I did work things out with the school district and we enjoyed our trip without being incarcerated afterward. Because of my involvement, they did change some of their rules to help accommodate certain family based absences. At the same time, though, we no longer take our kids out of school for vacations.
With this in mind, there are some thoughts that I would pass along to other parents considering taking their kids out of school for a vacation:
- Make sure you understand your school district's policy on absences. There may be differences in "excused" versus "unexcused" absences and how many a student can accrue in a semester or year.
- See if you can obtain a school calender for the following year to help plan future vacations.
- Don't assume that vacations will be the same week each year or follow a particular holiday. For example, spring break for many schools happen the week before or week after Easter. However, some may base their spring break on different factors.
- Be careful of snow days and how they are made up in your district. Some schools add days at the end of the year to accommodate snow days. Others might sprinkle a day or two throughout the second semester to offset any such days. This can impact when you can take your summer vacation.
- Do consider if your child can handle the time away from school from an academic perspective. Respectfully, if he or she is already having issues in class, then vacationing during the school year may not be the best choice.
- Know what your teachers' policy is regarding missed work and how it is to be made up. Tests may be different from homework assignments. Policies may vary from teacher to teacher.
- If possible, get any arrangements made in writing, even if it is an e-mail discussion with the teachers or school administration. This way, there should be no confusion if there is contention later.
The decision to vacation during the school year is a personal choice. At the same time, doing so should not be done lightly. Take some time to consider the benefits and drawbacks before putting down the deposit on your dream trip. Granted, it may be easier to do so with younger students, but it may become increasingly difficult as they get into middle school and high school. This is a case where a bit of research and planning close to home will help you get the best out of your time at your home away from home.
Sheena also known as Mermaid, teaches first grade in Arizona where she lives with her husband and two children, Matthew (3) and Katie (2). She visits the Disneyland Resort as often as she can and has passed on her love of the parks to her little Mouseketeers. Sheena writes:
The decision to take your children out of school is such a tough one. Lower crowds, cheaper flights and hotel rooms make this an attractive option for many families. In addition, some parents cannot travel when children are traditionally out of school, so pulling the kids out might be the only choice. My own children are still preschool age, so I have not had to make this decision yet for my family. But, I often see this from the other side as from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (and then some), I teach first grade.
As a primary grade teacher, I do not mind one bit when my students are pulled out for family vacations. I think family time is incredibly valuable in developing well-rounded and connected children. This can be done in many ways of course, but one way is the family vacation. In the lower grades, most children can easily make up the work and catch up after a week's absence. Even longer absences can be absorbed with a little more effort by the student, parents and teacher – but I do not see many absences over a week for vacation.
As students get older, it gets harder to easily recover from an absence longer than a few days. I consider 4th-6th grades the "know your situation" years more than any other grades. Some kids can miss a week without a blink and others might crumble under the stress of having to make up the work. It depends a lot on each child's abilities, personality and study habits as well as the school's policy towards missing work. In junior high and high school, I think it is generally difficult for the child to make up missing work. He likely has eight different teachers with eight different loads of make-up work, combined with the increased difficulty of the workload making it harder to find his place when returning to class.
Speaking from an elementary years viewpoint, a week of vacation can be taken without much academic repercussions but there are a few factors to consider:
Personality: Most kids are completely unphased by missing a week of school. Some children will really feel awful that their reindeer isn't on the wall, that they missed field day, they missed the Valentine's Day party, etc. You can plan around the big events if you have a more sensitive soul, but, chances are, your student will be missing something that can not be made up, whether it be big or small. In addition, some children feel anxious about the work they will have to make up—especially in the older grades. This can detract from the overall vacation experience for everyone if extreme enough. I also advise against parents missing the first and last weeks of the school year. At the start, the class is learning so many procedures and making connections that can't easily be retaught and there are a lot of fun end-of-the-year activities that most students want to be a part of.l
Teacher Expectations: When considering a school year vacation, I would ask the teacher early what her policy is for missed days. I do not require my students to make up work. I want them to go and enjoy themselves. If anything, I ask them to keep a journal and share back with the class about their adventure when they return. I am fairly laid back and I recognize my students are 6. Other teachers may have much tougher expectations and send a large amount of work to be completed upon return. You don't want to be doing school work for hours each night—or at least, I don't!
District Policies: How does the district view vacation absences? In many districts they are considered unexcused, which has various degrees of impact. In the older grades, tests and classwork often can not be made up for unexcused absences. In my district, if you have 10 unexcused absences in a row (so a two-week vacation) you are withdrawn. You can only re-enroll at the district office; which is about 45 minutes from my school; and you need to bring birth certificate, proof of address, immunizations etc. You are not guaranteed re-enrollment in the same class. I had a family a few years back that came back for a half day of school upon their return from vacation. The child was absent for 9.5 days. Know the policies before you go so you are not surprised upon return!
For my own children, I won't hesitate to take them out for a week until third or fourth grades. After that, I will consider what will be gained by each vacation and weigh that against any consequences for missed school. My teacher side says: go, have a great time, bring me a magnet for my board and a bag of sour balls!
MousePlanet columnist Chris Barry, his wife, Diane, Samantha (15), and twins Casey and Alex (12), live on Long Island and are all major Disney and Walt Disney World fans. Chris writes:
Before we get started with this discussion, it has to be clarified…I am, in fact, a teacher. For further clarification, it should be noted that I teach purely elective courses, so my point-of-view might be a little different than some of my colleagues that teach more mainstream classes. You might think that the fact that I’m a teacher will sway my feelings on this issue. You might be surprised. I actually have no problem with a family taking a child out of school for a vacation.
I’m not belittling the importance of being in school and being physically present to learn the material. But it’s been my experience that being together with your family and creating memories and experiences that you can all cherish together is invaluable. Sometimes that has to take precedence. It’s been my experience that the families that take time away from the rigors of work and school to just be a family together have better, more well-adjusted or more educationally sound children. They take the time off responsibly and catch up with the work. That’s the trick. Plan your time off carefully. Don’t do it around any major testing or major review time. Monitor your kid’s progress in school carefully and you’ll know if they can afford a few days away and when, if at all, would be the best time.
Because of my profession, I’m not able to take a week off aside from my given vacation time, which, of course, happen to be the busiest and most costly weeks to go away all year. Over the years, however, we have managed to work in a long weekend here or there during the off seasons, and they have been some of our best Disney trips ever. When the prices are lower and the crowds are less overwhelming, sometimes it’s just too important for your family’s sanity to pass up. If that meant a day or two off for all of us then so be it. Not to mention, we’ve saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars by getting our “Disney fix” this way.
The kids still have to be kept responsible even while they’re in the most magical place on earth. Don’t be afraid to bring schoolwork with you on your Disney trip. I know that sounds like an impossible thought to some, but we have done it and it worked just fine. We did this on two occasions when the Jewish holidays in September gave us a four-day weekend. On those trips, we didn’t actually take the kids out of school, but they still had to return to class on Monday and be back in the swing of things.
Most recently, on one of those trips, we found a beautiful desk and chair setting in Disney's Yacht Club Resort and sat with our boys for an hour or so on two separate days while they studied and we quizzed them. They knew that this was part of the package. It’s not summer. It’s not a designated vacation. It’s an escape for a long weekend during the school year. If they wanted us to have this experience, they had to make some time for the work. They weren’t thrilled, but it worked surprisingly well. We were very proud of them.
I’d love to be able to take a full week off in September or early December to visit Walt Disney World when it’s much quieter. My profession doesn’t allow that. If it did, and I could keep my kids on task with the work that they were missing, than you’d certainly find me taking advantage of the time away from work and school to be with my family. Time goes by too quickly, and those memories can only be made for so long. They can always catch up on schoolwork, but they won't be young forever.
It's your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
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Comments
With the state of the public education system in CA, we've opted to home school our children for the time being. My wife is a certified teacher with many years experience, so it was an easy decision. It also makes heading to Disney or anywhere else at any time a slam dunk. We usually bring along school work so that the kids are working during the travel days (flying or driving), so that it's not a complete loss and we don't have to make it up as much later.
There was a time when we had our kids going to a charter school (1 in 2nd grade, 1 in KG) and we took them out for 7 school days. We simply told the teachers and they prepared some work for the kids. With our kids doing so well, no one was worried. We got the work done that needed to be done and came back from the trip right on schedule.
Now some schools won't let you do that, like Chris/GusMan mentioned above. Here's why: the deal that teachers/teacher unions/schools have is based on student attendance. If a child misses school days, that directly effects revenue and following union negotiations. It's not about the kid and how they care about their well being - it's about the money. A fact I've learned from having a wife, sister, and cousin all become teachers.
I have never taken my child out of school for vacation, but we have considered some scenarios. It shouldn't be for more than one week so a Disney vacation will be entirely suitable. My schools in my school district do allow the parents to remove kids from school without repercussion. Removal from school should not be done at High School and perhaps the later years of Junior High or Middle School if academics is a concern. Preparation of exams to get to the next level is most competitive at my school district so academics is the first consideration, not a trivial Disney vacation.
In most cases, going on a Disney vacation is best outside of the academic year as an reward for good performance. However, if your kids is still in the elementary age, under 10, then allowances could be made.
We pulled ours out for 2 weeks to go to WDW in 2011 and would do it again. We put them on independent study and they got their work ahead of time. The schools got their attendance money. Now that my oldest will be in high school, it'll be trickier. But she's an excellent student and I would consider it again.
We pulled our oldest out of school in Sept of 1st grade for a Disney cruise. Our school district allows for independent contracts if the kids will be gone for 5 or more days, so he did a bit of work each night. One of the tasks was to write about what he did each day, and I made/let him illustrate a picture so it made a nice keepsake. We later did something similar on an Alaskan cruise where we bought postcards each day and the kids wrote themselves notes about what their favorite activity was that day.
I had problems with his teacher that year, but I don't think him being out of school during that week was a significant factor.
We are planning on taking the kids out of school next year for a trip to WDW. The kids will be in 2nd and 4th grade. We are looking at November or December to let the kids get used to the class rules/routines before we take them. We might go over Thanksgiving to minimize the time off, but in some ways for our district it is better to be gone for longer and do the independent study contract than to have unexcused absences.
Ours is too currence. Mine missed 3 days last year because of a couple of trips (missed 2 days right before Xmas break and another day later in the year) and we got notice that another day would mean a visit from the truancy officer. Funny thing was I got it for my 1st and 3rd graders but not my 7th grader.
Having read all the replies and the original article and these replies I wanted to throw in my two cents worth.
First of all the threats by school districts amounts to harassment. School districts can "report you to DCFS, or call a truancy officer, but ultimately they have little to no jurisdiction. If a case were to go forward by either of these parties they would fail horribly. The bottom line is the parent, as has been upheld time and again by the courts, is responsible for their child's education. DCFS, and Truancy officers purpose in this is to ensure parents do their job. DCFS if called will follow up with a meeting, but won't be able to go any farther because they would have to prove negligence, or intent by the parents to avoid education. A family vacation would never be considered as such.
And the bottom line is not all families can take a vacation when their kids are out of school. I work in a profession that is in that position, when kids are out of school I am usually working the hardest.
So why do school districts threaten this? MONEY! school districts get their money from the states, and through the states from the federal government. They are paid per child, per day of education or excused absences. Unexcused absences aren't paid for, so schools make up ridiculous, and unenforceable rules to keep the money coming. That's right, it's not about your child's education, it's about the dollars. Schools will do what ever they can to keep kids in school every day possible for the money. My own (now grown) kids were forced to go to school on days when the Governor of our state told people to stay home, when airports were closed, and even highways. And why... no money for days when the school was closed. In the last week of school every year the kids were in school for half days, and even as little as two hours, and why... Money! it didn't matter how long they were in school, just that they showed up. and we were threatened, parents were told that if their kids missed these important days of sitting in the gym, or playing games in a class they had finals for a week ago they would be flunked.
So how do you fight this? By knowing how little they can really do, and taking charge of your child's education. School districts in general don't like when parents are too involved with their kids education, they don't like it one bit. We never asked for permission, we told them we were taking them out. We had the same threats, and when we did we acted. The first thing we did is remind them that they work for us, we were in charge. If they threatened to flunk a our kids we threatened to pull them out of school and either home school them, or put them in another school. Money speaks, and when threatened with this the school almost always caves, they want their money. One time we were threatened by a teacher to call DCFS, we challenged her to do so, and then we told her we would hire a lawyer and sue her personally for raising false charges.
We also had a school principle tell us that our kids would never be accepted to a college with unexcused absences. This is complete nonsense... My Aunt is a retired president of a Florida university. She has worked in admissions for almost 30 years, and in all that time they have never, repeat never looked at a students attendance records.
Just remember, you, not them are in charge of your kids education. Take an active role! If it is in the best interest of your family that you take a vacation during school then do so. Remind the school that they need your money more then you need their school. and if they do call DCFS, or anyone else, just call the school and say you are withdrawing your kid, they will change their mind. At least with every case I have ever heard from, and we know quite a few, they have
Just my two cents worth
It should be noted that these things vary by state. I've worked for my school district in NY for 18 years and I've never heard any talk of money for attendance. That may be the case in some states but not all. I've also never heard of any of my colleagues or administrators threatening parents if they take kids out. There has to be real neglect for Child Protective Services to be considered. They frown upon taking kids out for vacations, but to my knowledge they've never gotten as drastic as threatening the parents, who are, after all, the taxpayers who keep the district funded.
We took our sons, then kinder, 3rd & 6th grade, out for a trip to WDW. That was not my choice. At the time, our school system had a month long fall break. Based on history, I expected the fall break to occur in October and started planning accordingly. Then in the early spring, the school district moved fall break to November. The first thing I did was contact the school office to let them know, I tried to do "the right thing" but the School Board messed it up. They assured me that my children have fabulous grades, good attendance history, and that they'd have no problem giving us an independent study contract. As a former teacher, I would never take my children out of school for 3 or more days without one. I'm not going to punish my children's school because of bureaucracy beyond their control.
At this point, I won't be able to really do that again. From this point forward, I will possibly have at least one child taking an AP class for the next 7 years or so. If it was a matter of tacking a day or two on to a weekend, no where near finals, I might do it. But I'd have to consider the timing carefully.
And I'm ok with that.
In the State of California, excused absences are no longer funded either. My particular county requires a warning letter from the school @10%. That means in our 180 day school year the kids can be absent 18 days (excused/unexcused doesn't matter). However, if we are only 40 days in and the kids are absent for 6, a letter will trigger and our school has to send a copy to the county showing compliance on their part. Usually, our Principle/Superintendent then gets an angry call where she needs to talk a parent down.
Now, Independent study contracts are a state level provision requiring 5 consecutive days, (when our older 2 were really young there wasn't a 5 day minimum), and all school work should/needs to be turned in on return and they actually count as having attended class. That's right my kids spent 5 days at DL and 10 days in NY/DC in the same school year and had perfect attendence anyway.
ETA: Like Adrienne, I have a good working relationship with our school, I always Thank the teacher for taking the time to gather the lessons needed, and when they were younger, the teachers would photocopy the needed textbook pages so we wouldn't need to pack them. Every once in awhile, one of the kids would need an extra day to complete everything and the office staff would tell me I was fine because they knew I would follow through. There are parents that start with good intentions, and then never follow through on the work, so make sure you are able and willing if going this route.
My current high schooler had an issue with lack of wifi and took weeks to catch back up, so advanced thought is needed. Our older 2, while in the same charter school, had books etc, our current one has NO textbooks and everything is done online.
It was great not having to take text books to WDW. The school librarian issued us the Textbook on CD for our trip. I will also mention that my 1st grader had WAY more homework then our 5th grade GATE student. And they both came back and had completed more work then was covered while we were gone. They were ahead in math for a couple of weeks.
Is it 5 days now? I think it's 3 days in my area.
Did you say yes?
I get that schools do not want kids missing classes due to family vacations. We do our best to keep from our child having to miss school unless he is sick. What I do not get is that our school continues the tradition of giving out a big packet of homework during the scheduled breaks! Today was no different. I know the holiday break is a long one but it is almost as if they do not want kids to ever have a vacation or a break. We are fortunate that we aren't going much out of town over the break. 8 pages of math, a book to read and do a book report and diorama. Last year-- holiday break was no different and we were out of town for a large part of it trying to keep up.
As a 15 year veteran of the teaching profession, let me just say that anecdotally I've observed kids' attendance patterns fall in one of two categories:
Student A: who is there nearly every day without fail, for better or worse, come hell or high water and misses in total between 0 and 2 school days the entire school year.
Student B: whose parents use or allow almost any excuse for them to miss school and who can seemingly almost never seem to string together a full school week of 5 consecutive days' attendance; they end up missing between 20 and 40 days a year.
There are very few students who aren't in one of these. In my experience, 90% of the kids fall in these categories. Two extremes. Very few fall somewhere in between.
All that to say: if you're typically in category A, then by all means you and your child should treat yourself to a Disney vacation or park trip. If you're in Category B then obviously you shouldn't, but will anyway.
^^^agreed!
Redhead- that sounds miserable! I have never sent homework over a break. Ever. I don't even send homework on Fridays!
We've taken out kids out of school for Disney vacations before. In the past it's definitely been more of an issue in public schools than in private (both in NC and CA). But our kids are good students so we don't have much of an issue with make up work. (DD was in public school in NC and was out for almost a week with pneumonia, I went in and got her work every day, she went back to school Friday and was only 1 of 3 kids who completed all their homework for the week, and she missed 4 days of school, this was not uncommon behavior from this class. Now that we have a child in high school we limit the amount of time we miss. She is a great student, studies hard and gets good grades. They will be missing 2 days of school at the end of Christmas break for our WDW trip in January. But they are in private school and I think both girls have maybe missed 2 or 3 days of school this year. (2 of which were Disneyland days).
I am being fair. My wife and sister are both certified teachers. One with 5 years experience and the other with 12 years in the public system. We had the kids at a very well respected Charter School, and both teachers said that the school won't let our kids excel like they both could in both Math and the Arts - not to mention some bad habits they were picking up. And they were homeschooling very well until the charter we home school through adopted Common Core math this year (worst teaching method ever???) Still, they're excelling in everything else. My wife wants a bumper sticker that says "My Homeschool student is smarter than your honor student".
If you'd like to have a conversation about the public school system (I'd love to comment on that bumper sticker,) please feel free to start a thread in the Lounge. This one is taking kids out of school to go on vacation at a Disney theme park. Thanks!
...and at this point nothing has been done yet. I don't blame my son really. I just hope he does a little bit of it before Christmas! About a year ago we thought we would have the problem at the end of the year. We were fortunate that when they added on days (it was originally a shortened year) that they started summer after Arg was out.
just an observation !! everyone posting has a good point . BUT today people in general have a sense of self importance . mr barry posted about earlier in the year about lewd comments directed @ his daughter , some friends just 2 days ago were at the magic kingdom & their 9 year old was run over by a ahem " lady " pushing a stroller who them cursed @ his father for not moving fast enough . surprisingly Disney police removed the lady . BUT how often does that happen . what is missing today is common sense . the posters above reflect that . merry Christmas & a happy new year.
As a local, I do get it. I recently heard of someone taking a day off to go to disneyland on a weekday simply because "it's less crowded on a weekday. I'm not even sure our son would be as ok with it as we would be! My son is too bent on "we must follow the rules" to allow us to take him out for a Disneyland trip. But that's my kid. Our passes are such that weekdays would be much easier.
ETA: my son just said he was going to do some of his assigned reading....on Christmas Eve! Of course, family is coming soon so I'm not sure how long he will be able to. Maybe he is trying to impress Santa.
My kids high school homework over break is ridiculous. Oh and one of their teachers told a different period to "not have your parents email me because I want a BREAK!"
That's classic. Reminds me there are some things you think but should never say. As a teacher "Don't have your parents email me" is a perfect example.
That said, I'd never assign homework over a break. And any teacher who does should expect a fair share of email about it.
To my son's credit, he already has the reading done. But now needs to write a report, prepare a diorama, and do all his math! If the kids can't get a vacation during the school breaks, when are they supposed to? Summer just doesn't work for everything!
Wanted to add that this topic appears to be getting more and more popular... in fact, it seems to have hit a blurb on the Today Show...
Should skipping school for family vacation be illegal?
When I was a senior in high school in Texas (in the 80's), a massive education reform bill made it policy that if a student had 5 or more "unexcused" absences they AUTOMATICALLY FAILED the class. The only legitimate "excuse" was illness (family trips were not considered excused absences).
Lots of families I knew still took vacations...they just lied to the school and said the kid was sick.
I don't know if that's still the case in Texas...but the Today Show clip says it is illegal in some states to pull your kids out (truancy charges, maybe?)
We live in California now and are involved in 4-H. Kids that show animals at the fairs are required to care for them daily...many travel long distances and have to miss almost a full week of school (for each fair they participate in). Some of our friends have been threatened with truancy charges and/or child neglect charges, based on the fact that they are "denying their child an education" by pulling them out of school. That's pretty serious. CPS can take your kids from you and investigate later. Some districts will work with you (like some posters have mentioned above) and let you have a temporary independent study contract.
Some things puzzle me. I know individuals who are very opinionated about their children's education. But then they'll turn around and take their kids out of school and get annoyed when it makes the school unhappy. I know people who have taken their secondary aged children out of school at critical time points of the semester, and then have been surprised when the school was upset. Even annoyed.
Here's me: I have taken my children out, with an independent study contract, at times of the year when it was not going to affect their education or grades. There have been times that I wanted to take my kids out of school but would not because it was too close to finals or the end of the year or so forth. I think that there has to be some level of responsibility to making these decisions.
Personally, I was in 4-H, but I was never in a livestock competition that required being at the fair daily. That said, Fair time is in the fall, 4-H is a pretty darn good program and has an educational element to it, and I'll bet that where there's a 4-H program with that level of livestock competition, the community is going to be pretty farm oriented. I would really hope that the local schools and parents could work together to sign up for and follow independent study contracts. To not do so would seem short-sighted on both sides.
Unfortunately, I've seen parents refuse to or not bother to get study contracts and I've heard of schools not cooperating and refusing to provide them. That disappoints me.