Many families choose to visit Disney theme parks during the school year to take advantage of lighter crowds and milder weather. This week we asked our Parenting Panel: Would you take your children out of school for a Disney theme park vacation?
Chris Salata, also known as GusMan, is a Disney-inspired author and photographer, and loves to help people get the most out of their Disney vacation. Chris writes:
When planning my first family vacation to Disney, my daughter was going to a private elementary school. She was an excellent student and her teachers were awesome. We talked with her teachers several weeks ahead of time and made any and all applicable arrangements for homework and tests. In some cases, she got the work ahead of time. We really appreciated the teachers making the extra effort for us so that we could have a great vacation and our daughter would not fall behind because of it.
After a few years, we moved to a different state and took advantage of the public school system. Keep in mind, when we moved, we already had a trip planned and mostly paid for. However, when we brought it up to the teacher, it was an entirely different reaction than her former private school. This is because the school district saw such absences as unexcused. While this in of itself was not really an issue, it was the school policy of reporting parents to DCFS after the fifth absence that really got me a bit steamed. That's right – I was going to be reported to a state agency for “educational neglect” because I wanted to take my straight-A student on a vacation that was planned a year ago.
I will say that there is a happy ending to this story, as I did work things out with the school district and we enjoyed our trip without being incarcerated afterward. Because of my involvement, they did change some of their rules to help accommodate certain family based absences. At the same time, though, we no longer take our kids out of school for vacations.
With this in mind, there are some thoughts that I would pass along to other parents considering taking their kids out of school for a vacation:
- Make sure you understand your school district's policy on absences. There may be differences in “excused” versus “unexcused” absences and how many a student can accrue in a semester or year.
- See if you can obtain a school calender for the following year to help plan future vacations.
- Don't assume that vacations will be the same week each year or follow a particular holiday. For example, spring break for many schools happen the week before or week after Easter. However, some may base their spring break on different factors.
- Be careful of snow days and how they are made up in your district. Some schools add days at the end of the year to accommodate snow days. Others might sprinkle a day or two throughout the second semester to offset any such days. This can impact when you can take your summer vacation.
- Do consider if your child can handle the time away from school from an academic perspective. Respectfully, if he or she is already having issues in class, then vacationing during the school year may not be the best choice.
- Know what your teachers' policy is regarding missed work and how it is to be made up. Tests may be different from homework assignments. Policies may vary from teacher to teacher.
- If possible, get any arrangements made in writing, even if it is an e-mail discussion with the teachers or school administration. This way, there should be no confusion if there is contention later.
The decision to vacation during the school year is a personal choice. At the same time, doing so should not be done lightly. Take some time to consider the benefits and drawbacks before putting down the deposit on your dream trip. Granted, it may be easier to do so with younger students, but it may become increasingly difficult as they get into middle school and high school. This is a case where a bit of research and planning close to home will help you get the best out of your time at your home away from home.
Sheena also known as Mermaid, teaches first grade in Arizona where she lives with her husband and two children, Matthew (3) and Katie (2). She visits the Disneyland Resort as often as she can and has passed on her love of the parks to her little Mouseketeers. Sheena writes:
The decision to take your children out of school is such a tough one. Lower crowds, cheaper flights and hotel rooms make this an attractive option for many families. In addition, some parents cannot travel when children are traditionally out of school, so pulling the kids out might be the only choice. My own children are still preschool age, so I have not had to make this decision yet for my family. But, I often see this from the other side as from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (and then some), I teach first grade.
As a primary grade teacher, I do not mind one bit when my students are pulled out for family vacations. I think family time is incredibly valuable in developing well-rounded and connected children. This can be done in many ways of course, but one way is the family vacation. In the lower grades, most children can easily make up the work and catch up after a week's absence. Even longer absences can be absorbed with a little more effort by the student, parents and teacher – but I do not see many absences over a week for vacation.
As students get older, it gets harder to easily recover from an absence longer than a few days. I consider 4th-6th grades the “know your situation” years more than any other grades. Some kids can miss a week without a blink and others might crumble under the stress of having to make up the work. It depends a lot on each child's abilities, personality and study habits as well as the school's policy towards missing work. In junior high and high school, I think it is generally difficult for the child to make up missing work. He likely has eight different teachers with eight different loads of make-up work, combined with the increased difficulty of the workload making it harder to find his place when returning to class.
Speaking from an elementary years viewpoint, a week of vacation can be taken without much academic repercussions but there are a few factors to consider:
Personality: Most kids are completely unphased by missing a week of school. Some children will really feel awful that their reindeer isn't on the wall, that they missed field day, they missed the Valentine's Day party, etc. You can plan around the big events if you have a more sensitive soul, but, chances are, your student will be missing something that can not be made up, whether it be big or small. In addition, some children feel anxious about the work they will have to make up—especially in the older grades. This can detract from the overall vacation experience for everyone if extreme enough. I also advise against parents missing the first and last weeks of the school year. At the start, the class is learning so many procedures and making connections that can't easily be retaught and there are a lot of fun end-of-the-year activities that most students want to be a part of.l
Teacher Expectations: When considering a school year vacation, I would ask the teacher early what her policy is for missed days. I do not require my students to make up work. I want them to go and enjoy themselves. If anything, I ask them to keep a journal and share back with the class about their adventure when they return. I am fairly laid back and I recognize my students are 6. Other teachers may have much tougher expectations and send a large amount of work to be completed upon return. You don't want to be doing school work for hours each night—or at least, I don't!
District Policies: How does the district view vacation absences? In many districts they are considered unexcused, which has various degrees of impact. In the older grades, tests and classwork often can not be made up for unexcused absences. In my district, if you have 10 unexcused absences in a row (so a two-week vacation) you are withdrawn. You can only re-enroll at the district office; which is about 45 minutes from my school; and you need to bring birth certificate, proof of address, immunizations etc. You are not guaranteed re-enrollment in the same class. I had a family a few years back that came back for a half day of school upon their return from vacation. The child was absent for 9.5 days. Know the policies before you go so you are not surprised upon return!
For my own children, I won't hesitate to take them out for a week until third or fourth grades. After that, I will consider what will be gained by each vacation and weigh that against any consequences for missed school. My teacher side says: go, have a great time, bring me a magnet for my board and a bag of sour balls!
MousePlanet columnist Chris Barry, his wife, Diane, Samantha (15), and twins Casey and Alex (12), live on Long Island and are all major Disney and Walt Disney World fans. Chris writes:
Before we get started with this discussion, it has to be clarified…I am, in fact, a teacher. For further clarification, it should be noted that I teach purely elective courses, so my point-of-view might be a little different than some of my colleagues that teach more mainstream classes. You might think that the fact that I’m a teacher will sway my feelings on this issue. You might be surprised. I actually have no problem with a family taking a child out of school for a vacation.
I’m not belittling the importance of being in school and being physically present to learn the material. But it’s been my experience that being together with your family and creating memories and experiences that you can all cherish together is invaluable. Sometimes that has to take precedence. It’s been my experience that the families that take time away from the rigors of work and school to just be a family together have better, more well-adjusted or more educationally sound children. They take the time off responsibly and catch up with the work. That’s the trick. Plan your time off carefully. Don’t do it around any major testing or major review time. Monitor your kid’s progress in school carefully and you’ll know if they can afford a few days away and when, if at all, would be the best time.
Because of my profession, I’m not able to take a week off aside from my given vacation time, which, of course, happen to be the busiest and most costly weeks to go away all year. Over the years, however, we have managed to work in a long weekend here or there during the off seasons, and they have been some of our best Disney trips ever. When the prices are lower and the crowds are less overwhelming, sometimes it’s just too important for your family’s sanity to pass up. If that meant a day or two off for all of us then so be it. Not to mention, we’ve saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars by getting our “Disney fix” this way.
The kids still have to be kept responsible even while they’re in the most magical place on earth. Don’t be afraid to bring schoolwork with you on your Disney trip. I know that sounds like an impossible thought to some, but we have done it and it worked just fine. We did this on two occasions when the Jewish holidays in September gave us a four-day weekend. On those trips, we didn’t actually take the kids out of school, but they still had to return to class on Monday and be back in the swing of things.
Most recently, on one of those trips, we found a beautiful desk and chair setting in Disney's Yacht Club Resort and sat with our boys for an hour or so on two separate days while they studied and we quizzed them. They knew that this was part of the package. It’s not summer. It’s not a designated vacation. It’s an escape for a long weekend during the school year. If they wanted us to have this experience, they had to make some time for the work. They weren’t thrilled, but it worked surprisingly well. We were very proud of them.
I’d love to be able to take a full week off in September or early December to visit Walt Disney World when it’s much quieter. My profession doesn’t allow that. If it did, and I could keep my kids on task with the work that they were missing, than you’d certainly find me taking advantage of the time away from work and school to be with my family. Time goes by too quickly, and those memories can only be made for so long. They can always catch up on schoolwork, but they won't be young forever.
It's your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
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