Missing School for Softball

[Coachw01]

This probably works well in elementary school, but in high school just "calling in" is typically not an excused absence and students are not allowed to make up the work for an unexcused absence and it is recorded as a zero.

This isn't an elementary policy or practice, it's the view the state has on truancy. Meaning it is very hard to prosecute a parent who is making the effort to work with the school and letting them know their child won't be in school. There is also an unwritten rule of thumb in our area that says for someone to be truant they need to be absent unexcused for about 20% of the time.

Any teacher or educational facility that wouldn't allow someon to make up missed work, excused or not, is not much of an educator. If the work was important to assign in the first place and is valuable to the student in the process of learning they should be given the work. What kind of an educator 'punishes' someone with ignorance for missing a day of school. I certainly hope this teacher is held to the same standard as their students and does NOT receive a paycheck when they are absent (using the same criteria for excused/unexcused absences).

I'd be interested as to what is an excused absence. If calling in isnt acceptable then they must require a doctors note? Unrealistic to think that every time someone is sick they have to go to the doctor or risk getting zeros.

 

[Cannonball]

No...what I'm saying is if you are going to screw your kid out of their education for a day, why screw the school too? When we go to our next showcase in Vegas, we can just as easily leave early Friday and skip school the whole day so we can hang out in Vegas before the softball chaos starts. Or I can send my kid to school and take her out at a reasonable time. She wins because she was there for school, and the school wins because they still earned ADA. At the same time, when we go to Arizona for that showcase, we'll be leaving Thursday after school so we can be there Friday morning at 8am. A partial day just isn't possible.

Wow. Not to pass judgement on any others here.

Having been a teacher for 29 years and in two of the top school districts in my state, I wouldn't be to quick to pass judgement on others about the "good of the school district." I've seen what goes on behind the scenes of not only those two districts but others. Rocks and glass houses.

I spent last night looking up various state laws. States do greatly vary on this.

 

[MNDad]

In defense of my DD's school district, her HS is one of the largest in the state (@ 3000 students), with a very diverse student body, so I can only imagine the number of excuses the administrators would hear if they did not have strict guidelines.

No defense needed. I wasn't judging, our districts just approach it differently. DD's old HS has 2100 kids, 43% minority.

 

[Indiana]

This is a very interesting thread. To add to our data set, our school district in Colorado allows for 10 "excused" absences per semester. An excused absence is one in which a parent calls in an absence, without any documentation. An unlimited number of "exempt" absences are allowed. An exempt absence is one that is documented with a doctor's (or other authority, I assume) note or an exemption granted for a school activity such as a field trip, school sport or activity. Many of our student athletes miss the last period of the day for sports. We are a big state and our conferences tend to be geographically spread out, with an hour or more bus ride to a game. Some of the teachers in DD's school have started doing a "flipped classroom", wherein the lectures are put up online and homework is done during class. As DD's last period period Spanish teacher put it, "they are in football, baseball, soccer-ball, band, whatever it is, they are NOT here." This, of course, causes some frustration with our teachers. We have started talking about rotating the bell schedule, so that the periods fall at different times on different days.

As far as travel for club sports, these CAN be treated as exempt absences as long as the student gets every one of her teachers to sign off on a document stating the duration of the absence and the reason. College visits and family trips also fall under this category. The club sports bit may have been created for our hockey players. Colorado only has two hockey clubs at the highest, AAA, classification. Kids from these teams travel all over the country to play at their level. Travel days are usually Thursday nights, with the kids playing Friday and Saturday, then returning on Sunday.

ETA: The flexibility with "excused" absences is not without its problems. One of our administrators finally had to state that a parent calling a child out of one class in order to study for a test in another class would not be counted as excused. So sometimes we have to make it up as we go along.

 

[Momo'sDad]

There are really only 3 primary life lessons I expect to send DD out into the world with and 1 of them is "excuses don't explain and explanations don't excuse".

Own your choices. As for funding being tied directly to school attendance and not enrollment, what a farce. The entire public education "industry" needs a non-corporatist, non-statist reboot.

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

I think anyone who takes their child out of school for softball is committing child abuse..............
















































































































BUT for some In and Out Burgers is totally ok.................








On a side note, did you guys know sharks live in the ocean??

 

[JAD]

As far as travel for club sports, these CAN be treated as exempt absences as long as the student gets every one of her teachers to sign off on a document stating the duration of the absence and the reason. College visits and family trips also fall under this category. The club sports bit may have been created for our hockey players. Colorado only has two hockey clubs at the highest, AAA, classification. Kids from these teams travel all over the country to play at their level. Travel days are usually Thursday nights, with the kids playing Friday and Saturday, then returning on Sunday.

I know this probably varies by state or county, but in my DD's county college visits are only excused for juniors and seniors.

 

[chinamigarden]

As I am looking at our schedule, I see that DD will have to miss a couple of Fridays due to Softball (non school) related events. Travel to another state and an Exposure event.

For those with experience, what are some good excuses to give the school to make those absences "excused?"

Edited to Add: DD is a freshman

Not sure what works best. But I would go with whatever lie your dd is most comfortable with. After all you don't want her to stumble over the story and ruin it with any truth.

 

[Orange Socks]

Not sure what works best. But I would go with whatever lie your dd is most comfortable with. After all you don't want her to stumble over the story and ruin it with any truth.

Btw, DD has enough perfect attendance awards over her school career, but the all A's and National Junior Honor Society has more prestige. She is on the AP track, and will most likely be in the top of her class. Grandma was a teacher for 35 years who happens to live a across the street, and if she misses a beat ,she is on DD like white on rice! So we have no problem with truancy or grades. We are rule followers, and do not want to get caught in a lie. I have chopped down enough cherry trees in my life to have learned my lessons when it comes to fibbing, but if it make sense to miss then we will do it.

I still like the temperature excuse!!

Dear front desk lady, We have decided to keep DD out of school since she has had a temperature(98.6) through out the evening and into the morning. We don't feel it is necessary to go to the doctor, the dogs will take care of her to offer her comfort. Don't worry, we left a trash can next to her bed, a bowl of water for hydration and a box of crackers for nourishment. If the temperature has leveled off by Monday, we will allow her to return...due to your school policy concerning kids that run a fever.

Hopefully, she doesn't break a leg or get spiked in the face over the weekend!!! Karma is B!

 

[BobInMadison]

Interesting how different each state is. Wisconsin allows up to 2 weeks missed for "family activities" which can mean anything the family says it means. It used to be mostly for deer season.

When the kids were young, and missing school wouldnt hurt them, we would often take a week to visit relatives in NYC for a cultural holiday. DS missed a couple of Fridays every year due to rowing.

It was interesting how the 2-week rule was publicized in Madison. A group of Mexican parents went to the school board to ask the board to declare that any kid attending a Mayday political rally would be excused. During the discussion someone dug up the 2-week rule, so the board stated the matter was already settled.