Child Missing School for a Much Better Real Life Education

I am a recently retired middle-school assistant princpal (Charlotte, NC school system). Our district has a form that parents can fill out and give to the principal to request approval for 'educational' trips to be counted as excused absences (without the prior approval, they are unexcused absences). Usually the principal will have the teacher(s) give the student work ahead of time that they can complete on the trip. Often there are written assignements related to the destination, or presentations upon return. Mathematics is the one area that most struggle with unless the parents are able to assist if it is a "new" or difficult part of the subject. Our teachers were always willing to provide supplemental instruction before or after the trip. Check with your child's princpal to see if you can do something similar. If not, private message me and I'll see if I can find a copy of the form- it might give you some ideas of what you want to address in your letter.

Hi Elizabeth,

We're taking our daughter with us to London/Ireland next fall. We too feel that real life education is important. I hadn't even thought about what to say in a letter to the school other than she will be gone for a week because we'll be overseas. Granted, she'll only be in kindergarten, so she won't be missing much. :)

Safe travels!

Here where I live its not a hassle taking your child out of school for a few days( unless of course its exam time , in which case that would be stupid) so we just tell the school ,, not a big deal at all. I have heard it is more difficult in States because schools are sometimes finacially penalized if they have bad attendence.. so they make really strict rules. My feeling is, from my own experiences( 3 kids) is that once kids are in high school I would not remove them for more then a few days.. as the semester system means if they miss 3 days they are missing 6 days of work really... enough for most kids to have to keep up on. For kids under 12 I have taken kids out for as long as 10 days with no difference in their marks( actually one child did BETTER doing his work one on one with me anyways.. got more done then in school. LOL )

Hopefully, if your child is a decent student to begin with,, and not in the later years at high school, then you won't get too much hassle over missing a few days( that sounds so silly,, )

I would also go online, and see what the curriculum for your childs school year is,, and see if you can tie trip in with that,, in our school system they do revolutions( French, Industrial, American etc) in grade 8 or 19,, Rome and Anicent civilizations in grade 9 or 10,, etc etc.. that way maybe you could actually plan trip around what they will be covering this year,, seems smart to me to make the holiday a real learning experience that will aid child at exam time!

Good luck,, and hopefully your child is not too old to make this viable, as I said,, I would be hesitant if child is older then grade 8 or 9..

We are taking a grandchild with us on our journey in a couple of weeks, Generally speaking it is no big deal if you don't exceed the limits the school district allows. If it goes beyond that you will need a valid excuse for doing so. In our case the main reason for the journey is in association with an annual religious feast so we are able to use that as an excuse to get him out of school for an extended period of time.

I echo the sentiment that travel, particularly international travel, affords an education that cannot be had in the classroom.

Such great thoughts, thank you.

To clarify, my son is just starting middle school, so it's a whole new school (but not new district). He's a straight A student in all high performance classes. So, I've never had an issue with him struggling with work or what have you.

We're just realizing with some early communications with the school that this seems to be frowned upon. "Work is NEVER given in advance. No exceptions."

I never thought about approaching it as an "excused absence" as in it is actual study. Thank you for that!

I guess the thing that scares me is when you make an investment to travel ahead of time, you put a great deal of money out there. And you do it far in advance. What if he gets Strep Throat or a raging stomach flu and misses a lot of school and just can't miss a few more days?

I guess the answer maybe is trip insurance? But, I don't have any experience with that. Can you use it if your kid has missed too much school (ha ha!)

Elizabeth, you can't go wrong taking kids with you on trips. I was an army brat for all my growing up years. Lived in Japan, Germany twice, several states and wouldn't take anything for those memories. Missed some school due to moving but still worth it all. As long as they are old enough to appreciate the trip, it will be a wonderful experience and memory. I leave tomorrow for 3 weeks in Europe and will visit some of the areas I lived years ago. Always have loved travel ever since those early years. Just do it.

I currently work in a school system that leaves the decision as to whether the absences will count as excused or unexcused entirely on the principal. With that said, they rarely grant it as excused absences and we have many parents fibbing (i.e., death of relative, sickness, etc.) to get the excused absences. Doubt you want to go that route, so I agree that checking with the principal is a great idea, but if it is not approved, I would not worry about it since your student is in middle school (if in high school, unexcused absences would have a greater impact) and he seems to be a high flying student. The only obstacle might be if there is a test that he would miss, in which case, you may want to work with the individual teacher. Since you are going in March, I'm assuming some of the days would overlap with spring break, so the impact might be pretty minimal anyways. Good luck and have a great trip.

Each state and school district has a different policy regarding absences. Here in California, schools are paid based upon the number of daily students in attendance each day. If a student is absent, the school doesn't receive funds for that day for that student. Because of this policy, many schools in my town are very hard-nosed about absences.

I know parents with young kids (1st & 3rd graders), who will take their kids out of school occasionally for a long weekend (camping at Yosemite, family reunion, or Disneyland), then return home to find a letter in their mailbox from their school principal stating that their children are 'truant'. Receive more letters and law enforcement is called out. Unbelievable.

The best thing to do is to communicate with your principal and be on good terms. It's easier to take elementary kids out of school for an extended time. With jr high and high school there is much more work they're missing. That being said, most every high school has a travel club that goes on a yearly trip (with kids missing at least a week or more of school), so it shouldn't be a huge problem. And, if your kids make some sort of class presentation upon their return, that would certainly help.

I took my girls out of school for a trip when they were in grades 9 & 6. We scheduled it so that we used spring break and an additional 4 days were missed at school. I did check to make sure we didn't miss exams. It is worrisome when you book something six months in advance. I just tried to keep them healthy, got flu shots, and probably sent them in more often with a cold than I would have. Our school district has an official policy that family travel is not excused, so I didn't ask permission in advance. I called and sent notes in. No teacher or administrator had a problem with it. They may have preferred we do it in summer months, but that's not possible with my work schedule, and it would have been too expensive.

Alexandra,, you would think in these days of drugs, sex, and violence ,, that tax dollars, court time, and the legal system could be used to better effect then harrassing parents who take their young children on family vacations.. I mean we all know how the prisons are just filled with adults whose families took them on family vacations.............sigh....is there no end to studpid in this world...

Honestly,, I could not live with that kind of system, way too in my business.

My neighbors suggested European chocolates and wine in the teacher's lounge upon a successful return to no additional homework, reports, or grief over the absence.

We're planning around Spring Break, so it would probably be a few days before or after or a combination of both. I've found in the past that the day before a break and the day back from break are usually waste days anyway!

You say nothing has been reserved yet. My suggestion would be to plan it around their school vacations. I would assume they would be missing more than "a few days." Of course, the age and grade of the child is of importance here. Your child should be your highest priority...plan the vacation around their schooling.

I speak from experience. My children all went to college on academic scholarships...school attendance is very important to achieve this.

We will be celebrating our daughters graduations with a 2 week family trip to Italy in June 2010 - one from college and one from high school.

I would have to disagree. Not sure what your public school is like, but even if my child attended a great school, they would glean so much more from actually visiting castles and historical landmarks, interacting with people of another culture, and eating the local food... rather than 'reading' about it in a geography book.

We took our kids out of school for 2 weeks when they were 8 and 11 years old (2nd/5th grades) to travel to Europe. It was an amazing experience for them. Now, 10 years later... we'll be going again (and they are 18 and 21). Of course we have to consider their final exam schedule, now that they're in college. So we're planning a trip over Spring Break, but it will include them missing the first week of their new semester of classes. Not a huge deal; classes meet twice a week and they will not have missed much.

True, you do have to consider their age and grade. You probably don't want them missing 2 solid weeks of high school work. But the younger ages.... I'd go for it.

Does the school board in your district have specific rules for school absences? Could you claim "home schooling" for the travel time? Could you find out what themes will be covered in the curriculum this school year or the next one to see if there are themes that could benefit from European travel?

Our school here has a specific form that parents fill out on one side with reasons for absence and times and the teachers fill out the other side with homework to be done during that time.

We took our kids out of school last summer for 2 weeks before summer vacation. The teachers refused to give homework. Especially for my middle school kid they said that visiting Italy just before grade 8 starts which has the Renaissance as a main theme in the curriculum is better than staying home to do exams - yes she did have to miss exams. She's a good student so that was not considered to be an issue.

However, this is Canada and you're in a different jurisdiction. If I were still living in Germany this would have been impossible. You can't even take a single day off school. But then again, even home schooling your child is illegal in Germany and can land you in prison ... "andere Länder, andere Sitten"

Hi, as a mom whose daughter missed school because of traveling- I say go and don't look back. In eighth grade one week we went to Paris and another we went to Vancouver- we also added two days to spring break. Ny daughter earned all A's for the year. Especially when tacked on to normal school vacations you will find many families doing the same thing- and as a former teacher things are a little less "academic" near school break times!

Is it just a few days? Just make sure your school knows about it ahead of time. They may still give you a hard time, but do it, anyway. My son had friends who went to visit family in India for a month, and the school asked them to withdraw their children and re-enroll them when they returned. Not to be punitive, just that the school does get "dinged" for each kid who's absent, and they do need to report kids who are out for extended periods.

I also believe you shouldn't let school interfere with your child's education.

We took three kids on a one month trip to Europe during October. We talked to the kids' principals directly (one elementary, one middle school and one high school), then had conversations with each teacher.

Some of the teachers were thrilled and developed special assignments/reports for the kids that related their subject to what they would be seeing. Others were less than thrilled and simply said they could make up the work when they got back.

As you can imagine, the teachers who were less than thrilled made it difficult for them and they received poorer than normal grades because of it.

The high school kid is now in college, the middle school kid is in high school and the elementary kid is just starting middle school. At worst no one suffered permanent damage to their education from the trip. At best they have an experience they will always remember and a view of history, geography, art, languages and culture that can't be duplicated in a classroom.

You've gotten some good replies already. Here's one from a retired educator.

In some schools/districts there is a distinction between excused and unexcused absences. Some may not give credit for assignments during an unexcused absence. In 6th or 7th grade this may not be a problem, but in high school it could impact course credit which in turn effects graduation.

I'm sorry you get "flak" from your district. There will be teachers that are bothered by this because your good student will try to get assignments in advance, make up the work, and turn it in late (or maybe even before you leave). No matter how you cut it this is extra work for the teacher. Administration may dislike extended absences because it could cause a decrease in funding, although minimal.

My suggestion is that you work with your student's teachers and the principal. Begin by reading the student-parent handbook usually distributed at this time of year so you know the policy. When dealing with them, be more specific than a "few days." I don't think you need anyone else's text; you can do this.

We are all concerned to some degree about an illness or something else preventing us from taking a planned trip. Buy travel insurance when you initially purchase your trip--buy plane tix or make down payment on a tour.

I wish you all a great trip.

Ideally, even educational travel would be scheduled during district breaks so that the commitment to your child’s education is evident to everyone concerned, including your child. However, a few extra days at the end of spring break could be viewed a bit differently because of the nature of the trip and the learning opportunities such travel affords. There may also be circumstances where extended absence for educational travel might be more acceptable (an example might be an AP high school student traveling to India to work with an NGO on sustainable growth projects in remote villages). I believe a distinction should be made between educational travel and leisure travel, however. In my opinion, it is irresponsible on many levels for parents to take their children out of school to visit Disney World, go on a cruise, or lay around the beach in Cancun. This has been a problem in the wealthy, suburban school districts where I have resided in the past. I guess I didn’t get your comment about volcanoes in Hawaii, but a Hawaiian vacation sounds a lot more like a fun time holiday than an educational trip where one might learn about Etruscan civilization while in Italy, for example. Hawaii’s great, but it can be done during regularly scheduled break.

Forget the form letter…why would you need something like that? Talk with your child’s teachers and administrators directly and build a relationship with them. Hopefully, you’re already talking with them regularly. You might be surprised by how accommodating educators can be when parents are engaged and learning opportunities outside of the classroom are presented.

You are all right! I don't need a form letter.

I need to be a good communicator, establish a good relationship with the teachers and administration, and be sure to schedule this around his break time.

I really do appreciate all of the educators that have chimed in!

Keep your thoughts coming. I think this has been a very interesting discussion.

Alexandra-- Do your children's college's know that they will be missing the first couple days of the semester??!! Just in my experience as a college student- if you weren't there the first day of class, you were dropped from that class (unless the professor knew ahead of time). Also the 1st week of classes, some professors are NOT thrilled to have to go through the syllabus again, for someone who missed the first day of class.

I agree that in situ learning is usually the best. Why read about a place, if you have a the opportunity to also visit?? It can make the reading all the more interesting, and relevant. In the summer program I was in, in high school- we travelled to Atlanta (not europe, I know)-- on our trip we visited the King Center for Non-Violent social change, the neighborhood he grew up in, and his Church---may sound a bit morbid, but seeing his entombment at the King Center, was probably one of the most moving events of my life. It really brought together all of the stuff I had learned about in class. : )

Let me preface my response with this information. My son is 18 years old. He has traveled to 38 states and has been to Europe 3 times in his life. We like to travel, and we consider travel tremendously educational.

As as educator, I can also tell you this: A student who is absent from class misses the ENTIRE lesson. No amount of "make up work" can replace the experience of class interaction with the teacher and fellow students. The absent student (and the parent who allowed them to be absent) never realizes what they missed because they were not there to know.

We managed to take our son all those different places, and he never missed a day of school for travel. Calculus, advanced placement biology, advanced placement american history, etc, just cannot be missed if learning is to take place.

Take the trips during vacations. Most states only attend class about 180 days per year.

Ciao, Elizabeth. I used to be a middle school principal, and am now a high school principal--plus I love travel--so I'll offer this perspective: you're absolutely right that family travel like this can really broaden perspectives and enrich a student's appreciation for history, art, language, architecture, et al. And so missing a little school for that experience, to me, can certainly be justified...such travel can inspire even more diligent study in new fields! At the same time, however, there is a real burden good teachers shoulder when many students travel during the school year, in terms of helping them catch up upon return. Keep in mind, the school--at least any school worth its salt--will want to ensure that students who have been absent (due to illness, family issues, OR travel) get caught up and master the skills/concepts they need to master. Also, even with a little one-to-one attention, it's just not possible to replicate the group interchange in a classroom setting. In my experience, about 5 to 7 school days (not including weekends) is what most students can make up without losing much, but beyond that, it would have to be a pretty sharp kid. It's not just a matter of catching up, then, but also the stress the kid experiences if he/she returns buried in work and lost in class, and the reality that teachers have more than just one student, usually, to get up to speed (could be a dozen at any given time). I support student travel whenever possible, but it is a little more complicated than it often appears to parents.

Forgot something! One strategy that can help is collect work from half of his/her classes a few weeks BEFORE the trip and get it done prior to the holiday...thus cutting in half the make-up work/stress upon return for all. I'm never crazy about taking work to Europe for a kid...really, you're in Florence looking at David and you're supposed to be practicing grammar exercises? Hope this helps.

Strongly advise to get trip insurance - worth it for the peace of mind alone. Last year I was lucky enough to take my 4th grader out twice for great vacations - we get all the Jewish holiday off and since they spanned a weekend we added an extra day (we had a Fri and then Tues and Wed off) and visited the Netherlands. At the end of the year we missed the last few days and visited Czech Rep and Poland. A few days here and there are acceptable in our district but as you enter middle and high school my feeling is that missing more than a few days is frowned upon.

One thought- if the school absolutely refuses to give advance assignements- work with another student(s)! Ask them (be sure to contact their parents also) to write down the assignements, take extra copies of worksheets and make xerox copies of their notes. Then they could email as much info as possible to you on the trip and pass on the rest when you get home. I am certain some assignements could be done while on the trip. Also, even if the teachers don't encourage this, have your daughter keep a blog or diary. She can share the info with the classes that will allow it. Insist that she use correct, formal English and proper grammar/punctuation and that she elaborate, elaborate, elaborate! She could insert pictures , videos, etc.

Very interesting. I appreciate especially the educators' comments. However, to Thomas, who says we should all travel during our kids' vacations-you may enjoy a long summer break, but not all of us do. I have only a few weeks during the summer months when I can take any time off, and then only 6 or 7 days at a time. That's not 7 days plus the weekends, but just 7 total consecutive days. That's why I let my kids miss 4 days before their spring break. The last 2 days are always fluff days anyway, because so many kids are off, so they really only missed 2 instruction days.

Anyone else find it amusing that we all seem to think European travel is so much more educational than tropical beach travel? This board is so edumacated!

Alexandra is correct that in California the school loses money when a child has an unexcused absence. If a child has an excessive amount of absences there is a procedure the school district takes to try to get the child to school. If the parent continues to allow the child to be absent, the worst case scenario is the parent goes to jail. Unless they have other legal issues they probably won't even spend a night there. I have participated in these truancy sweeps where parents are arrested. I can tell you that these are children who miss more than just a few days of school, and most of them miss school due to the problems of the parents (drug and alcohol abuse, keeping kids home to take care of younger kids, etc.). Unfortunately, this puts children behind and I'm sure that many of these children end up dropping out of school. I doubt that anyone on this board is guilty of this.

You haven't said how many days a "few days" absence is, but if it is truly just 2 or 3 days I can't see how that would hurt. I personally never allowed my children to miss school for recreational purposes and we traveled during their breaks. I can see how it would be educational to take a child to Europe, but no amount of history or geography they can experience will help them catch up in math, science, etc.

I'm so glad that Pat lives in such a wonderful place that the schools don't care if their students attend. LOL Pat! Frankly, sometimes the schools need to make sure that negligent parents send their kids to school.

Actually Andrea,, we were not discussing negligent parenting, as that is of course an altogether different problem.. I hardly think a child missing a week of school( at lower levels) is going to negatively affect their education( in fact ,as I mentioned the week of one on one tutoring my second child got actually put him AHEAD when he returned to school)

It must be really nice for teachers to get all the same days off that their children do.. many parents do not get to choose their vacation time,, my husbands department has only 18 people in it, but , only 2 may be away at the same time, since there are only 8 weeks of summer holiday,, and everyone seems to want their two or three weeks off in the summer,, that means many of them do not get any summer off at all,, it is all by senority. It took my husband years to finally get summer weeks.

BTW Andrea,,you are right ,, I live in a GREAT place.

I wholeheartedly agree that travel is immensely enriching for children. I just took my two kids (11 & &) to France and Spain for six weeks (over the summer). I was thrilled to give them this experience.

I would write something like this:

While our child's education is of utmost importance to us, we have the opportunity to take our daughter to (Italy, Greece or London) for a brief trip in March. Unfortunately, it will require that she miss (#) days of school (give dates of absence). We feel this will be too wonderful an educational and cultural experience for him to miss. So as not to burden the school, we are letting you know well in advance of our plans. I understand that such unexcused absences are not appreciated, and it is not something we plan to do often. Any work that he misses will be made up upon his return. -end

When my 7 yr old daughter's teacher asked her what she did this summer she said "I went to Spain and France and Paris".

Pat - I never said I was a teacher. I don't even work for a school district or in schools in any way. I have a full time year round job and have to take vacation like anyone else does. It is possible to schedule vacations during school breaks. I have been doing it for 25 years. As I said before, if it is for only a few days I don't see a problem. Elizabeth has not said what "a few days" means to her, but it could mean different things to different people. I was only remarking on the outrage that parents should be punished for their children missing school. It is the law that children get an education - in the U.S. anyway. I am confident that they have similar laws in Canada and elsewhere. They don't arrest people who take their kids out of school for a few days vacation. They do hold parents accountable when their children are chronically absent, and there are many steps taken before they would arrest someone. If the government didn't enforce this, some kids would never get an education.

"Real life education and the sparking of life long travelers is a parental must, right?" I agree that it is great to expose kids to other places and cultures, but that can be accomplished without interfering with their education. If the school allows work to be made up, that's great. Go for it! If they don't, the child will be the one to pay the price for missing school.

I would try and minimize the days missed as much as possible or could you take the trip in the summer shortly after school is out? We have taken our 2 sons (both very high achievers, oldest graduated college in May, now gainfully employed, and youngest now a freshman in college who grad. h.s. with perfect attendance gr. 10-12) to Europe 7 times in the last 8 years but never wanted them to miss any days of school, be it elem., middle, or particularly h.s., due to a family vacation so we always traveled in the summer months. Also as a former educator, I always cringed when students came to me for 1-2 wks. worth of assignments due to a family vacation. We love the longer days of daylight in the summer months! Good luck with your decision!

I'm a teacher, too, and thank you Thomas and Gio for your posts. They were right on. There is so much more to making up work than doing assignments. Students who miss school might be able to do all of the book work to get caught up as far as the grade-book tally, but they miss the whole presentation, the lesson plans that the teacher used to tap their previous knowledge, to teach new concepts, to reinforce new skills, and to do this as a group with kids maybe bouncing ideas around or being expected to work as a group and/or present in front of the class. So much more goes on than just "Here's how you do it and here's your assignment." Teachers work really hard to make school a meaningful experience, and it is a burden on both the teachers and the students to make up the work, because while we really do try to help them make up the experiences, it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. (Maybe the class was doing something like, for example, observing caterpillars spin cocoons, pupate, and then emerge as butterflies, and writing a daily journal with new science words. Someone who misses part of that would only have the journals of others to look at, not the real thing happening in front of them.)

Now that I've shared my teacher 2 cents, I have to say that, Elizabeth, it sounds like what you want to do is fine and that your son will get a lot out of it. Unfortunately, probably most educators have had the opposite experience. It's usually the ones who shouldn't miss more than a day of reading or math whose families take them water skiing or dirt biking for a week. I've been teaching for 13 years and I think maybe one student took a during the year vacation to someplace educational.

I find it somewhat amusing that so many people think that getting the paperwork done is all there is to school. That's just not true. The paperwork is just support material to what is gleaned in the classroom.
By the way, even though I'm an educator, my wife is not. She is a professional who has to schedule her time off a long time in advance, so it was not easy to travel as much as we wished during our kids' time off. Will your child suffer as a result of missing a few days of school? -- probably not much so long as it is infrequent. As an educator -- with a lot of experience -- who sees the difference in the level of success between students who attend every day and those who miss school, I just could not take my children out. As a poster pointed out, the summer is the time I have to travel as an educator, but my first hand experience shows me a huge difference when a student attends class every day. Whenever you go on your trip, have a great time.

Tina, most teachers have many students in their class. When I took my son out of class,, he still did the work,, but he had ONE ON ONE tutoring ,, from me. He actually did much better that way. I wish I could have homeschooled him ,, but I couldn't, not all kids do well in classrooms.Especially class rooms with 30 other kids, and teachers who do "freestyle" type class projects( some kids NEED structure,, NO extra stimulation, and NO POD seating( I so hated that) Teachers cannot spend the extra time that IS needed with some kids(this is not their fault, it is just the way it is). Thanks to funding cut backs,, kids with LDs like my son had,, got a whole 40 minutes three times a week of aide time. Whoopee.

On holiday he got lots of time ,, to understand and work on projects,, and NO distractions like other kids, announcements, rining bells, etc etc.

PS You sound like a very good teacher. Not all teachers are like you though .

Now, we just need to figure out how to extend our basic right to a K-12 education to earning a public university degree so that out students aren’t starting out in life $100,000 in debt to the largest corporations in the world. Then, we’ll work on health care!!! Oops, sorry. I got all worked up thinking about educational policy in the German-speaking world and sort of lost track of the fact that this isn’t a forum for political views.

This has been such a great conversation. I've been away from my computer having a garage sale and needed to catch up A LOT!

We're thinking we'd take our son out of school 2 days before Spring Break and 1 day after.

He's always been a high performace kid in all advanced placement classes. I don't worry that he will miss out on much. In fact, reading through so many responses, it's only solidified my opinion that this will be good for him.

We will not travel in the summer next year, other than the usual in States camping and the like. Minnesota is too beautiful (and summer so fleeting), we don't want to miss it.

I think that educators have to make a stand and strongly say, "You must attend." I wouldn't want it any other way!

Maybe some more hints on how to work with them, not against them. I'd like to approach with a cooperative spirit, not "it's my way or the highway!"

Working in US high schools as a school counselor for 12 years, some of my thoughts...

1) If your school has forms for pre-planned absences, have the student take those around to each teacher as far in advance as possible. Starting this discussion right before you leave and expecting the teacher to drop everything to help you right then, does not help to facilitate a smooth process.

2) Speaking from the high school perspective-the student needs to take on the impetus to make this happen from beginning to end. Showing the responsibility and initiative to be proactive and meet all deadlines really helps to make the process run smoothly. My experience is teachers are more then willing to work with the students, but the kids need to hold up their end of the bargain and do what is asked. Parents of course need to be involved, but it's great for students to take the lead as much as possible.

3) Missing a few days with proper planning is easy to overcome. Missing more than a week can be extremely difficult and detrimental to the student. Like it or not, there are attendance guidelines that schools must follow...we're still beholden to the concept of "seat time". It can be extremely difficult to catch up or to teach yourself concepts (think Calculus, advanced science, world languages) so you do miss the classroom experience. My experience is students who are very responsible and have earned high grades can get through this. Nothing I hated more was kids who wouldn't take on the responsibility after missing lots of time and blame it on the teachers.

4) Utilize technology while away. Using e-mail is a great tool to communicate with your teachers. You can send them work periodically (you can get a lot done on 9 hour flights and long train rides!) or check in with them if you have trouble. Of course, you shouldn't spend you whole time doing homework!

continued next post....

5) I liked it when parents called to let me know they were going on vacation. I would tell the parents I would e-mail the teachers to let them know, but that the student then would need to go talk to each teacher and make plans for each class and that the student needed to bring that home to share with the parent. I would reiterate that as part of growing up to be an adult, this is something the student needs to learn how to do. Sending an e-mail to each of the student's teachers let me get a sense if there was going to be a problem so I could help out before the kid went and talked to the teacher. This also helped so the teacher was prepared to talk to the student and wasn't surprised.

There were times I would voice concern to the parent that this probably wasn't a good idea. If the student had marginal grades, or weren't very responsible then leaving would not be in the best interest of the student. I saw many times where this occurred and the student would fail or be completely overwhelmed when he/she returned that they suffered the rest of the semester.

Overall, it's trying to find that balance to make sure things go well at school while you are gone. The experiences one can have while traveling abroad are priceless and very important, but you also need to make sure you aren't doing this at the expense of hurting yourself academically.

Of course I always wanted to see lots of photos of the trip and hear about it on return!

thanks for a great post Jed. It does however reinforce my opinion that once a child is in high school ,, any absences should be very short( 2 or 3 days max) and only if student is not already struggling. The semester system we are on means 10 months worth of subject are covered in 5 months, so when you take your highschooler out for a week, its really like missing two weeks of work.. thats pretty brutal I think.

I still think one can be alot more relaxed about taking a younger child out of school.

I agree Pat. Our school is on an every other day block system, so a kid has 85 minutes of a class every other day and 8 classes in the semester. It can be hard to keep track of it all if you miss too much.

I think the key is the responsibility on either the student or parent to communicate and follow through on the work. I've had advanced kids miss two weeks and not miss a beat, and other struggling kids miss a few days and it takes weeks of time and lots of missed appointments to get caught up. It's those situations that make it hard for teachers. I think in some ways this thread reinforces the belief that it's a three legged stool that's critical for a student's success...the student, family and school.

It seems like a no-brainer that travel education is better than classroom education, but this isn't always true. And I think a lot of schools in the US view it this way, too. So you are wise to think ahead about how you'll present this.

For a kid in elementary school, I don't think it's a big deal at all, so I wouldn't make a big point of stating your educational philosophy to school officials. As soon as you nail down the travel plans, I'd e-mail the teacher (and only the teacher at this point) with something like "Just wanted to let you know we're taking Sarah to Europe in March and she'll be missing n days of school." As the time gets closer, you'll need to email the school nurse as well, since that's usually the person who compiles the absentee reports in many schools. And don't ask the teacher to take on extra work by giving homework in advance. Just let her/him decide how to work this.

For jr high and high school kids, it's a bigger deal to miss school, mainly because of the hideous volume of make-up work (my kids really hate this and would honestly rather not go than have to deal with 5 days of geometry make-up work!), so let them take the lead in notifying each teacher. If the school needs anything more official, it can come from you.

When my daughter missed school to fly to Obama's inauguration, some teachers were enthusiastic and gave her alternate assignments, while others were, um, less thrilled, and said "Great, you owe me 4 days of algebra problems when you get back. Have fun!" So if your kids are older, be prepared for this "debt!"

The key is not to make a big deal about your educational views, which is why I think anything more than an e-mail may be asking for trouble. Just politely let them know your plans and it won't be that hard on you or your kids.

Elizabeth - how wonderful an opportunity!

While in our family, we do value structured education and greatly respect educators, what could provide a better context than experience? We have taken our daughter out of school multiple times for trips. It is not always possible to travel around school vacations and you often get a better learning experience if you avoid the crowds. The most she has missed for one trip is 1.5 weeks. We work with the school - starting with the principal and then the teachers - to get any work that will be required.

We have done this every year since 5th grade and our daughter is now a junior in high school with straight A's, several AP classes, two languages, 4 maths, 4 sciences, and all the regular sports, clubs,activities. The added bonus is that she also has some context for the history, science, and languages she learns as well as great memories and appreciation of other cultures.

Elizabeth - I think the days you are planning on taking your child out of school are fine.

My parents took me out of school through out the year for trips. This happened from elementary school up through high school. They would choose days like you did, around spring break, close to Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas. My parents would just take me out of school and send a note of me being sick or some other reason when I would go back. I do think the suggestions on the board about approaching the teachers would be nice though.

I made very good grades, but had to work hard to get them. As I got older I would feel more stress in trying to catch up. To this day I wouldn't trade the experiences I had traveling for a few days of less stress.

I can't thank my parents enough for taking me out of school all those time to go travel with them. Every trip made me open my eyes to other cultures, other sceneary...it makes you see with time the overlap there is between countries...and yes even beach vacations in Mexico did this.

I hope you have a great time

Otter,

You bring up great points, but our district has no more than a week off at any point in the year. So, fitting in an educational trip within those boundaries is very hard. As well, financially, we cannot afford summer travel when things are much more expensive. We're looking at planning only during "low" season rates as that's what we can afford.

I agree with Liz. High School, other than learning to juggle job and school activities, was a real waste of time for me. But, that's not to say my son's experiences may be different. I know now that his middle school curriculum is closer to what I did in senior high.

Keep the comments coming. This is very interesting!

Comment to Otter.

Not everyone can take vacation during the summer.....I run summer day camps and school vacation day camps for a community center........exactly the times that my son is out of school.

There is NO overlap on our time off unless he misses school.

I'm a public school teacher but we homeschool our 6 and 9 year old. Whether it's a hike in the woods or exploring a new and exotic country, we look at everything we do as an educational experience.

Any time one of my students is going on independent study to travel, I really try and encourage these families and not discourage them.

I'm taking a leave next Fall to travel for four months in Europe with our family and can't wait for all the learning experiences waiting for us!

With the amount of vacation time students get, pulling a child out of school for a trip is NOT poor parenting, it's just poor planning. I traveled extensively as a child, my father was an airline pilot. But, it was always during breaks or summer vacation. I don't see this as a question about having to choose school learning or travel learning when it's so easy to have both.

I really do agree that it depends on the child, as well as the school. In my case, I missed a week of school my sophmore year in order to travel with my aunt and cousins to England & Scotland. High school was incredibly boring to me, and the work was simply a time-filler (as opposed to educational). Going to the UK was a far better use of my time, and did wonders for making me more confident and independent.

I got some assignments ahead of time, others when I got back. I had no trouble catching/keeping up and the only grades that suffered were the classes where the teacher arbitrarily decided to lower your grade due to X number of absences.

My experience will certainly not be the case for everyone, but in my case I would have been far better served if my parents had decided to travel for a year instead of send me to high school.

Gee Otter, I love these "well we had no problem taking time off for travel , therefore why doesn't everyone just do that?" type responses,, many people do NOT get to take time off during school breaks.. it is not a choice. Its quit the job or stay at the job and take the vacation time assigned to you. Do you get that.. just because your daddy seemed to be able to take time off when HE wanted to.. does not mean everyone can. Geesh.

We took our daughters out of school for 5 weeks to the South Pacific, staying in a village without potties etc. in a country called Yap. We had to get the teachers to sign a contract with the girls (they could not miss any of the school work) so they would not flunk. The principle explained that it was up to the teachers and he could not "ok it" for us. Most of teachers were fine, the two that gave us the biggest problems were the 9th grade singing teacher and the 8th grade P.E. teacher. They were nuts, my husband had to go persuade them more than once before they agreed, we were willing to go before the school board if necessary. The algebra teacher, the one that should of had issues with missing 5 weeks, offered to work with the older one for a month before we left to get her ahead of the other students. And the reading teacher had the younger one prepare an oral presentation about her experience when she returned. The principle explained that the year prior a student who was on an Olympic rowing team (or something like that) was denied a 3 week absence by one teacher. Bottom line, I would just go and re-enroll the kids when you returned. The girls learned more in that 5 weeks about how other people live, which was more important to me, then they ever could of in 8th and 9th grade. Our first day there, we had to spend an hour picking weavels out of the rice before we could cook it. We stressed it was a "learning experience" for them, not a vacation. Good luck, Joanne

I teach middle school social studies. I would be thrilled to know one of my students was about to travel to Europe. Math teachers don't quite feel the same, especially if there is a state mandated test at year's end. I would strive to travel in summer or spring break so as to minimize absences. But you know your child's strengths. If it won't be an issue, then go for it.

We took our kids out of school for ten weeks last fall to travel through Europe. One child was in third grade (private school) and the other in sixth grade (public). We didn't have much of a problem at all with either school. We were expecting the public school to give us a hard time, but it wasn't bad. Our suggestions: 1. Be firm about what you are doing. You are not seeking their permission for your trip. 2. Be nice and accommodating in regard to the school administrators and teachers. Acknowledge that you are asking for a lot (we brought some lessons with us on the trip)-- whether it's in putting together materials for you to take with you or helping the child get caught up on return. You might ask if some volunteer time would help them.
We did not write a letter. I first sought advice from a trusted principal. Then, based on her advice, I went straight to the superintendent. I can't emphasize enough how important it is that you give them adequate notice (as early as possible) and that you be nice, but firm.
Although our sixth grader did miss some important school stuff during our trip, we wouldn't have altered a thing-- except that we wish we could have stayed in Europe longer!!! Our kids learned more than we can imagine about all kinds of things-- history, religion, language, etc., etc.
Other suggestions: keep a blog (the school suggested this), a great way to reflect on your trip as you are traveling and also a great way to remember what you did; read as much as you can before you go about the places you are going to (Roman mysteries, for instance); and have lots and lots of fun! Good luck!