When to take kids out of elementary school for WDW..

[CamillaF]

My son (age 6) will start school this year, but his school district only allows 2 unexcused absences in a row (and the handbook pointed out Disney trips are not valid excuses). Not sure if there's any leeway for first graders, but we already have a trip booked for his birthday (which would mean missing 5 days). We might just homeschool second semester. We homeschooled his kindergarten year, but thought we might try public school this year. I will miss our old flexible schedules, though.

What state are you in? Our school has similar rules but Washington State considers any absences excused by you an excuse absence. Unless they are behind in school. I find just asking for them to clarify their policy is enough for it to be fine.

 

[pineapplepalms]

My kids are little (oldest in 1st grade, middle in preschool, youngest still at home), so I’m not really concerned yet with what they would miss in school. I believe they’re technically allowed to be pulled out for a week. But we still stick to traveling during school breaks since my oldest was in K last year. After being at home for so long due to the pandemic, he was so excited to go to school and just loves it. He gets a good amount of school breaks and we’re fortunate to have the flexibility to go on vacation during those times. He’s also in some activities, so for us it just feels simpler to travel during breaks where he wouldn’t be missing a bunch of stuff.

We did a total of 8 weeks at Disney (DLR and WDW) over the last year or so, including 2 weeks last summer, 3 weeks this summer, and the rest over Thanksgiving/Christmas/spring breaks. This was a bit of an extreme year since after not traveling for a while, we had a lot of DVC points to use plus hotel and credit card rewards. We had the best time on all those trips and I’m cherishing these memories with our kids when everything is magical.

 

[mrsap]

We have always taken our kids out of school for Disney and still do to this day. Minimum 5 days, max 8, spread out over the course of Thanksgiving week to the week after (they always have a 1/2 day Wednesday and off Thursday & Friday for the holiday). We always ask for in school and homework assignments for the days they will miss and we always make time between parks and pool time for them to complete so they’d never fall behind. One is starting HS this year, the other 6th. Never had any issues. Enjoy it!

 

[tinkerhon]

We have always taken our kids out of school for Disney and still do to this day. Minimum 5 days, max 8, spread out over the course of Thanksgiving week to the week after (they always have a 1/2 day Wednesday and off Thursday & Friday for the holiday). We always ask for in school and homework assignments for the days they will miss and we always make time between parks and pool time for them to complete so they’d never fall behind. One is starting HS this year, the other 6th. Never had any issues. Enjoy it!

We do the same--- always did, and always will--- Now, if my kids had trouble catching up, I wouldnt have them miss any days, but its never been a problem--- My mindset has changed a bit too since Covid-- we like more family time.

 

[danceintherain]

I've taken my kids out for Disney. It has never been a problem. That said, we're going for Spring Break this year. It's an extended family trip, DD was just dxed with ADHD, and ODS just started middle school. We just moved districts too, so I'm not entirely familiar with their expectations.

I may never feel comfortable taking DD out of school. She does ok in school, but it can be very difficult for her to handle falling behind. If that changes, I may be willing to take her out for a day or two.

As far as the district is concerned, I doubt they'll ever care. The policy is a letter home after a certain number of excused absences and a home visit beyond that. If it comes down to that point, I'll just show off our vacation photos. Honestly, my kids will likely miss more time due to illness, because I can let them stay home and not infect other kids.

 

[Pickles516]

Coming from a teacher, here’s the skinny from my perspective- it doesn’t matter.

I would make sure to get as much info from your child’s math teacher as possible because math is more sequential than other subjects.

If the teachers already have the week’s materials available, awesome. If not, don’t hound them for them.

If the teachers have all the assignments available on google classroom(as many do), also awesome. If not, see above.

If you’re willing to take the responsibility for catching your kid up in the missed work and concepts, enjoy with a guilt free heart.

It may be worthwhile to ask if there’s any kind of testing they will miss or anything that’s going to be a hassle to make up, but otherwise do your thing in my opinion.

 

[LisaL]

We had no issues until son got to middle school and then too hard to make up work. Remember elementary grades will not show up on a final transcript . That said we didn’t do after 3rd grade as he always had stuff going on.

We took son out of 2d grade Dec 2019 and we were so glad we did! It was easy for him to make up the work. But now, in 5th grade, we really can't pull that off anymore. Which is too bad because off season is a lot of fun.

 

[AmyMac1109]

Back when my oldest two were in elementary school, we used to pull them out for a week in October and/or February. We last did that when my oldest was in sixth grade and it was too difficult for him to make up his missed work. Our middle would not have had any trouble with it, but the oldest was just not academic. Once we realized how difficult it was for oldest, we stopped taking them out of school.

Last year, we took all of our kids out for the two days before Spring Break (really just a day and a half), because we figured it was the least disruptive to their schedule and the oldest, who was a senior in high school, would miss very little (and this was the last big whole family vacation for awhile). Now, the oldest is away at college, so we're taking middle and youngest out for a week at the end of January for WDW. Middle will have no issue making up work and youngest is only in Pre-K, so he'll be fine. This will probably be the last for awhile though, at least until Middle (current sophomore) is out of the house for college and we just have the youngest.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

We're taking our kindergartener out for a total of 6 school days in May. Have not yet discussed with her teacher, BUT several of my best friends are teachers and I talked it over with them first. All of them said it really doesn't matter and that as far as the teachers are concerned the thing that is hardest on them is being asked to provide plans/homework in advance. So basically don't hound the teachers to accommodate your kids for your trip and you'll be fine. A few of my friends mentioned May as a good time bc it's the end of the year and things are winding down.

 

[jbh275]

We stopped at 7th grade. They were able to catch up, but I could tell it was stressful for them. 8th would have been just too much. 6th grade was pretty easy, so that's why we went again in 7th. But if I could do it over, I would stop at 6th.

 

[Boopuff]

We had to stop once my kids hit middle school. Sports and clubs took over our world. High school sports are an entirely different animal, too competitive and no way can kids at our high school miss a practice or risk being benched.

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

What state are you in? Our school has similar rules but Washington State considers any absences excused by you an excuse absence. Unless they are behind in school. I find just asking for them to clarify their policy is enough for it to be fine.

Kentucky. It seems it is state policy to be really strict on attendance. We took him out for 1 day to extend an out of town trip and on that extra day, we took him to a museum. We had to fill out a paper to get it excused as educational and he was given his missed work when he got back. He turned in the museum ticket stub, a show program, and a 3 or 4 sentence paragraph about his trip and his teacher wrote on it that she was so glad he got to have that experience, so that makes me feel better. He said he is so bored in school, "They try to teach me how to read and I already know how to read." -DS I agree the work we did at the end of last year was more challenging than his current work, but I wanted him to go to school for the social/emotional aspect. He wouldn't really miss out on anything, but I just worry about the teacher/school being limited by state policy and not able to excuse absences. The school handbook talks about how ample vacation time is provided, so parents should plan vacations around that (even though it is literally thousands of $$$ more and my husband and daughter have trouble with the heat).

 

[brockash]

When do people with young school age kids go to Disney? Do you take your kids out of school and when do you do it? Any school year vacation plans that worked would be interesting to hear. I'm stumped when I look at the calendar!

Really whenever you want. If you can avoid state testing (usually multiple days in the spring) the school would appreciate it, but unless your students receive special services and really struggle whenever works best for you all would be fine. If your student has and IEP, I would maybe check with his Sped teacher just to get their thoughts on the best times to miss, but again only if it really dose matter for you. Depending on your kid, you may want to avoid right before a school break just because there's usually lots of fun stuff going on during that time that the teahers hype up so your kids may be bummed if they know they're going to miss it.

Also...yes states put up big talk about strict attendance, however in reality nothing (other than a form letter) is done unless the student has an EXTREME pattern of absences with failing grades.

As long as your student isn't missing days every week of school (heck even if they are but doing well it won't matter), schools are not going to do anything other than perhaps sen a form letter home about the absences. This is even more so since Covid, but even before. I used to receive a letter every year for our Disney trip...was told just to ignore it. We're military and have moved often and that has always been the most that has ever happened. As a school counselor in multiple states as well I can confidently tell you this is how it works. Go and enjoy!

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Neither my husband nor I can take summer vacations because our jobs are agricultural based and this is our busiest season. I also can't take off during the holidays, again busy season at a small business. January and October tend to be the best times for us to get away, so we try to vacation then.

We are taking an October trip next year, but not during the two day fall break. I'm not worried about our youngest, who will be in first grade. I am slightly concerned with my perfectionist daughter who will be in her first year of high school. They are at a small private school and I think it will work out okay.