@urreliefishere - I see you have only been a member since May. I don't think you are yet in a position to dictate how this forum operates. Stick around for a whie and uoj will see that it is very common for posters to question the premise of a post.

Funny, I thought it was urreliefishere who was telling people to shut up.

You've got a point. Now I'm going to tell myself to clam up, dummy up or whatever is the politically correct way to tell myself to shut my trap, can it, and knock it off.

HTtY

You don't know that. Maybe they've been around forever and that's just a new screen name?

@suze - I was giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Nice, you guys.i wasn't telling any of you to shut up. Whatever.

Happttrailstoyou?
Shut up? Really, that's the way you talk to people. Amazing. You really think that's ok?

Wow!

Thursdaysd, nah, don't think I'll be sticking around when there are people that rude. Just because someone has been around longer than another doesn't give them the right to say shut up... To clarify, i was not saying that... It's cool, though.

"Thursdaysd, nah, don't think I'll be sticking around"

After all the help you've been getting on your New York thread you're not going to stick around and give back some? Or maybe plan a trip somewhere else? (Travel can be addicting.)

"After all the help you've been getting on your New York thread you're not going to stick around and give back some? Or maybe plan a trip somewhere else? (Travel can be addicting.)"

Ok, maybe I will.. Only because you asked me too. No hard feelings.

To answer the OP's question. Yes she needs to contact the school and let them know her son will be absent for three weeks. There is nothing unusual or wrong with kids being legally out of school AND the school will work with her to make it work. If the parents do not contact the school then the student will be truant and the parents in this case most likely will be held accountable for not contacting the school.

All the possibilities have been raised--does the father agree with the child going, will the school object to missing that amount of classes, etc. etc.
BUT the biggest one for me is this child is NEW to the school and a structured school situation. Is he/she ahead or behind--and maybe most important does he/she WANT to go/miss school/have time with siblings.
AND is mother using this as a "point" of some kind in this divorce. It is SO much more than school, IMO. But maybe she does think it is just about what she should "tell' the school.

Senterkitten hasn't reappeared since she posted on July 14--a week ago. Without clarification from her, we are spinning our wheels and more than likely firing blanks.

HTtY

My brother was a serious backpacker when he was a teen and wanted to join a three week trip out west...that included the first week of school. Mom said "no". Brother tried to coax a different answer. She told him to ask the principal (or superintendent, I can't remember) and if HE said "yes", brother could go.

He asked. The answer was "yes". The authority said he'd learn more on that trip that sitting at a desk for that week.

Big differences =
He was a high school student.
It would miss one week (not three).
He wasn't a pawn in a divorce.

I agree that senterkitten wasn't getting the "right" answers from us.