How many days of school do your kids miss a year for vacations?

[Magical2017]

When they were in elementary school they occasionally missed a week for a trip. As the entered middle and high school, this was less attractive to all involved. We travel during school breaks but it is definitely wonderful to travel off season, especially somewhere like Italy. Italy in July is brutal.

 

[MommyCMickey]

Yes. In Washington state. However it is a teaching school where PHD and Master students try different teaching ideas out. They don't teach to tests but take them and see how the kids do compared to the rest of the state. My kids are in third grade and do a lot of writing, research, critical thinking and presenting there projects to the whole school. it's 3-12. It's very culturally and economically diverse however the kids can be kicked out if they don't behave and the parents have to be involved enough to put in an application. It's a lottery

Wow! That’s awesome! I grew up on Ft Lewis, I wish this was an option for me!

 

[JC1984]

We travel 2 weeks in January after MLK Day to get a break from the cold. Our kids only miss 8 days of school though because of the 4 day school week our school has. They also don’t get many holidays off because of this. Believe it or not the school district and teachers encourage our vacations.

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

My child missed 5 days for vacation this year (4 for Disney, 1 other). For the non-Disney one, we went to a museum and a show, so we were able to fill out an "exceptional educational experience" form to try to have it excused. Disney trips are specifically mentioned as unexcused in the handbook, so I was a little stressed and probably won't pull him for 4 days in a row next year (he's a 1st grader). He did a journal and I had him turn that in with photocopies of some Kidcot postcards, his Festival of the Arts scavenger hunt, and a couple of Wilderness Explorer pages. It ended up snowing while we were gone, and 3 of the 4 days missed ended up being virtual schooling days, so I think it all worked out okay.

 

[lanejudy]

So our son is special needs and we never have make up work or anything and I Truly think for him experiences are so important- I have mom guilt about 10 days but my husband says it's no big deal we usually only have 1 trip a year but with our family graduation to attend and another event it just really added up!

So as others have said, what's allowed can vary by state and even by school district.

To comment on the above... DD has always had a thick IEP. She often misses school for medical needs (like a day here, a day there, but it adds up). When deciding about discretionary time off (like vacation) I also took into consideration ancillary services that would be missed -- SLP, OT, PT, etc. -- that won't be rescheduled due to vacations but I did used to insist on rescheduling/make-up when the school had to cancel for some odd reason. Similar to you, she rarely had make up work. As she has gotten older (12th grade now), missing school has been more challenging to her not because of make-up work (we manage that) but largely because she is very social-oriented. If she isn't at school, she has virtually zero social contact which is extremely distressing to her. I've also found that all those years of "don't worry about it, no make-up work" have impacted her base knowledge making high school studies that much harder. So all that to say... you know your kid, you know his needs, also consider the larger picture. We rarely miss school for personal/vacation reasons but she misses several full or partial days each year for medical.

 

[DVCSince99]

We received letters threatening legal action if our kids had more than 5 unexcused absences - and pulling them out for travel even when we cleared it ahead of time with teachers and principal were considered unexcused.

Ultimately it didn’t really mean anything. I notified the principal and they would tell us not to worry about it. But usually we did our best to work with their holiday schedule and avoid those kind of issues.

This is good to hear! I have been worried about pulling my daughter out of school for vacations. It should be allowed as long as it's not excessive. Hopefully our school will be as understanding.

 

[KrazeeK120]

None. My kid has already missed 17 days this school year just for illness.

Maybe when he’s older, he won’t be sick as much. But then it may be harder to make up work. I doubt it’s something we’ll ever do.

 

[AJ1983]

My kids, 5 and 7, will miss 13 days for our trip this fall. (We did a trip last summer and barely survived the beat so thats not an option haha)I know we wont be able to do that when they are older so we are taking advantage while we can.

 

[AgentMama]

My kids are in high school and their preference is not to miss school for trips because its too much work to catch up on when they get back. We respect that. We did pull them occasionally when they were younger, but around middle school they both made their preferences known. We're hoping they still want to travel with us when time permits in college and beyond.

 

[JC1984]

School is overrated so much can be learned outside the confines of the classroom.

 

[1420Elexismc]

My son will be 10 when we go this year(5th grade) and he will miss 6 days total…when we went in 2015 my daughter was in high school and missed 5 days

 

[Disneymom8181]

When my oldest was in elementary school, we took a trip a year and didn’t worry about school. In middle school, we would maybe add 1-2 days into a long weekend to make a trip worthwhile. He’s a decently competitive athlete, so sometimes he has to miss a day or two for a travel competition as well. When he starts high school next year, we will only pull for athletic competitions (wants to compete in college and this is realistic for him) but won’t pull from school for vacations, as the workload is too much. Would recommend to younger families that unless it causes problems with truancy, take the trip when it is convenient and affordable!

 

[SandyinMonterey]

Took daughter out for 3 days when she was in Pre K. I may have taken a day or two over the course of elementary school to get a flight or something like that. Never in middle school. She's now in high school and haven't taken her out for vacation(s). Offered to take her out for a cruise last year, she declined. So, paid more to go over the holiday.

 

[starry_solo]

Yes. In Washington state. However it is a teaching school where PHD and Master students try different teaching ideas out. They don't teach to tests but take them and see how the kids do compared to the rest of the state. My kids are in third grade and do a lot of writing, research, critical thinking and presenting there projects to the whole school. it's 3-12. It's very culturally and economically diverse however the kids can be kicked out if they don't behave and the parents have to be involved enough to put in an application. It's a lottery

Doesn't Washington State also only require children to be enrolled in school at age 8? I remember looking that up for someone once years ago and was like, huh?

 

[CamillaF]

Doesn't Washington State also only require children to be enrolled in school at age 8? I remember looking that up for someone once years ago and was like, huh?

Yes. All kids need to be in school by 8. They can be enrolled in public, private or registered as a homeschool student

 

[stephnerninnie1984]

We get 9 days unexcused each semester, and I let my kids take ALL 9 days (so 18 for the year). We are semi-local (80 minutes away) and will skip at least one day a month to enjoy a weekday at Disney.

 

[danceintherain]

I was trying to do travel on school breaks from now on, but we ended up postponing our spring break trip to Disney due to YDS cancer. So now I'm planning to pull my kids in December.
We can't do summer or early fall, because DH can't do heat. Our military tickets aren't valid over thanksgiving.
So my kids will miss 5 days for that.
DD missed 11 days or something last semester. We did get the nastygram from the district, but nothing came of it.
Personally, I would rather pull my kids for vacation than illness. I'm hoping we won't get sick as much this year as we did last year.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Our son had to miss 2 days at the beginning of the year and has to miss the last 2 days for a graduation. We are also thinking a week in April for Disney but that would put him at 10 full days missed for trips. School hasn't said anything but I'm wondering what's "normal" for families.

0- Kids are in high school and classes are 1.5 hours long so missing one class is really like missing 2 days, missing a week, is really 2 weeks, so not going to happen. They've missed a day here or there for illness/doc appts but no vacation. When they were in elementary & middle, we'd miss a few days for travel but never did a whole week. My kids didn't like not being in class and missing the lessons and even though they'd easily catch up, I don't want our family trips to be a source of stress for my kids. We have the winter holiday, spring break and some 4 day weekends so we're like the rest of the world now and do longer trips over the summer. It's not ideal but I don't want to cause my kids extra work when school's already difficult. Our schools truancy policy is up to 10 unexcused and then the kids get detention.

 

[Psymonds]

wife is a teacher, so 0.

 

[Cherrychip]

School age kids are in 4th and 7th. We just pulled them for 6 days, 2 of which were scheduled as half-days. The last Friday ended up being a snow day, so they only missed 5 days or technically 3 full and two half days. We may pull them for one day in May if we do a long weekend trip somewhere around Memorial Day, but have no plans as of now. We can have up to 10 unexcused absences before it becomes an issue at our school, but we don't plan to reach the max. We will probably not pull oldest DD for any long vacations once she is in high school, as I anticipate that high school work will be a lot harder to miss/get caught up on.