Rebelling against mandatory attendance

[Cumberland]

We are not there yet, and wont be for two years but.....I hate the idea of mandatory attendance. When I was in school, attendance didnt matter as long as it was excused ( by a parents note). What if my DH has a two week conference in Madagascar? ( verrry hypothetical here). What is the better learning experience? A trip to Madagascar or two weeks of regular class? I think as long as the parents and the child are responsible about making it up then it shouldnt matter. Has anyone tried to buck the system? What happens if you do?

[DCJenn]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

Oh, I can see that if we have to abide by those rules, I'll be breaking them on purpose.

I'm still mentioning my 16 day trip to Europe with my family during my senior year of high school a lot more than my friends ever talk about the Senior Trip to Daytona.

Jenn

[houseelf]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

We are not there yet, and wont be for two years but.....I hate the idea of mandatory attendance. When I was in school, attendance didnt matter as long as it was excused ( by a parents note). What if my DH has a two week conference in Madagascar? ( verrry hypothetical here). What is the better learning experience? A trip to Madagascar or two weeks of regular class? I think as long as the parents and the child are responsible about making it up then it shouldnt matter. Has anyone tried to buck the system? What happens if you do?

I'm grossly generalizing here, but in my experience the two private schools we've dealt with are MUCH more accomodating of this. DS's classmates have gone to China, Russia, Kenya, and Spain for extended periods of time. In fairness, his schools have only gone up to sixth grade and I'm sure high school is somewhat different. Contrast this experience with girlfriend's bureacratic nightmere. She had to formally petition to take their daughters out of school for a trip to Hawaii for a week, a trip which they won and would be absolutely free. I would go ape sh** if my "petition" to take my kids on a once of a life time vacation was denied or somehow hurt my kids academically. Not everything can be learned in a classroom.

I'm definitely interested to hear what other people's experience is on this one.

Kelly

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

Attendance is part of the grading system for schools here and as such the principal does the usual spiel about using vacation days to be gone, etc. Blah-de-blah blah. I don't think we have a petition process. I think that if she is doing fine in school, family time trumps meeting the school's attendence objectives.

So what if you don't get the petition? The student gets a bad mark on the elementary school record?

On the other side of things, my friend who is a first grade teacher has had some parents who are really loose about attendance AND whose kids are struggling in school. I can see where that would be a problem. Being in and out of school was not helpful for that student.

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

It's sad, isn't it? This is the very reason why we will be sending DS to a private school instead of public (if we decide not to homeschool). Our two elementary schools are fabulous, but I know we will run into attendance issues. From what I understand, public schools (at least in some states) are no longer reimbursed for excused absences....hence the crackdown. Private schools are usually more lenient since the tuition will get paid no matter what.

[Meenah]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

I think anytime a really great opportunity came up, my kids would have to get the flu, with a doctor's note!!!!

[houseelf]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

Private schools are usually more lenient since the tuition will get paid no matter what.

I'm going to GROSSLY overgeneralize here again, but private schools can drop a student at any time for any reason. Every contract we have signed states that the school does not even have to articulate a reason for dropping your child. In fact, our current school has a clause stating that the student is considered probationary for the first six weeks.

With this being said, I've never seen a situation get to the point where the school says "don't come back" in the five years of dealing with two separate private schools. I have seen specific cases get to the point where the parents and school mutually agree to terminate the relationship. If ongoing absences become an aggriegious issue, the school will eventually drop kick your a** out. While most private schools understand there is a customer service component to the service they offer, this consideration must always be tempered with their students' academic success as a statement of the school's success and ultimate viability.

Hoping the above is not too controversial....

Kelly

ETA--holy crap I need to EDIT before hitting the submit button!

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

I agree that private schools are able to drop students with attendance issues, but I think that applies more to the students who routinely miss school. If the child is in good academic standing, I don't see many private schools having a problem with the parents pulling him or her out for a week-long vacation.

[Rapunzel]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

Very, very quietly I'm going to say: This is one of the reasons we homeschool.

A few years ago we took the kids to D.C. for a month - in September/October. It was awesome. We had the Smithsonian museums to ourselves almost the entire time (because schools had not started up their field trips yet). We'll be able to do likewise when we start taking the kids on overseas trips.

OK, I'm going back into my cage now....

[madeintaiwan]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

I planned to go home with the kids for 3 weeks and DS's school has mandatory attendance and they told me that since he wasn't in his neighborhood school (we transfered to a different school) they would kick him out. Under normal circumstances, you would have to petition and if denied and still pulled your kid you could be fined for truancy and your child could be held back depending on how much time they missed. I get that 3 weeks is a long time, I just figured it's 1st grade and I was willing to take the work with us. According to the district handbook I don't think they would have had a problem with a week and of course if your child is ill or if there is a family emergency (documentation provided). They're reasoning is that family vacations should be taken during the summer or alloted breaks so that the child's education and classroom isn't interrupted. I get that. I never missed school growing up. My mom thinks American kids don't go to school enough as it is. I used to win attendance awards all the time. It is frustrating but I get their reasoning and we cancelled our trip.

[Vanquisher]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

I think it is important for children to go to school when they can. I think it is patently ridiculous to send a child to school when the child is ill.

Furthermore, taking a vacation during the school year is the only time many families get to take vacations. If we could only go on vacation during school holidays, we'd never get to go on vacation. I think that it is a paramount part of my child's educational development and growth as an individual for him to be able to go on vacations with his family and spend quality educational time with us as well. If his father was going to do doctors without borders or something similar where we went to Kenya or some other country, I would not hesitate to pull him out of school.

I think it is ridiculous that I cannot judge what is best for my child as far as missing school days. I would fight it. I cannot afford to send my kids to private school, but if an opportunity arose for this kind of scenario, I would fight the school on it.

Not everyone can or should homeschool, so I think that's a convenient thing for people to say. I'm not cut out for that, and I do believe that there are things in a public school that children learn, that I could not possibly teach. I could not give enough to encompass the breadth of learning experiences. However, I would and could use the umbrella of "homeschool" in any situation necessary to benefit my child in this way. If Chad's fellowship lands us in an undesireable school situation, I will homeschool for that year.

I think the rules are in place to scare parents into making their children go to school when they should, in fact, be in school. I don't agree with the strict lens through which these rules and truancy laws are applied, and I think it is worth fighting if an opportunity to take one's children to Madagascar surfaces.

[Flynn]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

From my experience, private schools can be more flexible with attendance -- and are in a lot of cases.

Unfortunately, there are so many parents who don't think their kids need to go to school everyday....an attendance policy necessary in both private and public schools. I don't think it SHOULD be necessary but it is. I also believe a trip abroad with your family can be incredibly educational. My kids aren't school age yet but I can see the potential conflict.

The thing is, if you have too many unexcused absences, most states have the right to get CPS involved. Seriously. I've seen it with a nice family who had a funeral in France. The problem was, they also went to Mexico for 10 days, and Banf for 9 -- their kids had more than two weeks BEYOND what was reasonable for unexcused absences. The school pushed it, the state enforced the issue, and the parents had to do community service. I kid you not. It got pretty ugly because it turned into a class issue on top of it. MANY MANY parents who couldn't afford all those trips complained because they saw a disparity...it got really complicated.

The bottom line is there are rules because the majority of PARENTS would abuse it if it wasn't there. Sad but true.

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

I taught in public schools for eight years and I am thinking of sending my son to a private school. The problem with public schools is that it caters to the masses. There are a few parents that take their children on vacations that are very educational and they learn much from their experiences but for the most part, I've seen a lot of parents that take their child on vacation for convenience. I agree with Chrisada that many children end up missing a whole grading period. To many parents, it seems like children are not missing much in the primary grades not realizing that these grades are the most important in building a foundation. The curriculum nowadays are so stringent that when a child misses more than a week, its so hard to catch them up. Worksheets and certain other assignments don't make up for whole group and small group activities. I have a cousin who took his child out of school for the first half of first grade to travel and this poor boy is still struggling in 4th grade to catch up on reading and writing.

That being said, I know that with DH's schedule, I might not have the availability to only travel during the summer so I am hoping private schools may be more accommodating. I know that I am not one of those parents who will only let my child do some workbook pages for 20 minutes a day. I totally agree that children can learn more from experience and travel as long as the parent takes an active role. Unfortunately in public schools they cannot afford to give parents a benefit of the doubt.

[Sheherezade]

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

This is why I advocate strongly for local control of schools. We had a school in Brookline, MA with a kick **s principal. She scared me! Still, I can't tell you how often I wish all principals and schools were like that now. :huh: If an area principal or superintendant made the rules for their district, you could make rules that fit the area. Frankily, here we do not have a big problem with kids not going to school because they aren't made to go. We *may* have a problem with kids taking luxury vacations for too long.... being a rich dawkter family and all, we live in that kind of district. :> So..... I would welcome regulations that address the conflict between the benefits of world travel and the need to participate daily in class. Those regulations would differ from rules put in place to deal with chronic truancy, I'd imagine.

I think the ability to control your own school based on the needs of that school alone is a key factor in the superiority of private schools over public schools. We need to get back to that. With good leaders and funding to poor districts, of course - but they should be able to make choices that work in their situations distinct from those that work in wealthy suburban districts. We are not a one size fits all society. Let's stop pretending. :soapbox: (I will now go burn some NCLB banners and march around the room...)

Re: Rebelling against mandatory attendance

We are not a one size fits all society. Let's stop pretending. :soapbox: (I will now go burn some NCLB banners and march around the room...)

OOO can I join you???