Kids missing three weeks of school.
 

Hi,
I homeschool my two older children, but my sixth grader will be going to public school this year.
We have a trip to Australia planned this November, and I really don't know what to say to the school. I really don't want him to miss so much school, but homeschool won't work this year. He moved with his dad, and he won't homeschool. Any advice would be great.

The way our schools are organized one might be lead to conclude that education requires a specific number of school days per year and a specific number of hours per school day.

However, learning actually occurs in a burst as it will many times for your children during the weeks they are in Australia.

In your situation, I would ask the school what services they provide for students who are unable to attend classes. It is better to ask for a solution than to suggest one.

HTtY

So were you asking us for what to say to the school? Only you know your own school district and what are you doing don't permit.

Well it is the dad's school district and maybe frat time in a public school. I am not sure if the issue will only be with the school but maybe the father as well so make sure you have all angles covered. Is there a way to make sure the trip misses the least amount of school possible or for the one kid to get back a few days early and cut short a portion of the trip ?

Around here the teacher can set up a lesson plan and require some additional work - say an essay or presentation re the trip relevant to some of their studies.

But we can't help you since it 100% depends on the school/district where the child attends. If you don't yet know the teacher for this Fall, why not talk to the school principal or vice p. and ask them . . . .

I would say that for sure the important part is to have him enrolled in school. I think that's where you'd get in trouble is if you don't have him enrolled...the next thing is just to be honest with the school and let them know that you thought at the time of making the non refundable arrangements that he would be homeschooled, but since have changed from that to public school. They will completely understand. He won't be missing anything!!! The first 3 weeks will most likely be review from what they already learned in the grade previous...just keep that refreshed and he'll be fine...

It's actually a really good idea to have him have a delayed start.. This way he will be getting individualized attention as opposed to being just thrown in with the masses and be expected to go with the flow. This delayed start with give time for all the other kids to get settled and when your son starts, he will be given a buddy that will already know what to do and show him where to go...


You couldn't have planned it better. Don't let the school our anyone else make you believe otherwise.


Have a wonderful time... And yes, wouldn't hurt to be ready to give an on the spot report of the trip. Always a good time to teach... Exports, imports, flowers, animals, government, weather and such.

Oh, I'm sorry.i misunderstood. I thought he would be missing the start of school.

It all depends on the school district's policy. Can the schoolwork be assigned and done on the trip and turned in when you return? Or will the child get zeros for the days missed. I would never take a high schooler out for that long, but don't know about a sixth grader.

But the same thing applies... Let them know you believed that he was going to be home schooled when you made the trip arrangements and that you didn't intend for him to miss school. Nevertheless, the tickets are non changeable and non refundable...

The school will work with you. He will definitely be given the assignments and will have to do the work while he's gone. They may allow him to even submit assignments online.

Still,i say, don't let them give you a hard time. Be up front... But bottom line is that you are in charge of your child. You can even take him out of school.... Tell them that you're moving... And could just bring him back and tell them the move didn't work out. Plans change all the time. But the best thing for your child is to keep up to date on the school work so he doesn't fall behind. But if it's anywhere around thanksgiving, I'd say the week of the holiday, they don't do much anyhow.

Hope this helps. Just be confident that you know what's best for your child and you're doing just that. Have fun!!!

Just taking a quick look googling it... Some places actually arrest parents for their kids missing school. They are considered unexcused absences so it looks like you do have to be really careful.

Is there anyway to "homeschool" him while away officially???

Other things to consider it looks like if it's for religious reasons, pretty much it's everything goes...

<and I really don't know what to say to the school>

Maybe you could tell them the truth?

That would be by far the easiest thing.

Ok, perfect... Here is a thread for you to read through....

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...r-vacation.cfm

Several posters are missing is that the sun does no longer live with her mom who lives with her dad. And the dad is not wanting to homeschool that wants the sixth grader en rolled in school.know if dad has custody, it's important to work with the dad and the school district to make sure this is going to be OK. We have no idea if there's any animosity here oh why the sun decided to go live with her dad but if there is any problem, especially if they're still bad blood between the parents, its. Sure to make sure to work with the dad and the school system to ensure they won't be any problems. I'm wondering if the son wants to go on this trip?

<i>Several posters are missing is that the sun does no longer live with her mom who lives with her dad.</i>

You are right. I missed all the drama you find in the post, but I still advise to ask the school what services they provide for whatever the situation is.

HTtY

To spare you reading over a hundred posts... What I got from it....

Take your kids and have a good time... Cherish the time you have to suited together as a family.

Since he is not in middle school or high school, he has a better chance of not missing too much hard stuff(calculus).

Let the teacher know ahead of time, but know they may be disappointed. It's not their choice.

Bring inexpensive gifts back for the teacher and classmates.

Journal.

Have fun!

I thought 6th grade WAS middle school.

In any case, I'm not sure this is fair to the kid. If he has never been in a school before, this is not just the difficulty of starting a new school, but a whole new experience. Pulling him out while he's still finding his feet doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

OH, Middle school here starts in 7th grade. Anyhow, i don't think you were asking my opinion... Just what to tell the school....

I say tell the truth... That's what we can give to our children...

Not to rain on your parade, and urreliefishere has a lot of happy sunshine advice, but from my experience 3 weeks of middle school is a lot to miss. Your son's father needs to be upfront with the new school from the start. Teachers, and I have been one, and have others in my family, do not like to give special assignments at that level for that much time nor do they like having to bring a student up to speed after missing that much school. Illness is one thing, a family vacation another. And middle school will probably have him in several subjects with different teachers.

I am not totally without empathy; we used to take our kids out of school for travel opportunities but stopped when the oldest went to middle school, too much to miss he said. And our daughter is married to an Australian; every other year they travel there in November for two weeks. But one of those weeks is our Thanksgiving, school is out that week, so the kids will miss 5 days. And they are young, 8 and 6.

Good luck. This is really very delicate, especially for a new student.

He stays with his Dad and attends school? And only you and the other two kids take the vacation?

Does the dad know about this planned vacation? He's really the one who will have to deal with the school district.

And you will need written permission to take your son out of the country if his father is not going on this trip.

Has he attended school before or have you always homeschooled?

I would be less worried about what to say to the school and more worried about the fact he'll miss that much. Is he entering ahead or behind his peers academically? Going from homeschool to public is a big adjustment, socially as well as academically.

That would not fly in our school district. Those absences are unexcused and he would be counted as truant. MAYBE--if you start asking at the beginning of the year, you could get teachers to work with you. But he would have to hand in all the work as soon as he gets back. I say he stays home with his dad and you go with the other kids.

You can ask the school for work to take with you. Most teachers will assign projects they can do on the road and turn in. It is very easy to ask for.

We did that for a two week trip we took with our daughter when she was in 2nd grade and it was fine.

Most districts have County Offices of Education separate but connected to the School District Offices, that can also handle your request.

The US school system is so decentralized that the policy in District A may be quite different from that in District B, or C... The only way to find out is to ask, or rather for his father to ask, if he is on board with this. And if he is not you can't take the kid out of the country in any case, as Kathie pointed out.

>>Most teachers will assign projects they can do on the road and turn in. It is very easy to ask for.

We did that for a two week trip we took with our daughter when she was in 2nd grade and it was fine.<<

For one thing there is a huge difference between 2nd grade and 6th grade. But in any case to say that most teachers/schools will assign work is a big leap. No one on here knows. ONLY the school involved (and the father) have a say.

BTW - if this was in England it would be against the law and the parents would be prosecuted.

What Janis said. The UK recently tightened their laws to restrict parents from adding a "few" days to trips to Orlando or Marbella. It really affects their education.

Some US states base school aid on the average number of students in attendance. These districts are not going to make it easy for you to take a middle-schooler out for three weeks.

FINALLY, the 800 POUND GORILLA. You can't take your children out of the country without written permission of your husband or of the judge who wrote the custody orders. It's not quite that simple, but I am not far off. If he is the custodial parent, you can't go anywhere without dealing with him. Lawyer up. The schools are not your real problem.

<<<I'm not sure this is fair to the kid. If he has never been in a school before, this is not just the difficulty of starting a new school, but a whole new experience. Pulling him out while he's still finding his feet doesn't sound like a good idea to me.>>>

I agree with this. I was a school counselor for 38 years and know how hard adjusting to a new school can be.
Missing a couple days is very different than missing three weeks in Middle School. Asking a teacher to get three weeks worth of lessons together for you is asking a lot.
In our school district this would be unlawful absence and you would be fined.

You say your 6th grader will miss school in November. How many days exactly? A week, two weeks, a month?

When I taught we had lots of children who spent their summers and most breaks in Mexico. They often came and went when it was convenient to leave and return and didnt always coincide with the school calendar.

If the family notified the school that they would be gone we could give them work and have them sign a contract. This way the district was paid for the child.

However if you don't do this your child (depending on amount of time you will be gone) will be truant. Which is illegal for you or his father to allow.

Chances are the school won't do much unless it is a high performing school and the expectations for student achievement is high and they have very few deliquecies.

We had literally many hundreds of delinquencies in our 6 thru 8th grade middle school (pop of about 1300) and not enough staff to handle.

nanabee: >>You say your 6th grader will miss school in November. How many days exactly? A week, two weeks, a month?<<

Per the thread title >>Kids missing <B>three weeks</B> of school.<<

What happens in SD is very possibly different than other parts of the country . . .

I will be surprised if the OP comes back.

OP's don't come back when people don't tell them what they want to hear.

>>OP's don't come back when people don't tell them what they want to hear.
<<

More often (as I suspect in this case) a new member assumes they will get an e-mail alert from Fodors when there are responses.

<i>OP's don't come back when people don't tell them what they want to hear.</i>

I agree that not all new OP's can figure out what they must do to read replies to their queries. The method is not obvious.

Also, I don't understand why the OP wouldn't want to benefit from some of the good advice given here.

HTtY

I think you are right about some posters. They have expectations from other experiences or they are treated rudely, and they don't come back for one or both of those reasons.

But there are others who have IDEAS and are unhappy when they receive information that contradicts or opposes those ideas.

This poster stuck around until people told her that taking a sixth grader out of his very first school was a bad idea, that no school system is obliged to accommodate her travel plans, that some school systems have significant reasons to oppose her plans and that she probably can't take that kid (and maybe even the kids who live with her) out of the country without her husband/partner's acquiescence. Since this wasn't what she wanted to hear, why would she stick around? Some people would rather find it out at the airline desk at LAX or at AUS immigration on arrival.

All we can do is tell them what we know or believe.

One thing I always stress with my students was, "If you are not prepared to accept any answer, then don't ask the question."

This same kind of thing was going on in one that I linked to. The OP(new term for me, but I get it) did come back, but said she was away for awhile. She was very surprised at how many responses were received, over a hundred.

But it's true. There's no way for you to know you have responses unless you come back and check... Sounds like she had her plate full or even forgot she posted. It would be a good option for this site to ask when posting if they want to get notifications to alert them to come back.

Ackislander: >>This poster stuck around until people told her that taking a sixth grader out of his very first school was a bad idea, . . . Since this wasn't what she wanted to hear, why would she stick around?<<

I'm not sure what you are saying. The OP may or may not have seen <i>any</i> responses since she never posted again -- the OP was her one and only ever post on Fodors.

The post that I linked above, the OP left for awhile and when she came back there were over a hundred posts... Her reaction is the same point I'm trying to make now... This person was not asking advice on whether or not she should take the trip... There are lots of responses on here telling her she shouldn't go and what a horrible person she would be if she doors and other issues...

She was asking ONLY what she should tell the school. I'm included in the above comment...i misunderstood at first... But if it's just going to be a free for all no matter what the question poses, I'd only assume that would be unproductive and unintelligent. This forum is not meant for everyone to just let loose on what they think the poster should hear...