Texas school attendance policy and cruise dates

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So Texas can dictate what is excused and not excused for a school absence? Parents are not capable of this? How can a state be this controlling? Can you take your child out and homeschool them for vacation then re-enroll them?

Even worse, some districts make you get notes from the doctor for absences. Even if it is only an hour long appointment. If you don't get the note, it is up to the school if they will count it as authorized. If they are sick for 3 days, you must get a doctor's note or they are counted as unexcused. And if they miss a certain number of days, even if they are legit with doctor's note, they can still be held back. Now, most kids wouldn't come close to that number of days for normal stuff, but if you throw in a week of vacation along with a bad flu bug, you could be in trouble.
 
This is exactly it. They get penalized. It's not that they don't think traveling is educational or that they care about your child's welfare... It's all about money. I guess reading an article about the Panama Canal is more important then actually seeing it. I can't imagine an educator out there that wouldn't think a trip to see the Panama canal or a trip to Europe is not educational. In the 8th I took a two week trip to the East Coast and Washington DC as part of a school trip. My school apparently thought this was educational when my parents were paying the school for the trip

I've cruised out of Galveston three times during the school season and the ship was packed with school aged kids. I don't think parents are that worried about pulling their kids out.

Yep it's all about money. The school loses money if the student isn't there. And the parent loses money if they take that very same trip during a school break because fares are higher then. The educational value is the same either time.
 
Even worse, some districts make you get notes from the doctor for absences. Even if it is only an hour long appointment. If you don't get the note, it is up to the school if they will count it as authorized. If they are sick for 3 days, you must get a doctor's note or they are counted as unexcused. And if they miss a certain number of days, even if they are legit with doctor's note, they can still be held back. Now, most kids wouldn't come close to that number of days for normal stuff, but if you throw in a week of vacation along with a bad flu bug, you could be in trouble.

Just like what happens when they enter the working world.
 
It probably depends on your particular school and district. We do live in Texas. We have always taken our son out for 4-5 days 1 time a year and have received a warning note about the importance of attendance. One administrator told me its a formality they have to give. Im sure though if they wanted too they could take you to attendance court where you could get a warning. Again I think it really depends on your particular team at your school. Id nicely talk to the registrar or office manager and explain what you are planning to do and ask their advice on how best to proceed. Most will be understanding and nice but if yours isn't you've got your answer. Good luck and hope it all works out for you!
 


We are new Texans and have recently heard about some pretty strict attendance policies here. Do any of you take kids out of school for more than 3 days at a time for cruise vacations? Or any vacations? It’s A LOT more expensive at the designated breaks. And so crowded! Any advice or just welcome to TX and suck it up!:rotfl2:
I’m a teacher in an inner city school district, and we live in the suburbs. Both my school system and my daughter’s are very strict on attendance, the idea being that there is no substitution for being present in class. There’s no amount of worksheets and other take home assignments that equal the learning that takes place during direct instruction by the teacher. Kids get sick, so some absences are to be expected, but unexcused absences for a vacation are not tolerated for students or teachers. The state monitors everyone’s attendance very closely. So much of my valuable time is taken away from teaching in order to deal with my students’ attendance issues. Truancy officers doing home visits and DCF referrals are a reality in Connecticut.

It really sucks. My entire career, I’ve been forced to vacation when school was closed and pay those premium rates on a teacher’s salary. I got married and honeymooned in July. My colleague got married in September, but had to put off her honeymoon until Christmas break. Any teacher who gets married when there’s no school break is expected to report to work on Monday morning.

When we went to WDW at Christmas, my principal broke the rules and allowed me to take a personal day on the half-day before vacation. I let my daughter’s school know that she’d be out for one half-day of school ahead of time, and as we were driving to Florida, two states away from home, her school called and demanded to know why she was absent and if she would be tardy. All I could do was laugh.

So, no. Other than that one half-day of school before Christmas, we have never taken her out of school for vacation.
 
The common response is they are out of session 13 full weeks a year and that should allow plenty of time for kids to go on vacation, especially since most parents don't have more than 4 or 5 weeks vacation.

I'd say most parents have more like 1-2 weeks vacation.

This is a constant hot topic on the Family board over on Cruise Critic and a common statement over there from teachers is that federal funding is now tied to attendance.

We took our first grader out for a couple days this fall to see the Wild Kratts' live show in a neighboring state, which I consider pretty educational, and they just told us to have a great time, so we're lucky. And not in Texas.
 
We are in Tennessee, but I was able to get my 10 day Disney vacation last year marked as Excused Absence. I wrote a letter with information about what we would be doing, but mentioned History/Social Studies would be taught as we would be seeing different countries and ports, Math as they would need to multiply, divide, add and subtract currency to keep up with their money, Science activities in the Oceaneer Lab, we kept up with AR goals while on vacation (they each read 2 books) and journaled about their trip for English/Language Arts. It worked for us, I'm not sure if that is something that could work in your favor, but thought I'd put that out there.

That won't work in GA. Education rules state that family vacations cannot be excused.

Our children got an unexcused absence because they missed a day to see the eclipse in August. We had to drive 3-4 hours to their grandparent's house where we got to watch totality on my in-laws' back porch. The kids who stayed in school did not see totality. So educational value does not matter. It also doesn't matter that the educational value of this absence could not be done on any other day (cruises and WDW happen on every day of the year).
 


But how many of those kids are actually from Texas? Just because it sails from Galveston doesn't mean most people are from Texas. It's a lot closer for half the nation than PC.

I've heard these stories about Texas schools before and I'm glad I never had to deal with their regulations. Then again, my husband was a teacher so taking our kids out of school was kind of a moot point for us.
I can tell you most of the ship was from Texas. When the cruise director ask who's from Texas and the whole theatre starts cheering that's a pretty good indicator. I also talk to people on the ship, at the hotel, in the van ride over...all Texans. I would guess it's about 70/30.
 
I'd say most parents have more like 1-2 weeks vacation.

This is a constant hot topic on the Family board over on Cruise Critic and a common statement over there from teachers is that federal funding is now tied to attendance.

We took our first grader out for a couple days this fall to see the Wild Kratts' live show in a neighboring state, which I consider pretty educational, and they just told us to have a great time, so we're lucky. And not in Texas.

LOL. Thought I was going to get flamed from people who thought 4 weeks vacation was low!
 
Most jobs do not limit your vacation time to Summer, Christmas or Spring break.

I can't argue that the "most" part. But many do. In my industry vacations in February, May, July and November are forbidden for the most part.....ratings time.
I suspect people in the incme tax industry have vacation blackouts thru the first few months of the year and that folks in the health insurance industry have vacation blackout dates during the last few months of the year during open enrollment..
 
I can't argue that the "most" part. But many do. In my industry vacations in February, May, July and November are forbidden for the most part.....ratings time.
I suspect people in the incme tax industry have vacation blackouts thru the first few months of the year and that folks in the health insurance industry have vacation blackout dates during the last few months of the year during open enrollment..
You still have many months to cruise that aren't in peak season and so do tax accountants, and those in the health insurance industry. I really can't think of any job outside of teaching where you are limited to the Summer.
 
Are teachers allowed to take time off during the school year? I've heard teachers have personal days. I'm not taking about sick days, but personal days.

My kids have been out of school for 20 years, so we never had to worry about this.
 
You still have many months to cruise that aren't in peak season and so do tax accountants, and those in the health insurance industry. I really can't think of any job outside of teaching where you are limited to the Summer.
Teachers aren't limited to summer here. They get Thanksgiving week off, 2 weeks at Christmas, President's day Week and Easter week off plus 5 personal days under their union contract.
Time off is why a lot of folks in my industry have gotten into teaching.
 
Are teachers allowed to take time off during the school year? I've heard teachers have personal days. I'm not taking about sick days, but personal days.

My kids have been out of school for 20 years, so we never had to worry about this.

I live in NY, work in a school, and contracts for teachers are different from school to school. In my particular school district teachers, and some other staff that are included in the teachers contract, get 5 unrestricted personal days a year. What that means is that they can use those days at anytime throughout the school year, even to extend a school vacation. We also get 12 sick days on top of the personal days.
Our school year is 180 days and if students miss more than 10% of school then they get an attendance letter in the mail. Who gets the attendance letter is up to the administration. We are on day 102 of school and I have a student that has missed 24 days of school so far THIS YEAR. That family has not received an attendance letter nor been reported to child services for educational neglect because my buildings administrator does not "want to deal with that mother" even though the student is failing all subjects. So I guess my point is if you want to pull your kids out of school move to my school district. It happens all the time and no one bats an eye at it.
 
Are teachers allowed to take time off during the school year? I've heard teachers have personal days. I'm not taking about sick days, but personal days.

My kids have been out of school for 20 years, so we never had to worry about this.

The standard in GA is 3 personal days and they can only be combined with other holidays by special permission. It is also risky to use them all for a vacation because something might pop up. A personal day would also be closing on a new house or someone who is not an immediate relative dying and you want to go to their funeral, etc. The standard teacher contract is 190 days, but the same 3 personal days go for staff who work up to 210 day contracts.
 
I live in TX and my kids attend a publicly funded charter school. We have a fairly strict attendance policy because public schools are funded based on student attendance every day.

We've taken them out for a max of 2 days to vacation. The teachers have not given me a hard time at all. Most have said they are jealous and have fun! Now that my daughter is heading to middle school, I will be trying for them to miss less school. It gets harder to make up work as they get into middle school, IMO.
 
Teachers aren't limited to summer here. They get Thanksgiving week off, 2 weeks at Christmas, President's day Week and Easter week off plus 5 personal days under their union contract.
Time off is why a lot of folks in my industry have gotten into teaching.
I think most people are aware of the weeks and holiday weeks teachers are off. Unfortunately for them it's during the most expensive weeks to travel. If I wanted lots of time off I'd be a teacher. If I wanted to travel I would choose a different occupation.
 
We are new Texans and have recently heard about some pretty strict attendance policies here. Do any of you take kids out of school for more than 3 days at a time for cruise vacations? Or any vacations? It’s A LOT more expensive at the designated breaks. And so crowded! Any advice or just welcome to TX and suck it up!:rotfl2:

I took my daughter out for 5 days, which made her total absences 1 more than is allowed. She was in 1st grade, and an excellent student. The school counted them as excused absences for us and they said it really only becomes an issue if there are a bunch of unexcused absences and the kid falls behind.
 
LOL. Thought I was going to get flamed from people who thought 4 weeks vacation was low!
Where the heck do you live Europe. LOL The average is 10 days and to go a step further, 23% of Americans get zero days of paid vacation.

OP - The grade was a big factor for us. We had no issues (and loved) taking our oldest DD out of school for a week through 3rd grade. Once she got into 4th the curriculum almost doubled and the time a class would spend on a section was maybe a week. So, she would have missed a handful of quizzes or tests and would have missed an entire study section, which would be very stressful to catch up on. Now we are at the mercy of the school calendar year:( We may take them out for 1-2 days but that would be the max now.
 
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