Parents Missing School For Meet?

[MaryA]

At the charter school my girls go to, you can take up to two weeks for "educational leave." You have to fill out a form ahead of time and say where you're going and why it's educational. We've never had a problem getting those days excused. What worries me is that, when she finishes middle school, our regular school district only allows for one week. With travel meets and maybe the occasional Friday meet (and potentially meets like regionals and Nationals), assuming she's still in gym by then (year after next), I don't know if we can keep it to a week. Are unexcused absences in high school something that colleges look at? I know that teachers aren't required to allow students to make up work missed during unexcused absences. I'm sure most would, but if you had one teacher who was a real stickler, it could mess up your GPA.

My moral dilemma this year is that my DD has a morning practice on the day we leave for her away meet. So then she's not missing school for travel, she's missing it for practice. Somehow that seems worse... Like a "gym is more important than school" issue. On the other hand, that's a Wed. morning and she'll be competing either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I'd hate for her to not have practiced since Tuesday when we're going all that way for her to compete. And if I send her twin sister to school that morning (we're all going on this trip), I'll actually have to tell them that my gymmie is missing school for practice rather than just saying that we're leaving Wednedsday (which we are... just not till afternoon).

 

[gymgal]

its the law that kids attend school for a minimum number of days That's why if you get snow days or bad weather days they add on at the end of they year.

in the states i have lived in and near, the law reads that the schools must hold classes a minimum if certain number of days power year. It doesn't specify how many days students are allowed to miss. That comes from the school boards and/or superintendent/principal.

 

[luvmygymdtr]

Junk like this is one of many reasons why my kids will be homeschooled or in private school. I feel badly for the many parents who simply don't have that choice.

Please don't make a generalization about all schools based on one experience. We have had a very positive and supportive response from our school allowing gymnasts to miss for meets and leave early daily for early practices. If the work is made up I can't understand the big deal.

 

[2G1B]

I do want to stress that our actual school has never had an issue with the days that my kids have missed. The school is however required to keep track of days that kids miss and there is a set number at which an automatic call is triggered that calls the parents and tells them that their kids have missed X number of days and that at Y number of days social services will be alerted to the number of days the kids have missed. It is the same across the board for all students in our system. My kids are in a school system that has over 100,000 students, so they don't have a lot of room for case by case on this. But, from what our principal and my mom have told me, even IF social services were to check on us, it would end up being nothing since my kids do make up their work, do make good grades and aren't just missing school because I'm too drunk or lazy to get them there. The rules are there sadly because some parents ARE too drunk, lazy, what ever to bother with getting their kids (even elementary aged) to school.

It does bug me that an absence in middle or high school is excused (actually not even COUNTED) if they miss for school band or a school sport. In those situations it is understood that sometimes for extra curricular activities you have to miss school. But if the activity is outside of school, then not only is the absence counted, it is unexcused. A lot of the kids who are missing school for an activity that they do outside of school are likely even more serious about that sport or activity than the kids who are on school teams. It seems that more schools should come up with something like MaryA's kids' school that allows for some days for this sort of thing.

 

[raenndrops]

We are having our first meet that will go into Friday night this year. We are in a YMCA program (competing USAG Rules) and IF we have a 2 day meet, it is usually Saturday / Sunday... except for Nationals, which is in the summer, so no missed school. This year, our first meet will have a Friday evening session. Our team has the longest drive and coach was hoping that none of our levels would be on Friday (we have no new L5, so that would have been perfect)... instead, half of our Level 4s will be competing then ... a 2 hour drive away ... with a 5:00 report time and school not getting out until AFTER 3pm. One of the families has 2 level 4s, BUT only one competes Friday night... the other one won't compete until Saturday afternoon!

As others have said, as long as grades are kept up and missing work is made up, I don't see a problem with it.

 

[Muddlethru]

I prefer my kids don't miss school. But I don't sweat it if they do. A large part of the school day is wasted anyway by so many different factors. So, they really do not miss as much as we think. Over the past five years, I've pulled my kids out of school for weeks for vacation. We went to Asia for over three weeks. We went to Europe for 2 and a half weeks. And annually we go to our home state for at least two weeks. The kids always get caught up with school work. So, missing a Friday for a meet doesn't bother me at all. I now have two kids in high school. They don't want to come with us on overnight meets because they feel they will miss too much with all their AP classes. But I don't think it is a big deal for my elementary and junior high school girls.

 

[wgymmom]

Our optionals had one meet this year where the 8's had to miss a Friday. We homeschool and Fridays are a light day, so we could just take it on the road if she needed to.

 

[GymBee97]

I think our state is actually looking to change it from # of days to # of hours. I think the thought is they can extend the day for X numbers of hours instead of adding days at the end of the year.

 

[gymmomtoo]

Daughter is in HS, so more important that she BE in school, but I don't let it bother me if she misses a day here or there. For the OP, I might even complain to the HC about missing good local meets because the team "might" have to compete on Friday--if all meets are required, then let people skip the meet if they don't want the possibility of competing Friday. (heck, they complain, why shouldn't you?? The coaches need all points of view!).

Our school excuses absences due to meets, etc. We did get a letter one time saying that DD had been absent too many times and to keep an eye on it etc. But nothing ever happened after that.

 

[shelovestoflip]

I guess it varies state by state/region of the country. I've never heard of sending social services if too many absences (I teach in one district and my daughter goes to school in a different district...city no less).

At HS, they cannot miss more than X number of days per class. At the elementary level, it's less clear. I know at my school, we look at the bigger picture. Last year I had a child who missed 20 days...10 due to illness and 10 due to family travel. It is what it is.

I've also had children leave school for a month to travel to their home country. Again, not a problem.

To the poster who said "this is why I homeschool my child", I think every district and apparently region of the country is different. Homeschooling isn't better just different. We live in a democratic country and we are lucky to have choices. Those of us who send our children to public school or who teach in a school (public or private) do it for a multitude of reasons. I think it's important to keep Chalkbucket about gymnastics and not about why homeschooling is a better choice. Just my two cents.

So, I guess as for missing school for a Friday meet, as with everything else, we do what feels right and is best for our children. We've missed the occasional Friday. My daughter competed Level 8 last year and didn't have a single Friday session. Guess it's the luck of the draw!