When to tell the teacher?

[SuzySunshine]

A will be missing a week of school in September. Thursday - Wednesday (19-25) for DH's brother's wedding. When do I tell the teacher?

[diggitydot]

I would as soon as possible. Our kids will be missing some school in September, too. I plan on emailing their teachers as soon as school starts next week.

[spotty_dog]

Figure out what your school policy is. At our kindergarten, absences greater than a day or two needed a "preplanned absence" form to be filled out by me...then makeup work had to be determined by the teacher and added to the form...then the principal had to approve. This took most of a week IIRC. No sense in delaying it and making more work and stress for the teacher.

[Pollyanna]

Eh, I would just give them a heads up about a week before.

[diggitydot]

Every district is so different. Our current one is super laid back about absences and our last one had an attendance Nazi in each school. Def find out their policy and go from there. Should be able to find it on their website under the Student Handbook or Info for Parents sections.

[SuzySunshine]

Didn't even think to look in the handbook, it says a week. So I'll tell them at the beginning of the week prior, thanks.

And if they get all nazi on me I'm going to be really irritated, it's Kindergarten!

[PrincessFiona]

.

And if they get all nazi on me I'm going to be really irritated, it's Kindergarten!

LOL. Welcome to having children in school!

[houseelf]

I"m *grossly* generalizing here, so YMMV, but private schools tend to be less anal about preplanned absences. Public schools can be concerned about the percentage of days attended for reporting or fiscal reasons.

[spotty_dog]

And for what it's worth, they weren't mean about it or anything. And when we were only going to miss two days, later on in the year, the teacher advised not even bothering with the pre-planned form. But the day that DS was sick and we failed to call in? D'oh. We had them on my case via every form of communication, LOL.

[Meenah]

Oh yeah, they want to make sure the child wasn't kidnapped! I have three sisters who are teachers and this is a very big deal for them.

[DCJenn]

Our school district freaks because of the number of drop-outs and the ginormous amount of money that is left on the table if there's a certain percentage of absenteeism. I understand it but it's annoying.

J.

[GrayMatterWife]

WHeck?? I have never told anyone when my kids were going to miss school. Are you supposed to do this? I just called them in sick, if I eve remembered. DS missed five or so days of school last year for family travel and I never remembered to call and nobody ever asked.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

WHeck?? I have never told anyone when my kids were going to miss school. Are you supposed to do this? I just called them in sick, if I eve remembered. DS missed five or so days of school last year for family travel and I never remembered to call and nobody ever asked.

Really??? I'm shocked (and a little sickened). How grossly irresponsible on the part of the school. Once we reached a certain point in the day, you were considered absent and not just late to school. If no one had called for you, your home was called. What a huge liability for the school to take on - your kid was supposed to be there unless they heard otherwise. They would be in some deep hot water if something happened to him during school hours (if he wasn't gone with you).


Wife of a PGY-4 Orthopod

[GrayMatterWife]

Really??? I'm shocked (and a little sickened). How grossly irresponsible on the part of the school. Once we reached a certain point in the day, you were considered absent and not just late to school. If no one had called for you, your home was called. What a huge liability for the school to take on - your kid was supposed to be there unless they heard otherwise. They would be in some deep hot water if something happened to him during school hours (if he wasn't gone with you).


Wife of a PGY-4 Orthopod

It may be different at the middle and high school levels. Honestly, we live in the best elementary school in the district, which is desperately underfunded and has major big district problems. It would not be a good use of their resources to chase down unexcused absences from our elementary--the parents are highly involved and would be able to defend themselves if the district threatened to report for truancy. The district has much bigger problems to be worrying about...

[Sheherezade]

I always appreciated the idea that the school checked up on kids. My kids walked to school in elementary so you never were quite sure if they arrived. One day I HAD called in my kid, but a student told the teacher that my son was "missing" and they weren't certain if he was out or not. They called and checked. I was happy they were attentive. If he'd gone missing on the walk to school, it would have been a whole school day before it was reported otherwise.

Here, you are supposed to submit a planned absence form a week before. If you don't, the teachers don't mind too much. I usually just send an email to all my kids teachers telling them they will be out. They appreciate the heads up if their are tests or projects scheduled that they need to do early.