Elementary School - Skipping school for minor reasons?

[meemee]

Do you ever have your kids skip school when they didnt have to? Have the school complained?

DD is in 2nd grade now and we dont skip school so much these days.

however when dd was in K and first - when she didnt really enjoy school we skipped school sometimes once a week or sometimes once in two weeks. but we skipped school sometimes on v. flimsy reason.

dd had a hard time in K and first. she hated how there wasnt much fun activities. yeah public school. so to help her i would take one day a week to do fun things. usually by about feb or march i would no longer have to take fun days off from school. maybe it would be once a month or once in two months.

sometimes dd went in for an hour or so. somedays not.

every single time her teacher was aware of why dd was missing school and they were v. supportive. in fact her first grade teacher actually encouraged it.

tomorrow i have class myself so i cant pick up my dd at 2 when she finishes. instead on my lunch break i am going to pick her up at 12:30 as she can attend class with me.

curious how many of you miss school.

[SunshineJ]

Eh not so much here. This year the kids have been held out of school 3 times when not ill. Once was because it was immediately after the after-school live vaccinations, so I guess that was "health related" in some ways. The other 2 times they've missed have been when we've been going out of town. Last year we did take ds out of kindy for 4 days because we were going to Disney. I fully support a parents right to take their child out for a fun day or half day on occasion, or for an alternate activity that may be educational, or even just because the child is feeling overwhelmed and to give them a quiet day to regroup. As parents we have the right to do things like that imo. BUT on the flip side we also have the responsibility to do so wisely, to not overuse the right that we have, to be cognizent of the level of potential disruption our actions will have on the class and the teacher as well - not to mention the impact it will have on our child's education. Honestly I think one day every week sounds like an awful lot of missed school and missed learning opportunities and that would be too much for me personally to be comfortable with. However, if it worked/works for you AND the child AND the teacher, then that's your call.

[Kirsten]

My kids are 13, 9 and 6. I don't let them skip school unless they are sick. Can't think of another time except when family friends were getting married out of the country, and we had to take dd1 out of kindergarten a few hours early in order to make it across the border in time to make the wedding.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

From K on up they only have 12 days a year they can miss and past that they can be held back or I can be taken to court so we dont have the luxury of missing a lot. I worry about every single absence because of that rule so I am very careful about when I keep them home or not. I would love to be able to with the kids though.

[Alyantavid]

We do.

My son's in 2nd and we've skipped to take him snowboarding several times. The last time we skipped was right before Christmas and that was all my choice. He had a music program that we found out about 2 days before hand. I was so annoyed by that (this happens all the time) that I told him if he wanted to do the program, we would. If he didn't, he didn't have to. He didn't want to so we just kept him home that day. We also skipped school the day they were doing H1N1 shots.

The school has never said a word.

[Linda on the move]

My kids find school easier when they are there most of the time. They homeschooled for years and years and started when they were older -- may be that makes a difference.

They've missed school when they are sick and when they have appointments like dentist or eye checks that I can't get at other times. The only other thing I've taken them out for was when their father became a US citizen!

[minkin03]

my dd's in 1st and we have only taken her out a few times for leisure reasons. usually b/c dh works out of the country half the year so we do it right before he leaves so they can spend a day together. i don't like to do it though b/c her school has so much work and homework it's hard for her to catch up.

[SoCaliMommy]

Not much. Last year my daughter had a bathroom accident at lunch or recess and they expected me bring clothes to the school and have her change unmm i was not going to let my daughter change into clean clothes and still smell like pee. I said i'd just take her home and the lady in the front office was rude about it saying how school is so important and how she needed to be at school.

[TCMoulton]

My daughters (2nd grade and kindy) missed 2 days last week because I unexpectedly had to have a d&c for a missed miscarriage and I felt that I didn't want to have to see me so very sad (although they do know what is going on) so I sent them on an adventure to grandma's house and they had a wonderful, stress free vacation and I didn't worry about upsetting them. The school was very understanding and didn't say a word.

[mattemma04]

When my kids were in public school I got warning letters due to keeping ds home to much due to illness in K.I guess a note from me was not enough each time;I had to give a doctors note...whatever!

If we had taken personal days then I would have ended up in court!

I don't see anything wrong with keeping a child home if they slept poorly,or you need to go somewhere.If I kept my kids home every time they asked we would be home all the time!

[EFmom]

We don't keep the kids home from school for any reasons other than illness.

[Drummer's Wife]

I'm okay with them missing for non-sick reasons. It helps that they are in a Montessori program so they don't miss anything they can't do the next day. I might feel differently if they were older and in a regular class where they had to do make-up work or would miss projects/assignments/lectures.

[ollyoxenfree]

When they were younger, we had the attitude that school could only be missed on rare occasions - illness and birthdays.

Now that they are teens, they have more control over whether they attend. It's funny, but for the past few years, I often suggest that they stay home from school if I hear complaints in the morning that they are tired or don't want to go because of they don't like a certain class. They've never once taken me up on the offer! They know that it means more work if they miss a day, so they decide to go on their own.

[neptunemama]

We take the kids out of school for travel several times a year. We ski a lot, but we don't live in the mountains, so we often have them miss a Friday or Monday and go skiing for three days. And I've let my older dd miss school just b/c she didn't want to go. Both of my kids are in elementary school, but next year my older dd starts middle school. Then we won't be able to take her out much b/c of homework, projects etc... But in elementary school, no problem. We are lucky that our school values family time, and feels it's as important as school.

[hkowell1]

I've let my son stay home because he needed a personal day to just chill. I've also let him stay home if the vet or farrier was coming to take care of the horses. He would have to write a paper for me on what he learned, those are life experiences you can't get at public school. I've never had a problem with the school about it, but he has never reached the max days he could miss either.

[Mirzam]

My kids will only miss school if they are sick, unless it is some thing really important. But they wouldn't want to skip it anyway, they love going. There are kids that do skip DS's school, but it is a private school and they don't seem overly concerned about "flimsy" reasons for not going to school. I know one boy that attends a special outdoor program every Wednesday, so never attends school then. There is a kid in DS's class that misses a lot of school, because it doesn't want to go.

[hillymum]

My younger two sons (5 and 9) only miss school due to illness. My 10 year old gets a few hours off when we go to the doctors once every 3 months. His appointments are usually at about 10am, then we go for lunch then he goes to school for the afternoon. All three know jacob is the only one to get that special time as he is usually so in the background the rest of the time. He's the good, independent, quiet, undemanding child so I feel he deserves it.

none of them get a whole day off just because they don't want to go to school.

[Oonah]

we miss school a lot

we're skipping to go to a museum next week

and starting next week DS will be out of school on Monday mornings for a swim class not affiliated with the school - I don't know if that's technically skipping - he does go to a public school and the principal is being supportive.

I LOVE having more control of his education and I am thrilled that our school is supporting us with this swim class thing. I don't have any issues keeping DS home for a family or other important activity.

[MCatLvrMom2A&X]

Those of you that have kids that miss a lot what is the attendance policy there? It drives me nuts that they only get 12 days a year here excused or not.

[sapphire_chan]

20 years ago, my 5th grade teacher actually asked my mom if there was anything wrong since I'd been in school every day for two weeks straight.