Missing School for Softball

[JAD]

My DD occasionally goes to a sports chiropractor. We have found that a Friday afternoon appointment for an "adjustment" before a softball tournament is a win/win. DD gets "adjusted" and she has a doctors note for missing school Friday afternoon....

 

[Cannonball]

DD got an A a couple years ago .

PE? LOL!

RD, that attendance record is impressive. I don't know how anyone does that now with the Flu hitting schools each year as hard as it does. Last year, we had to think about closing school a few days due to absentee students out with the Flu. We were fortunate and didn't do it but it hit us hard. We had young people in our area die from it.

 

[shaker1]

Check out your schools attendance policy. Ours allows a students to miss up to 5 days for family vacations if a student is in good standings.

 

[Greenmonsters]

My DD missed school because she had a temperature. Completely truthful even if the temperature was 98.6

 

[Coachw01]

I've been in the school system for a long time and currently I am an elematary principal as well as the Assistamt Superintendent of the district. What I most appreciate is when people are honest about what they are doing. I would have ZERO problem with a kid leaving early or missing for that reason or other reasons that families feel are important. This happens often at school and typically I tell the parents and the kids to have a great time and let me know if I can help with anything. When the student gets back, I ask them how their trip was and we talk about what a great time they had.

Perspectively thinking. Students are in school (depending on where you live) 7.5 hours a day for 175 days for 13 years or more. A day here or there to experience the world certainly isn't going to hurt anyone and in fact, it may do a lot more good than harm.

Typically though as long as you call in and excuse your child it should not be an unexcused absence and typically 'truancy' is an issue revolving around a students unexcused absences. Again though, I sure do like it when people are honest about what they are doing than making something up and finding out they lied later.

 

[sbmom19]

In DD's high school, they are allowed 5 absences per class per semester. Since they are on an A/B schedule, they can actually miss 10 days if you plan it right (they have 4 classes on A day and 4 different classes on B day). All work has to be made up within one day of the missed class. So DD just makes sure she knows someone either in her class or in the opposite day class that can give her the notes/assignments. Since she is a 3.9 GPA student I don't worry too much - she takes care of getting it done. All absences except school activities are considered unexcused. Oh and the don't ask for a reason - I just say that she won't be attending that day.

 

[JAD]

Typically though as long as you call in and excuse your child it should not be an unexcused absence and typically 'truancy' is an issue revolving around a students unexcused absences. Again though, I sure do like it when people are honest about what they are doing than making something up and finding out they lied later.

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.

 

[CoachYoYo]

I've been in the school system for a long time and currently I am an elematary principal as well as the Assistamt Superintendent of the district. What I most appreciate is when people are honest about what they are doing. I would have ZERO problem with a kid leaving early or missing for that reason or other reasons that families feel are important. This happens often at school and typically I tell the parents and the kids to have a great time and let me know if I can help with anything. When the student gets back, I ask them how their trip was and we talk about what a great time they had.

Perspectively thinking. Students are in school (depending on where you live) 7.5 hours a day for 175 days for 13 years or more. A day here or there to experience the world certainly isn't going to hurt anyone and in fact, it may do a lot more good than harm.

Typically though as long as you call in and excuse your child it should not be an unexcused absence and typically 'truancy' is an issue revolving around a students unexcused absences. Again though, I sure do like it when people are honest about what they are doing than making something up and finding out they lied later.

Thanks for this. With the exception of one teacher that has been our experience. My DD goes to a magnet school that does not have a softball team. She therefore plays for her home town school and regularly needed to be dismissed early for games. I usually had to go a few minutes earlier than necessary as the principal and administrators always wanted to hear about her games. I don't think it was a coincidence that her PE teacher was usually in the office when I picked her up.

She also missed 3 Friday's for out of state tournaments and everyone always wished her good luck and wanted to know how she did. I should also add that she never missed an assignment and would turn in any work due on the Thursday before.

Honesty is the best policy, but when it came to one particular teacher it just came down to being none of her business.

 

[Orange Socks]

Lots of good stuff here! I always believe that honesty is the best policy, but when you are dealing with "edu-crats" you never know what is best. Some may point to the Student Handbook and others like some have said may take a keen interest in DD's extra curricular activities and look the other way.

She just might end up having an extremely unusual case of a normal temperature! I might even have a thermometer that is out of calibration.

 

[CoachYoYo]

There were also times we picked her up half way through the day as that did not count as an absence.