Disney letter to DD's teacher What do you think?

[tesslor]

This is the letter I will be sending to DD's teachers about her missing school to go to Disneyworld. She is a 7th grader in middle school, so she has 7 different teachers.

What do you think? Anything I should add?

Today's Date

Mrs. Whatever,

Re: Marissa
November 9-18

As I am sure Marissa has already made you aware, she will be missing school from Monday, November 9 thru Wednesday November 18. We are taking a family trip to Disney World.

I know that this is a big inconvenience to you and that there is much classroom work that cannot be made up, but we wouldn’t be taking Marissa on this trip if I didn’t’ believe that she could catch up and catch on very quickly.

I appreciate any make-up work that she can be given in advance and any help you can give her to get caught up when we return.

Again, I apologize for the inconvenience this has caused and thank you for your help. If you have any questions, or would like to chat with me about Marissa I can be reached at ----- or ------.



tesslor

[retiredfigment]

As a former teacher, I would have appreciated a letter like that. The fact that you didn't 'demand' work ahead of time, (all teachers know that won't get done) was nice. Have a great trip!

[offwego]

Hmm I'd get it in right now...like this afternoon if you can. (in the past we've done a full two weeks notice so that the teachers can look ahead in their lesson plans make copies or have time for my child to write out assingments.)

If it's handed in on tuesday they only have till friday to send it home and even then you wouldn't be able to clarify a thing.

Is it possible to email it?

And I'd omit the "if I didn't believe" part, and perhaps just go with the "sorry for any" bit. Mostly because your going at this point regardless, no use even potentially opening up a discussion on if you should be.

[jodijo]

In California, students (and schools) can get a attendance credit by going on an Independent Study Contract. If you can, I would notify the school immediately and see if you can do that. The teacher will get the work together and she will have to turn it in when she gets back. I did it for my kids when we went on DCL last year. It worked out well and they received credit just as if they attended school. Without the contract, she could be given unexcused absences.

Enjoy your trip!

[cer]

Also, you don't need to say where you are going. "Family Vacation" or "Family trip" or "We will be traveling as a family" is fine.

[tesslor]

Thank you for the suggestions. I will definately change the wording in my letter to family trip instead of Disney trip, although I am sure my daughter already told them we're doing Disney.

DD actually notified the teachers about a month ago, then again about a week ago. The letter is just to make it formal. Unfortunately conferences are this week also, so I am not very hopeful that we will get much advance make up work.

We don't live in California, and unfortunately there is no way to get attendance credits at DD's school. But, as long as I excuse the absence, no matter what it is for, it will list as an excused absence and she can make up the work.

We always try to go in the off season, so we are pulling DD out of school almost every year. This is the first time we have done it while she was in middle school, hopefully it all works out well. In 2 years she will be in high school, where I assume it will be even harder to pull her out. Maybe we will have to do adult-only trips for a few years!

[mdhiggin]

We too thought it would be difficult for high schoolers to get out. I called my DS's assistant principal with a plan. We wanted to skip the week before Christmas break. School policy lets those that have not missed more than 4 days, have good grades and good behavior skip mid terms and finals. As of now, he has missed no days and had a 95.5 average on his first nine weeks report card. The assistant principal checked his stats, and said he could miss the two days for finals, that many kids use saved up days to skip review day before the finals if not taking them. She also said he could use two Family Leave Absence days. (They are allowed 2 per semester) So he can skip Monday and Tuesday for FLA, Wed, review day, Thursday and Friday for exam exemption. She checked with the principal, and he is all set to skip a week of school. She did jokingly ask us to bring her something back.

I think, for the most part, the school system will try to work with you. Check out their policies, and you might be surprised.

[DisneyFr33k]

I teach middle school and think the letter sounds very respectful. You acknowledged that it would be an inconvenience to both your daughter and her teachers and appreciated any work given so she could make it up in a timely manner. What irritates me is families that take a long vacation and give us little to no notice. Being a "Disney Freak", if a student came to me saying they would miss school for Disney, I'd gladly give them work ahead of time and insist they have a magical vacation!

[Tygger7]

We homeschooled for several years, but enrolled our daughter back in school once she got to 9th grade. We notified the school when we re-enrolled her, but also sent a formal letter in once the trip got closer. I did a lot of research online and got a lot of great ideas for an "excused absence" letter. I took the best parts from all the samples I found (including some from folks here on Intercot) and complied them into one letter. I'd be happy to share it, so feel free to PM me and I can get you a copy.

Have a wonderful trip!

[ryels]

That looks like a very nice letter. Very respectful and polite. We pull our kids out of school as well, and will be doing it again in January. Of course, our kids are a little younger, so it's probably a little easier for us to do.

The last time we did it, I sent a similar letter explaining that we would be happy to have our kids make up any work before the trip, during the trip or after the trip, depending on which was most convenient for the teacher. You may want to throw in those options to make it clear that you are happy to do whatever is easiest for the teacher.

We were pleasantly surprised at how accommodating the school was about the whole thing.

Enjoy your trip!

[Frog]

Bring em back a pin!!!

[A&M'sMommy]

Awesome! I may have to plagarize you in February. Our DS is also in 7th grade and we're goign the week before school vacation here. I made the mistake last year of not telling them in advance (bad, bad advice from a friend). This time I'll send it in at least 2 -3 weeks early.

[wildernesslady]

I think it sounds great. The majority of teachers would be thrilled to have a student going to Disney. You were very respectful of them and their job as a teacher. Have a great time.

[tesslor]

Thanks for the input everyone.

DD took the letters to school today and gave one to each of her teachers.
Her gym teacher gave her a pedometer and asked her to record what she walks each day for her assignment.
Her Language Arts teacher asked her to keep a journal.
I love these ideas from teachers. I know they can't all do this kind of stuff, but it makes it nice when some of them do.

We haven't heard anything from the drama teacher yet, which I expect to be the only rough one. She just started drama on Monday, and will be gone right away, and it is when they are doing their plays. Hopefully she will be understanding.

[thrillme]

I think for the most part teachers are quite understanding about it.

I still feel very strongly if you have a good student who doesn't miss much school otherwise...it should be the parents decision on something like this.

[DisneyFan1979]

I have to sound in here on the other side of things. Having a mother who is a retired teacher I know firsthand what a disruption it can be for a parent to ask for a child's entire week's worth of work ahead of time. Some school districts have a policy that missed work is only provided to the student after the missed schooldays. You also should be sure to inquire as to whether any tests are scheduled for that week and how best your child can make it up. My mother often had parents assume and expect that the child could make tests up after-school, requiring my mother to re-arrange her schedule (i.e. miss teachers meetings and reschedule tutoring sessions for other students) so that the student and his or her family could go have fun for a week.

That is why as a kid growing up I always "suffered" with the masses at Disney during summer vacations and school vacation weeks. I only experienced my first off-season Disney trip the year after I graduated from college.

[tesslor]

I agree with you. We are completely aware that DD is going to miss some of the curriculum entirely and that we can't possibly have her miss 8, actually 9 days of school without her grades suffering a bit. But, going from an A to an A- I can handle. I think a long family trip is worth a slight dip in grades once every couple years.
If DD was struggling in school, we would not be going.

[DisneyPrincess21]

I agree with you. We are completely aware that DD is going to miss some of the curriculum entirely and that we can't possibly have her miss 8, actually 9 days of school without her grades suffering a bit. But, going from an A to an A- I can handle. I think a long family trip is worth a slight dip in grades once every couple years.
If DD was struggling in school, we would not be going.

I agree with you. As a parent it is your right to take your child out of school as you see fit, and i dont think any teacher or school board has the right to over rule the parents.

Go have fun with your family

I Hope You Have A Magical Vacation

[TinksGoofyMom]

My 7th grader missed school last week due to our vacation. I told his teachers at their open house in Sept. They were all thrilled for him and said the remind them for work right before. We also did this 2 yrs ago. Both times, he had all of the work done the night before we left. Since the qtr ends this week, we sent the work in to school w/ a friend so it could get graded ASAP. Also, w/ so many schools and teachers having websites, I keep up w/ his grades and assignments which are all posted online. 2 yrs ago, he actually came back from WDW ahead of his classes due to the big Valentine's Day snowstorm in the northeast. We've only got a few more yrs of him even wanting to go on a family vacation w/ us. I'm not going to miss any chance I can get to do something memorable that we'll always remember.

[tesslor]

DD came home today telling me about how excited her Social Studies teacher was for her. She asked if we could please take some pictures in each country and bring in any "country" souveniers to show the class!